InvestigationThe wind of “cancel culture” is blowing on historical figures with contested profiles. In Florida and in Iowa, two Frenchmen, a navigator and a religious, are in the sights.
It was their great man, the illustrious character of the family, the one who shone in the family tree, and here one day, patatras, the ancestor wavered on his pedestal. In the living room of his Lyon apartment, Yves de Montcheuil still can’t believe it: the name of his grandfather Jean Ribault, the first Frenchman to gain a foothold in the United States in 1562, is today threatened across the Atlantic.
For a long time, however, Ribault was considered a hero, both in the United States and by his descendants. “I’ve always heard of him”, said Yves de Montcheuil with a puzzled air. In 2012, the local authorities of Jacksonville, Florida, were also keen to celebrate “With great fanfare” the 450e anniversary of this French foray into what was not yet the United States. For the occasion, some members of the family had traveled to honor their distant relative.
Nine years later, the tide turned, a storm arose in the United States: that of the cancel culture. Alive or dead, some individuals are “canceled” (“Canceled”, in English), their traces are erased to ensure that their words, actions or memory will no longer be admired. Ribault could thus see his name disappear from the pediments of a college and a high school in Jacksonville, both founded in 1957.
How could he have found himself caught up in this big household? “We have the impression that he ended up in the lot in a weird way”, observes Yves de Montcheuil, determined to preserve the heritage of his ancestor, to the point of having signed in February, with members of his family, a forum in defense of Ribault in the daily newspaper Florida Times-Union.
A Norman in the New World
The text looks back on the history of this Norman Protestant, who left Dieppe for the Americas in February 1562. Mandated by Admiral de Coligny, leader of the Protestants in France, the expedition must take possession of certain territories in the name of the King of France, Charles IX, to create colonies on the edge of the Spanish possessions and ensure a presence in the New World.
At the dawn of the wars of religion, Captain Jean Ribault and his 150 men were also responsible for finding a possible refuge for the persecuted Huguenots. In order to clearly mark their territory, they first set up a column at the mouth of the “Rivière de Mai” (today Saint John’s River), at the current location of Jacksonville, then head due north, following the coast. On May 17, they docked at Parris Island, in what was not yet South Carolina.
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