For nearly a century, French Guiana was a land of banishment where the Republic sent tens of thousands of convicts. The “Cayenne penal colony,” the Salvation Islands and the grim Devil’s Island where Alfred Dreyfus was held now belong to a heritage of remembrance that you can explore with respect. Here is the story of this penal system, what remains of it, and how to visit these emotionally charged places during your stay.
What was the penal colony of French Guiana?
The phrase “Cayenne penal colony” is in fact a shorthand. It refers to the entire French colonial penal system established in French Guiana, which was by no means confined to the capital. This system was created by an 1854 law, following on from Napoleon III’s decree, and rested on two distinct regimes:
- Transportation, which applied to convicts sentenced to hard labour.
- Relegation, introduced in 1885, which targeted repeat offenders convicted of minor recurring crimes and sent to French Guiana once their sentence had expired.
To this was added deportation, reserved for certain political prisoners, the most famous of whom were sent to the Salvation Islands. The Guianese penal colony operated from 1852 — the date of the first convoys — until its official abolition. The law ending transportation was passed in 1938, but the Second World War interrupted the process; the last convicts did not actually leave French Guiana until the late 1940s, and the penal administration did not finally close until the early 1950s. The range often cited for the period of real convoy activity is 1852–1946.
In all, it is estimated that roughly 70,000 to 80,000 convicts were sent to French Guiana over the entire period. Many never came back.
The “dry guillotine”: where does the nickname come from?
The penal colony of French Guiana was nicknamed the “dry guillotine” very early on. The expression is cruel but apt: sending a man into this equatorial climate, without sentencing him to death, often amounted to condemning him all the same. Malaria, yellow fever, dysentery, exhaustion from labour and malnutrition decimated the ranks of the prisoners.
One rule made the situation even worse: the “doublage”. Any transported convict sentenced to more than eight years of hard labour had, once his sentence was served, to remain in French Guiana for a period equal to that of his original conviction. Those sentenced to life or to more than eight years therefore stayed for life. This mechanism turned the colony into a trap: even once freed, the former convict remained a prisoner of the territory, without resources and often without any hope of returning to mainland France.
The Transportation Camp at Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni
While Cayenne lends its name to the penal colony in the collective imagination, the true administrative heart of the system lay to the west, at Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, on the river bordering Suriname. This is where the ships from France arrived, after a gruelling crossing of several weeks.
The Transportation Camp was the point of disembarkation and sorting. New arrivals were registered there, examined, and then dispatched to the colony’s various forest, agricultural or island camps. Saint-Laurent became a genuine “penal town”: its urban layout, administrative buildings and infrastructure were largely shaped by and for the penal colony.
Today, the Transportation Camp is one of the best preserved and most moving sites of remembrance in French Guiana. The guided tour takes you through:
- The collective cells where the transported convicts were packed together.
- The disciplinary quarter and its individual dungeons.
- The famous cell said to be Papillon’s, which we will come back to.
- The courtyard and the remains where graffiti carved by the prisoners can still be seen.
To prepare for your trip to this region, our article on the Maroni River and Bushinengé cultures will help you understand the human and geographical context of western French Guiana.
The Salvation Islands: Royale, Saint-Joseph and Devil’s Island
Off the coast of Kourou, around ten kilometres from the shore, lies a small archipelago with a paradoxical name: the Salvation Islands (Îles du Salut). The name dates back to the 18th century, when colonists fleeing the fevers of the mainland found a healthier air there. For the convicts, “salvation” was something else entirely.
The archipelago has three islands, each with its own purpose:
- Île Royale, the largest, housed the administration, the hospital and the ordinary-law prisoners. It is now the heart of the visit.
- Île Saint-Joseph, the most feared of all, was home to solitary confinement: total isolation, enforced silence, dungeons where the troublemakers and would-be escapees were locked away. The confinement quarter, gradually reclaimed by the tropical vegetation, gives off a striking atmosphere.
- Devil’s Island (Île du Diable), the smallest and most isolated, reserved for political prisoners.
To delve deeper into the archipelago and prepare your crossing, see our dedicated guide to the Salvation Islands in French Guiana.
