Ombline Desbassayns

Marie Anne Thérèse Ombline Desbassayns (3 July 1755 – 4 February 1846) was a French planter and slave trader on the French island of La Réunion.

When she was widowed, she took over the business of her late spouse and enjoyed a long and successful career in managing and expanding the sugar and coffee plantation industry on the island with the help of slave labour.

After her death, Ombline Desbassayns came to be a symbol of the epoch of slavery on the island (slavery was abolished in 1848, only two years after her death), and it became common to reproach people who acted cruelly by saying that the epoch of Madame Desbassayns was long gone and cruel behaviour was no longer acceptable.

A legend claimed that the volcano of Piton de la Fournaise once erupted because Desbassayns had buried her sins in it.

[1] In local folklore, Ombline Desbassayns became associated with the demon witch Grand-mère Kalle.