author
Charlotte-Adelaïde Dard
1798–1862
One of the few women to survive the wreck of the Méduse, she turned a harrowing journey to Senegal into an early firsthand account of colonial West Africa. Her writing blends shipwreck survival, family tragedy, and close observation of life in Saint-Louis.
1 Audiobook
Perils and Captivity Comprising The sufferings of the Picard family after the shipwreck of the Medusa, in the year 1816; Narrative of the captivity of M. de Brisson, in the year 1785; Voyage of Madame Godin along the river of the Amazons, in the year 1770.
by Charlotte-Adelaïde Dard, Pierre-Raymond de Brisson, Jean Godin des Odonais
About the author
Born in Paris in 1798 as Charlotte-Adélaïde Picard, she traveled to Senegal with her family in 1816 aboard the frigate Méduse, the ship made infamous by its disastrous wreck off the West African coast. She survived the ordeal and later settled in Saint-Louis, Senegal, where much of her adult life unfolded.
She is best known for La chaumière africaine (1824), an autobiographical work based on the shipwreck and its aftermath. The book is notable not only as a survivor's account, but also for the way it describes daily life, hardship, and French colonial society in Senegal from a rare female point of view.
Dard died in Saint-Louis in 1862. Though she is far less famous than the painters and chroniclers inspired by the Méduse disaster, her memoir remains an unusual and valuable witness to both the wreck itself and the world that followed it.