Pierre-Marie Pory-Papy

Pierre-Marie Pory-Papy, born on 3 May 1805 in Saint-Pierre, Martinique and died on 27 January 1874 in Versailles, Seine-et-Oise, was a French lawyer and politician. He was deputy of Martinique from 1848 to 1849 and from 1871 to 1874.

Biography Pierre-Marie Pory-Papy was the son of a free man of colour from Martinique and Antoinette, a freedwoman. He was born before his mother received her freedom, but his name is not found in the register of births until 30 March 1806, because his parents waited until she was free to register his birth.

In 1832, he left for France and was shipwrecked on the Spanish coast. Despite this, he arrived there and settled in Aix-en-Provence, where he obtained his first baccalaureate in August 1833, his second in August 1834. He continued his studies at the Faculty of Law in Paris. He obtained a law degree in July 1835, returned to Martinique and was called to the bar in St-Pierre, the first man of colour to become a lawyer in Martinique.

He also wrote poetry which he contributed to the Revue des Colonies.

Elected offices Portrait of Pierre-Marie Pory-Papy as deputy of the National Assembly for Martinique. Pierre-Marie Pory-Papy was successively elected municipal councillor, deputy mayor, mayor of Saint-Pierre and deputy of Martinique. Though both abolitionists, Pory-Papy was politically distinct from Cyrille Bissette, and aligned instead with Victor Schoelcher.

Pierre-Marie Pory-Papy was corresponding member of the Abolitionist Society, looking for a position as a solicitor when the French Revolution of 1848 occurred. On 30 March 1848, governor Rostoland issued a decree dissolving the municipal council of St-Pierre. On the same day he appointed Hervé as provisional mayor and Pory-Papy as provisional deputy, in charge of the police, alongside two others. The decree of 10 May 1848 confirmed them in their posts, following elections which took place on 2 and 3 May 1848. He was also appointed councillor at the Court of Appeal of Martinique by decree of the provisional government of the French Republic, dated 3 May 1848.

He was successfully reelected on 8 February 1871 and served until 27 January 1874, when he died. He was buried in Versailles, in the Montreuil cemetery.

In literature

Pory-Papy appears as part of the events of 22 May described to the narrator of the novel Texaco, by Patrick Chamoiseau He also appears in Marie-Reine de Jaham's Le sang du volcan.