SV Windrifter42

Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon, was born in Trois Illet, Martinique - on a 200-acre, 150-slave estate. According to our guides, Josephine grew up on her family's sugar plantation. The family actually lived in part of the factory after their estate burned down. Her father, a gambler (obviously not a successful one), could not afford to rebuild their home. At the age of 16, Josephine left for France for an arranged marriage. Her first husband died in the French Revolution. She married Napoleon at the age of 33, he was 28.
There seems to be mixed feelings about Josephine in Martinique. She is beloved by some and lots of buildings, parks, and tourists spots are named in her honor (I mean its not every Caribbean island that can claim an Empress as one of their own). There is not so much good feeling for Napoleon who reintroduced slavery to the island after it had been abolished by the British.

The statue of Josephine in La Savine Park in Forte de France has lost her head - some say in a regular act of vandalism - others in a political act to call attention to Martinique's history of slave-based plantations.