Culture

Daniella Jeffry: the historian behind Saint-Martin's 28 May commemoration

A profile of Daniella Jeffry (1941–2019), the Marigot-born teacher, historian and author whose research led Saint-Martin to mark the abolition of slavery on 28 May.

By SXM Daily · October 22, 2026

Daniella Jeffry was a teacher, historian and author from Marigot whose research changed how Saint-Martin remembers the end of slavery. Her work underpinned the Territorial Council's 2015 decision to move the island's abolition commemoration from 27 May to 28 May, and she was a prominent voice in the debate over the island's political status.

Illustrative: Marigot. Photo: Paul Sableman / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Marigot, Basse-Terre and Paris

Jeffry was born in Marigot on 18 August 1941. She attended the Lycée Gerville-Réache in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, and went on to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

The status debate

Jeffry presided over the Association Consensus Populaire, the Saint-Martin People's Consensus, which worked on the question of the island's change of status. She edited Saint-Martin: Objectif Statut, published in 2002, five years before Saint-Martin left Guadeloupe to become an overseas collectivity.

Writing the island's history

Her historical writing included a study of 1963 as a turning point for St. Martin, published by House of Nehesi in 2003 as 1963 – A Landmark Year in St. Martin. La 1ère gives its French title as 1963: Année charnière.

28 May

Jeffry's research into the events of 1848 led to a change in the island's calendar. On 5 November 2015, the Territorial Council voted unanimously to move the commemoration of the abolition of slavery from 27 May to 28 May, a decision Le Pélican and La 1ère both linked to her work. Each year's commemoration on 28 May now rests in part on that research.

Remembered

Jeffry died on Wednesday 9 October 2019 in Washington, D.C., where she was in hospital. La 1ère, Le Pélican and The Daily Herald, which called her a "local icon", all reported her death. Read more in SXM Daily's history of emancipation and the abolition of slavery in Saint-Martin.

Sources

https://la1ere.franceinfo.fr/guadeloupe/saint-martin/daniella-jeffry-n-est-plus-758327.html
https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/local-icon-daniella-jeffry-passes-away-in-us-wed
https://www.lepelican-journal.com/disparition-de-daniella-jeffry/
https://www.lepelican-journal.com/disparition-daniella-jeffry-les-archives-et-la-memoire-de-saint-martin/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marigot_(16241671956).jpg

Source: https://la1ere.franceinfo.fr/guadeloupe/saint-martin/daniella-jeffry-n-est-plus-758327.html