Marie Josephine Rose Tascher de la Pagerie grew up in Trois Ilets, a village across the bay from Fort de France. She married Alexandre Beauharnais, a French aristocrat who was guillotined during the "reign of terror." Several affairs later she became Napoleon's first wife and Empress of France from 1804 to 1809. She had two children but Napoleon divorced her in 1910 because she did not bear his heir. This statue was erected in 1858 but has had its head cut off twice, probably by folks who disapproved of her and/or Napoleon.