Zamor: Difference between revisions
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| NAME = |
| NAME = ZAMOR |
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| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =Louis Benoît Zamor |
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| SHORT DESCRIPTION = French revolutionary |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = French revolutionary |
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| DATE OF BIRTH = |
| DATE OF BIRTH = Bengal |
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| PLACE OF BIRTH = |
| PLACE OF BIRTH = |
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| DATE OF DEATH = 1820 |
| DATE OF DEATH = 1820 |
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| PLACE OF DEATH = |
| PLACE OF DEATH = Paris |
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[[Category:1820 deaths]] |
[[Category:1820 deaths]] |
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Revision as of 01:15, 2 January 2013
Zamor (christened Louis Benedict or Louis Benoit) (b. 1762? - d. 7 February 1820) was a French revolutionary of Bengali origin, who as a boy of eleven, was picked from Chittagong by slave traders and sold to Countess du Barry who nurtured and educated him. Later, he turned on his mistress and betrayed her to the Committee of Public Safety.
He participated in the French Revolution and was imprisoned by the Girondins for six months. He spent his later life in a house in Rue Maître d’Albert, Paris as a school teacher. He died on 7 February 1820.
Zamor's early life and upbringing
Zamor was born in the town of Chittagong in the state of Bengal. In 1773, when he was eleven years old, he was captured by English slave traders who trafficked him into France via Madagascar and sold him to Louis XV of France who gifted the young boy to his mistress, Countess du Barry. The boy was christened as Louis Benedict or Louis Benoit. The Countess developed a liking for the boy and educated him.[1] Zamor developed a taste for literature and was inspired by the works of Rousseau. Till her death, the Countess was under the wrong impression that Zamor was African.
Records of the period suggest that Zamor might have been extremely mischievous as a child.[2] She noted in her memoirs:
The second object of my regard was Zamor, a young African boy, full of intelligence and mischief; simple and independent in his nature, yet wild as his country. Zamor fancied himself the equal of all he met, scarcely deigning to acknowledge the king himself as his superior
Role in the French Revolution
When the French Revolution broke out, Zamor took the side of the revolutionaries and joined the Jacobins. He began to detest Countess du Barry under whom he worked as a page and deplored her lavish lifestyle. He also protested her repeated visits to England with the intention of retrieving her lost jewellery and warned her against protecting aristocrats. But the Countess refused to comply. Hence, using his influential position in the Committee of public safety, Zamor got the police to arrest the Countess in 1792 on her return from one of her many visits to England. The Countess, however, secured her release from jail and found out that the arrest was the handiwork of her page. She promptly dismissed Zamor from service. Infuriated, Zamor became more vocal and open in his support to the Revolution. He brought out charges against the Countess eventually leading to her arrest and execution at the guillotine. At the trial, Zamor gave Chittagong as his birthplace.
Imprisonment
Soon after the execution of the Countess, Zamor was arrested by the Girondins on suspicion of being an accomplice of the Countess and on being a Jacobin. He was tried and imprisoned but was able to secure his release after spending six weeks in jail. Zamor fled France re-appearing only in 1815 after the fall of Napoleon. Zamor bought a house in Rue Maître d’Albert near the Latin Quarter of Paris and spent the last days of his life as a school teacher.
Death
Zamor died on 7 February 1820[2] and was buried in Paris. His funeral, reportedly, had a very little attendance.
In popular culture
A short two-page comic strip La Rue perdue ("The Lost Street") was published in 1978, featuring Gil Jourdan, a detective series created by Maurice Tillieux. Set in 1953 it has Jourdan trying to find out why a fake guillotine blade is hanging outside the door of a black African friend. The one responsible turns out to be a man obsessed with Madame du Barry and taking his anger at her death out on Jourdan's friend who looks like Zamor. The action is set in Rue Maître Albert where Zamor lived before his death.
See also
References
- ^ Weber, Caroline (2006). Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. Macmillan. p. 60. ISBN 0805079491, ISBN 978-0-8050-7949-4.
- ^ a b Lenotre, G. (1908). Romances of the French Revolution: From the French of G. Lenotre [pseud.] Brentano's. p. 135.
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- Gupta, Abhijit (March 11, 2008). "Child from Chittagong". The Telegraph.
- Sundarrajan, Saroja (January 18, 2003). "For liberty and fraternity". The Hindu:Young World.