Content deleted Content added
Cleared the cite-error |
HeyElliott (talk | contribs) Added date and age temp, ce |
||
| (36 intermediate revisions by 24 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{Short description|French clergyman, botanist, writer, explorer, ethnographer, soldier, and engineer}}
{{more citations needed|date=April 2014}}
{{Infobox clergy
| name = Jean-Baptiste Labat
| image = Jean-Baptiste_Labat.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth year|1663}}
| birth_place = near [[Paris]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|6 January 1738|1663}}
| death_place = Paris
| church = [[Roman Catholic]]
Line 12 ⟶ 13:
| education =
| ordained =
| writings =
| congregations =
| offices_held =
Line 25 ⟶ 26:
==Life==
Labat was born and died in [[Paris]]. He entered the order of the [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]] at the age of twenty. He was ordained at the completion of his philosophical and theological studies. Besides preaching, he taught [[philosophy]] and [[mathematics]] to secular students at [[Nancy, France|Nancy]]. Abandoning this work, he devoted himself to missionary activity and for many years preached in the various churches of France.
In 1693, determined to devote himself to foreign missionary work, he received permission from the general of his order to travel to the [[West Indies]], then under French domination. On 29 January 1694, he landed in [[Martinique]]. He was entrusted with the parish of Macouba
In 1696 he travelled to [[Guadeloupe]], and was appointed procurator-general of all the Dominican convents in the [[Antilles]] (''Procureur syndic des îles d'Amérique'') upon his return to Martinique.
The French government appointed him as an engineer due to his scientific knowledge. In this capacity, he visited the French, Dutch, and English Antilles from [[Grenada]] to [[Hispaniola]]. Labat encountered many aspects of Caribbean society, including [[slavery]]. In his account for the year 1698, Labat included his impressions regarding the slaves of Martinique: "The dance is their favourite passion. I don't think that there is a people on the face of the earth who are more attached to it than they. When the Master will not allow them to dance on the Estate, they will travel three and four leagues, as soon as they knock off work at the sugar-works on Saturday, and betake themselves to some place where they know that there will be a dance."<ref>
Labat was no simple observer
one hand, the missionary's infamous acceptance and promotion of slaves as a property to be used (and abused), and, on the other, his appreciation of the
1996), 37</ref><ref>[http://sonoma-dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.1/424/Toczyski_Nav.pdf?sequence=1 Suzanne C. Toczyski, Navigating the Sea of Alterity: Jean-Baptiste Labat’s Nouveau Voyage aux îles]</ref> Fonds-Saint-Jacques was for a long time regarded as a model to be copied. On Martinique, Labat's memory has survived in the vocabulary: ''La Tour du père Labat'' ("[[windmill]]"); ''les chaudières Père Labat'' (the Père Labat boilers"), or the standard of [[distillation]] known as ''type Père Labat''.<ref>http://www.la-martinique.net/Communicator/francais/marthis.htm</ref>▼
nègres as a potential source of knowledge and, more significantly, as Others to know, as representatives of a culture of interest from Labat's protoanthropological perspective <ref>Aurélia Montel, Le Père Labat viendra te prendre… (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose,
▲1996), 37</ref><ref>
As engineer in Guadeloupe, he took an active part in its defense when the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Siege of Guadeloupe|attacked the island]] in
In 1706, Labat was sent to Europe as deputy of his order. He spent several years in Italy and attended a meeting of the order at [[Bologna]], and presenting to the general a report of his work. Labat prepared to return to America, but was denied permission and detained in [[Rome]] for several years. He traveled to Paris in 1716. He lived in the convent on Rue Saint-Honore until his death. During these years, Labat commenced a long contemplated history of the [[West Indies]]. The work was finally published in six volumes at Paris, in 1722, with copious illustrations made by himself (''Nouveau Voyage aux isles Françoises de l'Amérique'', [[Paris]], 1722).
Line 49 ⟶ 52:
==References==
{{
* ''This article incorporates text from the 1913 ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' article "[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08718a.htm Jean-Baptiste Labat]" by Ignatius Smith, a publication now in the [[public domain]].''
==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jean-Baptiste Labat}}
*{{
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Labat, Jean-Baptiste}}
[[Category:18th-century French botanists]]
[[Category:French travel writers]]
[[Category:18th-century French
[[Category:18th-century French
[[Category:Botanists active in North America]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Writers from Paris]]
[[Category:History of Martinique]]▼
[[Category:1663 births]]
[[Category:1738 deaths]]
[[Category:French male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:17th-century French botanists]]
| |||