Chapter 5 deals extensively with tutelle in the late nineteenth century by concentrating on the working lives of minors, mostly as apprentices and domestics. Minors performed a wide variety of tasks, some of them gender-specific. Young girls did mostly household and domestic tasks; boys became apprentices and learned artisanal crafts. Of the artisanal crafts, carpentry was the most popular, but masons, blacksmiths, tailors, seamstresses, and grain pounders took wards as apprentices. In the 1880s and 1890s, the state confided minors to institutions including Catholic missions, though not always to serve as apprentices. Case studies detail the ways in which their labor was exploited and how they responded to coercion and abuse. They reveal considerable delinquency and misery, which sometimes led to incarceration. The relationship between minors and their guardians in work settings was often characterized by discord, even violence. The chapter explores abuses in tutelle including the hiring out of minors without informing French authorities and the refusal of guardians to compensate minors for their labor when warranted. The chapter analyzes complaints lodged by guardians about minors and the ways in which minors exercised agency. It ends with an exploration of sexual exploitation and prostitution.

Chapter 4 focuses primarily on the French colonial administration’s enactment of and measures to enforce legislation aimed at regulating tutelle. It argues that legislation failed due to disregard for the laws enacted in 1857 and 1862 that the colonial administration adopted to regulate and oversee guardianship by providing a legal framework for the process of liberating minors brought to Saint-Louis after 1848 and by outlining the state’s responsibility in finding suitable placements for them. Negligence and poor record-keeping on the part of French authorities led Camille Guy, the French Governor of Senegal, to declare that the management of tutelle was scandalous in 1904 when he discovered the gravity of the damage that has been done for decades. The chapter analyzes the Act of 1862, which officially abolished the Conseilles de Tutelle, whose functions were henceforth carried out exclusively by the Procureur Général. Drawing on data from the Liberations Registers and other sources, the chapter ends with the impact on tutelle stemming from active slave trading that occurred between the 1860s and the 1880s in areas of Senegal where it was still legal, the movement of enslaved people into urban Senegal, and the pick-up in liberations in the 1880s.

To describe the transition from slavery to freedom, Chapter 2 centers on the evolution and development of tutelle and its relationship to other forms of servility in nineteenth-century Senegal. It begins with an exploration of slavery in highly stratified Wolof society, and the use of slaves in urban Senegal where domestic labor was pervasive before 1848. Some slaves became part of French naval operations manning garrisons. Others worked as domestics, stevedores, and boat hands. Still others worked as helpers in the construction industry. Slaves were artisans and laptots (sailors). Enslaved minors, mostly female, were largely confined to domestic tasks in urban households headed by signares and others. The chapter traces the roots of engagement à temps – a form of indentured labor to which a significant number of women and children were subjected under the same conditions in Saint-Louis. It deals with the process of redemption from slavery through rachat (ransom), and highlights judicial cases and rulings which demonstrate how the process was abused. The chapter ends with the 1849 decree under which Governor Baudin created guardianship councils for boys and girls in Saint-Louis and Gorée simultaneously.

Chapter 7 offers a glimpse of minors confined to institutions. It delves into the experiences of minors in carceral and non-carceral institutions. It begins with the incarceration of minors in the Saint-Louis prison, mostly for indiscipline, insubordination, and petty crimes, primarily theft. Both the pre and post emancipation carceral population was mostly enslaved and formerly enslaved people. Some liberated minors were housed at the École Pénitentiare de Thiès (the Thiès Penitentiary School) – a reformatory institution run by the Catholic Fathers who worked in conjunction with the colonial state and were stern disciplinarians. Some minors died there; others who rebelled were put in chains. The orphanage at Ndar Toute operated by the Soeurs de Saint-Joseph de Cluny (The Sisters of Saint-Joseph) – a Catholic order, also took in liberated minors, as did the L’orphelinat de Sor (Orphanage at Sor), which housed liberated minors released from prison and minors who lacked kinship ties, among others. In addition to orphanages, minors were sent to the Ėcole Professional Pinet-Laprade (the Pinet-Laprade Professional School) which engaged in active recruitment of liberated minors. The chapter ends with liberated minors who were confided to the Tirailleurs Sénégalais (the Senegalese Rifles) – the Black colonial army.

Chapter 1 offers a brief historical overview of nineteenth-century urban Senegal, with a focus on Saint-Louis. It begins with the never-ending territorial rivalry between the Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch, which ended with French dominance in the eighteenth century. It discusses the ethno-cultural groups who lived in and contributed to the economic life of the region. These were the originaires or first inhabitants of Saint-Louis, European merchants, traders, administrators, civil servants, and the métis – the product of mariage à la mode du pays (marriage according to the custom of the country) between European men and African women, whose female offspring became known as signares. The French referred to these groups collectively as habitants. Of the habitants, the signares played a significant role in the economic development of the region, and feature prominently in the chapter. They engaged in trade, including the slave trade, which, in addition to inheritances, enabled them to acquire substantial holdings in real estate, river boats, and slaves, among them children, who remained in their households as wards after the abolition of slavery. The chapter ends with the harmonious coexistence of the habitants who practiced Islam and Christianity and the Catholic religious orders that served the community.

Chapter 6 deals with twentieth-century legislation of tutelle in response to earlier legislative failures, revelations about the lack of supervision, abuse of minors, and the disregard for French laws governing slavery and slave trading, all of which led to the crisis of 1903 and 1904.. It begins with the central legislative question in 1903 which revolved around contravention of the 1831 law which prohibited the purchase or selling of slaves. The question was whether the law applied to slave trading in Africa. Were French citizens engaging in outright slave trading or doing so under the guise of rachat? Revelations and judgments rendered in court cases at the time led to state intervention that gave rise to calls for censuses of liberated minors and rigorous accountability of guardianship. The chapter analyzes prominent cases of slave trading and their ramifications. It explores Governor Guy’s Act of 1903, which attempted to regulate guardianship effectively following his complaint that the redemption of minors was a subterfuge for slavery. The chapter offers an assessment of the clashes between leading French officials and ends with the replacement of the Procureur Général by the Secretaire Général as the primary administrator of guardianship.

The introduction outlines the scope and parameters of the study and evaluates the historiography of child servitude in Senegal while pointing to the daunting challenges that researchers face in tackling this subject due to fragmented and spotty data. It begins by explaining the meaning of tutelle – a system of guardianship or wardship that emerged after 1848 when slavery ended in the French colonial empire. It associates guardianship with slavery and other forms of coercive labor systems such as engagement à temps or indentureship to which enslaved people, including children, were often subjected through the process of rachat or ransom from slavery. It posits that guardianship in Senegal was institutionalized servitude sanctioned by the colonial administration which spearheaded the distribution of liberated and orphaned children, formerly enslaved and free, to habitants – African and European merchants, traders, and residents, primarily in Saint-Louis – the most important and vibrant economic entity in urban Senegal. Of the habitants, the signares – mixed-race women (métis) – played a major role in shaping guardianship that subsequent chapters explore. The introduction ends with an outline of the chapters that encompass the social condition of children in tutelle in colonial Senegal from 1848 to 1910.

Flight and other aspects of life in tutelle, such as marriage, abuse, and death, are taken up in Chapter 8. The chapter analyzes flight from the 1870s. Many minors fled after alleging mistreatment by their guardians. Others absconded to rid themselves of unhappy circumstances. The legal authorities normally acted and launched searches, often to no avail. Guardians generally disregarded the laws and regulations governing guardianship with impunity, including the requirement to notify the authorities when leaving Senegal with their wards. Some moved to other parts of Senegal; others to other parts of Africa; still others to France, temporarily or permanently. Although guardians had the upper hand in their dealings with minors and prevailed with the administration, the latter lodged complaints against them for poor treatment, deprivation, and abuse with police commissioners. Guardians often kept wards in tutelle well beyond the age of eighteen. While in tutelle, some wards, mostly females, got married following proposals mainly from newly emancipated slaves, predominantly Tirailleurs Sénégalais. In all cases, guardians took charge, made the arrangements, and notified the authorities. The chapter ends with the death of liberated minors in tutelle in both Senegal and France.

This study ends with the decline of tutelle and its aftermath. It posits that guardianship declined after 1905 – the year that French law made the alienation of a person’s liberty illegal – thus bringing an end to slavery in areas of Senegal where its existence was still legal after 1848. Thus, the conclusion reinforces the position taken throughout about the correlation between tutelle and slavery. In the absence of the 1905 law, tutelle would likely have continued to function as before. This points to limitations in the 1848 Abolition Act and subsequent legislation that led to the liberation of minors and fostered their integration into society through adoption without assurance of outright freedom from coercive labor that adversely impacted the lives of the majority of adoptees. In 1905, the French made no pronouncements about the fate of tutelle. Since tutelle was not considered slavery, and slavery did not legally exist in urban Senegal after 1848, the alienation of the liberty of minors was not deemed to be an issue. But tutelle held on unofficially beyond 1905, demonstrating the tenacity and entrenchment of coercive labor systems in Africa.

Chapter 3 deals with the work of the Conseil de Tutelle (Guardianship Council) from the 1840s under the jurisdiction of the Procureur Général – the head of the judiciary. It begins with the composition of the council, the decision-making process, and the conditions under which placement occurred. We learn about the sex, age, and the origin of minors, as well as the identity and origin of their parents. Also, the identity, place of abode, and profession of guardians provide valuable clues about the potential fate of minors. The chapter distinguishes between the Conseil de Tutelle and the Conseil de Famille (Family Council) which handled mostly inheritance cases involving minors whose parents died and left an inheritance, and not cases involving minors liberated from slavery. The chapter also examines cases where family members, acquaintances, and former owners of minors sought to reclaim them through appeals to the Conseil de Tutelle. It ends with the council’s placement of orphans, some of free status, in tutelle, and the end of the Conseil de Tutelle as a body governing guardianship.