Zamor

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Portrait of Louis-Benoit Zamor (1785) by Marie Victoire Lemoine

Zamor ( Bengali জামর Jāmar , baptized Louis-Benoit; * 1762 in Chittagong ; † February 7, 1820 in Paris ) was a French revolutionary , possibly of Siddi origin, from Bengal who, at the age of eleven, was killed by slave traders from Chittagong, Bengal Subah , Mughal Empire (present-day Bangladesh ) was kidnapped. He was later enslaved by Marie-Jeanne Bécu , Madame du Barry, and became her servant until he turned her over to the Welfare Committee . He took part in the French Revolution and was captured by the Girondins .

Early life and education

Zamor was born in 1762 in the city of Chittagong in Bengal (now Bangladesh ). In 1773, when he was eleven years old, he was captured by British slave traders who abducted him to France via Madagascar and sold to Louis XV. sold by France . The king gave his lover's little boy, Marie-Jeanne Bécu , and he was baptized Louis-Benoit . Bécu developed a preference for the boy and raised him. Zamor developed a sense of literature and was inspired by the works of Rousseau . Until her death, the countess had the wrong impression that Zamor was African , but her guess might be partly correct as he was possibly a Siddi .

Records from this period suggest that Zamor may have been extremely mischievous as a child. Bécu noted in her memoir :

“The second object of my observation was Zamor, a little African boy, full of intelligence and mischief; simple and independent in its nature, but wild as its country. Zamor considered himself to be on a par with everyone he met and hardly deigned to acknowledge the king himself as his superior. "

- Marie-Jeanne Bécu

Role in the French Revolution

When the French Revolution broke out, Zamor sided with the revolutionaries and joined the Jacobins . He began to loathe Countess du Barry and regretted her lavish lifestyle. He also protested her repeated visits to England with the intent to retrieve her lost jewelry and warned her not to protect aristocrats. As an informant for the Welfare Committee , Zamor had the police arrested the Countess in 1792 after returning from one of her many visits to England. However, the countess secured her release from prison and found out that the arrest was through him. She immediately released Zamor from her service. In his anger, Zamor became an open and vocal supporter of the revolution. He brought further charges against the Countess, which eventually led to her arrest, trial and guillotine execution during the Reign of Terror . At the trial, Zamor gave Chittagong as the place of birth.

jail

Shortly after the Countess was executed, Zamor himself was arrested by the Girondins on suspicion of being a Jacobin and an accomplice of the Countess. He was tried and detained, but was able to obtain his release. He then fled France and did not reappear until 1815 after the fall of Napoleon . Zamor bought a house on rue Maître-Albert near Paris' Latin Quarter and spent a few years as a school teacher.

death

Zamor died in poverty on February 7, 1820 and was buried in a poor grave in Paris without anyone attending the funeral.

In popular culture

In 1978 a two-page comic book La Rue perdue (The Lost Road) appeared with Gil Jourdan , a detective created by Maurice Tillieux . Set in 1953, it lets Jourdan find out why a fake guillotine blade is hanging in front of the door of a black African friend. The person in charge turns out to be a man obsessed with Madame du Barry who vent his anger over her death on Jourdan's friend, who looks like Zamor. The action takes place on Rue Maître Albert, where Zamor lived before his death.

In Marie Antoinette , a 2006 film, Madame du Barry (played by Asia Argento ) was shown accompanied by an unnamed dark-skinned servant boy who is most likely Zamor.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Zamor (1762-1820). In: Une autre histoire. July 29, 2013, accessed May 25, 2019 (French).
  2. ↑ a b c d Child from Chittagong. Retrieved May 25, 2019 .
  3. ^ The Hindu: For liberty and fraternity. Retrieved May 25, 2019 .
  4. ^ Weber, Caroline, 1969-: Queen of fashion: what Marie Antoinette wore to the Revolution . 1st ed. H. Holt, New York 2006, ISBN 0-8050-7949-1 ( google.ch [accessed May 25, 2019]).
  5. ↑ a b G. Lenotre: Romances of the French Revolution . Wildside Press LLC, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4344-7500-8 ( google.ch [accessed May 25, 2019]).
  6. ^ Memoirs of the Comtesse Du Barry, by Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-langon. In: Project Gutenberg . Retrieved July 1, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Zamor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES জামর (Bengali); Louis-Benoit (baptized in France)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French revolutionary
DATE OF BIRTH 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Chittagong
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1820
Place of death Paris