Brigitte Billaud-Varenne

Brigitte Billaud-Varenne, also known as Virginie Billaud-Varenne, (?-after 1874) was a Black Guadeloupean slave freed by Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne, who took her as his concubine. Brought to Billaud-Varenne by the Swiss slave trader Siéger or Siégert, who supplied him with slaves during his exile, she was only a child at the time. Billaud-Varenne, who called her Virginie, made her his concubine and kept her by his side to serve him. After the revolutionary's death in 1819, who left all his belongings to her, she lived at least until 1874.

She was used as an example, particularly in art, to illustrate the hypocrisy of the revolutionary with whom she shared a part of her life, being both an abolitionist and a slaveholder.

Biography Her life is unknown before she was transported to Cayenne from Guadeloupe by the Swiss slave trader Siéger or Siégert, who sold her to his friend Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne. She accompanied Billaud-Varenne during his trip to the United States.

This situation is surprising, given that Billaud-Varenne was one of the abolitionists during the French Revolution However, he never seemed to express any remorse or moral concerns regarding his involvement in slavery, whether with Brigitte or more generally with all his slaves. She was unable to sign the will because she could not write and had to be replaced by a notary, who signed on her behalf. by portraying her nude, in an erotic pose, reading a revolutionary newspaper.