The history of the Caféière Beauséjour Coffee Plantation in Pointe-Noire Guadeloupe
The Caféière Beauséjour is the historic heart of the Habitation Caféière Samana Beauséjour, a former 18th-century coffee plantation situated on the Gros Morne hill in Pointe-Noire, on the Leeward Coast of Basse-Terre, in Guadeloupe. Also known as the Gros-Morne Plantation, it is one of the oldest estates in the municipality.
What is an « Habitation »
in the context of Guadeloupe’s heritage?
The word « Habitation » is often misused today: it is used to refer to simple modern buildings, which obscures its historical meaning.
In the West Indies, an ‘Habitation’ refers first and foremost to a former colonial estate, an agricultural enterprise reliant on slave labour (the equivalent of an English plantation), at the centre of which stood the ‘master’s house’, built of redwood to withstand termites.
As the historian Danielle Bégot has shown, the Caribbean ‘habitation’ cannot be reduced to a mere agricultural enterprise: it was a system that structured the entire colonial society, a landholding dedicated to the speculative development of the land, serving both as a unit of production and as the basic unit of slave-owning society. This explains the clear separation, within the built environment, between the master’s house and the slaves’ huts
(Based on Danielle Bégot, ‘Factories and sugar plantations: three centuries of Martinique’s industrial heritage’, Heritage Office of the Regional Council of Martinique, 1989, p. 27.)
The Caféière Beauséjour: a wooden house perched on its morne
The Habitation Caféière Samana Beauséjour, also known as La Caféière Beauséjour or Habitation Gros-Morne, is one of the oldest in Pointe-Noire. Facing east-west, it stands on a morne at an altitude of 295 meters and overlooks the entire region: the Caribbean Sea on one side, and the mountains on the other.
The house features superimposed galleries; it was once flanked by an outdoor kitchen that also served as a shelter during cyclones. Unfortunately, part of the veranda was removed in the 1990s to create an extension.
The walls and roof structure are made of mahogany and courbaril, and the façade cladding is made of mountain guava wood. The 1995 extension rests on posts made of local pear wood and is clad in northern timber; the floors are made of pitch pine, a conifer with yellow wood veined with red, imported from Florida and the Mississippi Basin, which was highly prized during the reign of Napoleon III for parquet flooring and furniture.
The imaginary "Boucan"...
The imaginary "Boucan"...
La Caféière Beauséjour – the second colonial house destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
A farm building, rather than the manor house
This house is now the only surviving building bearing witness to the estate’s history. Our research has dispelled a common misconception: there was never a coffee drying house (“boucan”) that was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in September 1989. In fact, it was another building – a much more imposing colonial house with a tendacayou timber frame (an even finer timber) – that was partially destroyed in 1989. Its beams were reused as posts for the carbet in the dining area.
This clue leads to a hypothesis: La Caféière was probably not the main building of the plantation, but rather a farm building or the ‘gérer’s’ (foreman’s) house. It is, in fact, built at a lower level than the former colonial house that has since disappeared — yet, in colonial times, the master’s house always occupied the highest point of the estate. (The date of construction of the current building is not known with certainty; the estate itself is documented as far back as the 18th century – see below.)
The names of Caféière Beauséjour, from the King’s maps to the present day
The history of the site can be traced through the succession of its names, as recorded in maps, censuses and notarial deeds:
(Source: Guadeloupe Directorate of Cultural Affairs – Ministry of Culture)
1763 — « Habitation des Sources ».
On the map drawn up by the King’s geographical engineers, the site already appears under this name.
(Source: notarial deed of 9 August 1780, Guadeloupe Departmental Archives – AD971)
1780 — « l'Habitation cafféière ».
A notarial deed dated 9 August 1780 refers to the estate as “the coffee plantation still undivided” between Miss Cécile Gosse Dessources and Mr Séraphin Deblaine.
(Sources: DAC Guadeloupe, September 1796 census, reference 5 DPPC 55, ark:/61561/681945.2395402.)
1796 — « Habitation cafeyère Séraphin Deblaine ».
The Revolutionary census of Pointe-Noire records it as such.
(Source: Guadeloupe Directorate of Cultural Affairs – Ministry of Culture)
1874 — « Habitation Gros-Morne ».
On E. Devèze’s Map of Guadeloupe and its dependencies, the estate bears this name.
(Sources: statement of the deed of rectification dated 8 & 15 July 1942, Maître Daniel d’Alexis, notary in Basse-Terre – AD971)
1897 — « l'Habitation Gros-Morne ou Beauséjour »
A survey report drawn up by Saint-Léger Thierry, a sworn surveyor, delineates the three parcels of land forming ‘the Gros-Morne or Beauséjour plantation’ (report registered at Pointe-Noire on 20 January 1898).
A founding document: the lease of 1780. On 9 August 1780, before Maître Benoit, royal notary of Guadeloupe, Marie-Catherine-Cécile Gosse Dessources, still a minor, assisted by her guardian Jean-Baptiste Gosse Gardet, let her share of the ‘coffee plantation’ to Mr Séraphin Deblaine, a militia officer, for a term of one year commencing on 17 May; both of whom resided in the Pointe-Noire district, in the parish of Notre-Dame de Bon Port.
This share, which remained undivided between them, had been allocated to her under the partition drawn up by Maître Fontaine, royal notary, finalised on 14 May 1779.
The lease comprises the plantations and the buildings erected on the estate, as well as fourteen people then held in slavery. It is one of the oldest known notarial deeds relating to the estate, and it explicitly refers to it as a ‘coffee plantation’.
(SSource: notarial deed of 9 August 1780, ‘Double Minute’ No. 6, Maître Benoit, royal notary of Guadeloupe; Guadeloupe Departmental Archives – AD971. The 1779 partition is referenced in the Parisis file: ADG, Maître Fontaine, 3, 6 and 14 May 1779.)
THE CAFÉIÈRE BEAUSÉJOUR
250 years of history, from the 18th century to the present day
As early as 1763, the map of Pointe-Noire shows a modest plantation on the exact site of the present-day Caféière, under the name ‘Habitation des Sources’. The owner was Pierre-Félix Gosse Dessources (born 10 January 1731 in Pointe-Noire), who married Cécile Millard on 1 July 1753. (Genealogy: B. & Ph. Rossignol, ‘GOSSE in Pointe-Noire’, Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe.)
The couple’s estate was settled between 1773 and 1779 — Pierre-Félix Gosse Dessources died in June 1778 — and the division of the estate was finalised on 14 May 1779 before Maître Fontaine, the royal notary. The estate was then a coffee plantation comprising some 60,000 coffee trees (and 30,000 outside the estate), 60 carrés of land and 18 slaves; cassava, peas and maize were also grown there. A violent hurricane caused damage in 1776. Upon division of the estate, the plantation passed to two of the three sisters: Marie-Catherine-Cécile, who was a minor and unmarried, and Marie-Magdeleine, wife of Séraphin Deblaine — it was the latter who took the plantation on a leasehold basis, as attested by the notarial deed of 1780. (Sources: inventory record by H. and D. Parisis – ref. ADG; Maître Fontaine, deeds dated 3, 6 and 14 May 1779; GHC for family dates; deed dated 9 August 1780.)
In the 19th century, the estate belonged to the Lesueur family. Jean-Baptiste Lesueur, a landowner, died in Pointe-Noire in 1871, leaving four children: Léonide, Jean-Baptiste Lalbenque, Aurélie and Pauline, wife of Pierre-François-Wilfrid Pagésy. Parts of the estate were sold in 1878–1879, 1884 and 1887 (transcripts in Basse-Terre dated 24 April 1879, 5 May 1884 and 16 March 1887). In January 1897, a survey report drawn up by Saint-Léger Thierry, a sworn surveyor, demarcated the three parcels of land forming ‘the Habitation Gros-Morne or Beauséjour’ (report registered in Pointe-Noire on 20 January 1898). (Sources: statement accompanying the deed of rectification dated 8 and 15 July 1942, Maître Daniel d’Alexis, notary in Basse-Terre — AD971; sales 1878–1887: Parisis file, ref. ANSOM/TAM Basse-Terre.)
The estate was then reconstituted in the hands of the Pagésy family: Aurélie Lesueur transferred her rights to Mr and Mrs Pagésy on 1 January 1901 for 4,000 francs; Léonide did the same on 18 February 1903 for 1,000 francs; then the auction of 26 September 1907 (minutes drawn up by Mr Philippe Guilhemborde, notary in Basse-Terre) awarded the first and third parcels of land to Wilfrid Pagésy, with the second going to the widow Lesueur-Lalbenque. (Source: the same deed of 1942 — Guadeloupe Departmental Archives – AD971.)
On the death of Pauline Lesueur, wife of Pagésy, on 14 November 1914, her rights passed to her two daughters — including Jeanne-Marie-Modeste Pagésy, widow of Maxime-Gratien Duflau: it was through this marriage that the property came into the Duflau family. (Source: the same deed of 1942 — Guadeloupe Departmental Archives – AD971.)
The great cyclone of 1928 damaged part of the facilities and reduced coffee production. On 25 June and 31 July 1940, the widow Pagésy Saint-Cyr sold her undivided half of ‘the estate known as Habitation Gros-Morne or Beauséjour’, covering an area of 47 hectares 50 ares, to the Duflau family; a deed of rectification dated 8 and 15 July 1942 (drawn up by Maître d’Alexis) specifies its exact description. On 22 August and 25 October 1944, the Duflau family sold two parcels of 10 and 24 hectares respectively to Antoine-Marie-Gérard Duflau, a farmer in Pointe-Noire — a sale ratified on 30 August 1951 before Maître Robert Beaubrun, on behalf of François-Joseph Duflau (then resident in Algeria), represented by his authorised agent. Coffee production ceased during the 20th century.
In 2010, La Caféière became an artists’ residence, a status it retained until 2018 — after which, as you know, events took a different turn.
(Sources: notarial deeds of 1940, 1942, 1944 and 1951, law firms of Alexis and Beaubrun, Basse-Terre — AD971.)
Find the Caféière Samana Beausejour plantation in heritage publications
Housing listed p124 of "Patrimoine de la Guadeloupe"
FONDATION CLÉMENT
HC editions 2017
Housing listed p30-31 & 40 of "Maisons des Antilles" par Michael Connors
FLAMMARION editions 2007
Housing listed p 164/165 of "La Guadeloupe et ses trésors - Le patrimoine archéologique de l'île papillon"
David LAPORAL
ERRANCE editions 2010
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
When was the Caféière Beauséjour established?
The Caféière Beauséjour estate, in Pointe-Noire, has been documented since 1763 (map by the King’s geographical engineers); a notarial deed from 1780 attests to a coffee plantation there.
Where is the Caféière Beauséjour located?
In Pointe-Noire, on a hill on the Leeward Coast known as Gros Morne, at an altitude of 295 metres, on the island of Basse-Terre, in Guadeloupe.
Why « caféière » ?
Because the estate was a coffee plantation, documented as early as 1780 and in the Revolutionary census of 1796.
What other names has the plantation gone by?
Habitation Dessources (1763), Habitation Cafeyère Deblaine (1796), Habitation Gros-Morne (1874), Habitation Beauséjour (1897), and today Habitation Caféière Samana Beauséjour.
What role does Caféière Beauséjour play in commemorating the history of slavery?
Caféière Beauséjour began as a coffee plantation, that is to say, an enterprise that relied on the labour of enslaved people. A notarial deed from 1780 mentions fourteen enslaved men and women attached to the estate. We bear this history with solemnity and respect, without erasing any part of it. In tribute to these lives, a statue was created by a local artist; and a traditional spiritual ceremony was conducted on site by a man who is the custodian of this knowledge, to accompany the passage of their souls to the afterlife. Remembering them is part of who we are today.
