Habitation Beauséjour is located on the northern tip of Martinique, namely the town of Grand'Rivière. It is a building built in the 18th century that has seen the evolution of cultures during the slavery period. Thus, cocoa, sugar cane, banana and again sugarcane, have succeeded in its plantations.
Around the main house dating from 1820, there are two other buildings, the "Roof senator" built to be the office of Amedee Knight, Senator of Martinique who lived there and a cottage that served deposit box at water and stable. Although further cons below is the "rue cases-nègres" who was the living space of slaves and agricultural workers.
The first owner of the premises was Chambert Anthoine said La Riviere, a native of Agde (Hérault) according to documents dating back to 1671. At that time, the surface of the house was about 150 hectares. In 1680, lived on the property master, his wife, his two children and 80 black slaves. Until 1928, nine different owners succeeded as owners of the premises including the Knight family where the patriarch Alexis Augustin Amédée Knight was a descendant of a black born in Martinique. He was an engineer from the Ecole Centrale de Paris and became Senator of Martinique in 1899.
Grower and distiller at Saint-Pierre, he acquired this land in the early 20th century, in the context of sugar crisis where housing bankruptcies were common. Despite this, operating under his leadership experienced an astonishing prosperity. She passed from an area of 136 hectares to 285 hectares and was equipped with a distillery that produced a quality rum, "rhum H.B.S." Gold medalist at the Colonial Exhibition in Paris in 1932.
It was also at that time, between 1900 and 1912 that housing became known Beausejour. When the heirs of Amedee Knight resold the field in 1928, the "béké" Pierre François Honoré Louis Lucy Fossarieu, it was still larger than 50 hectares. Sugar cane is still grown there and to produce rum, while cocoa declined in favor of secondary crops such as corn, beans or sweet potatoes. After World War II, bananas took over in favor of rum whose production was stopped in 1958.
For several years, the banana was the majority culture of the area before the sugar cane resumes over several years.
To get there from Fort-de-France, take the N3 to Ajoupa-Bouillon then the N1 towards Basse-Pointe, Macouba, Grand'Rivière, before entering the town to enter on the left.