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In 1790, the National Assembly affirmed their support for the continuation of slavery. [3] The French colony of Saint-Domingue in particular was important to the economy of France. [4] A 1791 slave rebellion in the colony led to widespread turmoil, which the Spanish and British attempted to take advantage of by invading Saint-Domingue.
A series of events took place from 1791 which led to the abolition of institutionalized slavery in France, including the establishment of the national convention and the election of the first Assembly of the First Republic (1792–1804), on 4 February 1794, under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre, culminating in the passing of the Law of 4 February 1794, which abolished slavery in all ...
The slave trade continued under the operation of the Compagnie du Sénégal from 1658 to 1709. The company traded slaves with the Hausa Kingdoms, Mali, and the Moors in Mauritania. [11] As of 1778, the French were trafficking approximately 13,000 African people as slaves to the French West Indies each year. [12]
The Code noir (French pronunciation: [kɔd nwaʁ], Black code) was a decree passed by King Louis XIV of France in 1685 defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire and served as the code for slavery conduct in the French colonies up until 1789 the year marking the beginning of the French Revolution.
A British expeditionary force invaded and occupied Guadeloupe in April 1794, and Hugues arrived at the colony on 21 May with 1,150 French troops. He immediately declared the abolition of slavery on Guadeloupe, which quickly led to most of the island's Black population, both free and enslaved, coming over to his side.
The French Revolution led to serious social upheavals on Saint-Domingue, of which the most important was the slave revolt that led to the abolition of slavery in 1793 by the civil commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel, in a decision endorsed and spread to all the French colonies by the National Convention 6 months later, including Haiti on August 29, 1793. [3]
As of 1778, French slave trade transported approximately 13,000 Africans as slaves to the French West Indies each year. [4] Slavery had been active in French colonies since the early 16th century; it was first abolished by the French government in 1794, whereupon it was replaced by forced labour before being reinstated by Napoleon in 1802. [5]
However, proponents of slavery in France viewed Robespierre as a "bloodthirsty innovator" and accused him of conspiring to surrender French colonies to England. [386] On 4 April 1792, Louis XVI affirmed the Jacobin decree, which granted equal political rights to free blacks and mulattoes in Saint-Domingue. [ 389 ]