July 14 marks the storming of the Bastille. Louis-Benoit Zamor’s journey from being a slave captured in Bengal to the royal apartments of Versailles and his eventual witness statement against his former owner is a story that seems truly representative of the ideals of the 1789 revolution.
On September 22, 1793, the last mistress of the late French king, Louis XV was imprisoned. Rumour had it that this lady – the once royal favourite, Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry – was denounced by her former page, Louis-Benoit Zamor.
By the time the revolutionary tribunal opened trial against her on December 6, 1793, Madame du Barry stood an extremely feeble chance of surviving it. Besides the fact that she was perceived as being closely associated to the ancien regime, she had also been sojourning in England till the declaration of war between the two countries in 1793. The final nail in the coffin, however, came Zamor himself bore witness against du Barry.
While du Barry screamed and convulsed on being condemned to death and declared an enemy of the French Republic, and was being dragged to the guillotine by several guillotine helpers, Zamor placidly signed the tribunal papers as “Louis-Benoit Zamor, né au Bengale, dans l’Inde…[Louis-Benoit Zamor, born in Bengal, in India…]”
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