DELIRIUM

History: cannon 1  - SIGA nº 006920

​

  This cannon, decorated with the coat of arms of Louis XIV, the "Sun King" of France, was used by the naval commander René Duguay-Trouin during the French invasion of Rio de Janeiro in 1711.  Duguay-Trouin was supplied with a fleet of 17 ships, 738 guns and 6139 men. His task was to search for gold, rescue French prisoners in the city, and seize territory for France during the War of the Spanish Succession.

  After some skirmishes on the coast, the corsair threatened to destroy the forts of Rio de Janeiro if a gold ransom was not paid. Acting city governor Francisco de Moraes de Castro agreed to do so in the face of evident defeat. Duguay-Trouin left the city with the equivalent of 4 million pounds, including a shipment of slaves that he would later sell in Cayenne, the current capital of French Guiana.

  During this period of the exploitation of gold, Brazil’s slave trade was larger than those of the other European colonies in the hemisphere. Between 1701 and 1720, about 292,000 enslaved Africans landed in Brazilian ports, deprived of any dignity. Today the remnants of this perverse violation can still be seen. According to a bulletin dated June 18, 2020, released by Brazil’s Ministry of Health, 55% of recorded deaths from Covid-19 were of black or brown people. The unbalanced foundation on which our society was built remains undemocratic and biased today, as can be seen in terms of public health policies and other basic services that should be the rights of all citizens.