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I want to ask about the history of slavery in France?

Was there any slaves in France during the Revolution? Please explain.


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: This is a long and involved answer to your question.

[1] Slavery in France itself, prior to the Revolution.

Within metropolitan France itself, a vaguely worded ordinance of king Louis X, issued in July 1315, was subsequently interpreted as a ban on slavery. The ordinance proclaimed that ??following natural law, all men are born free?? and therefore that those held in servitude could arrange for their freedom under "good and suitable conditions."

Late medieval / early modern lawyers in France argued that the freedom enjoyed by French citizens should be extended to anyone who arrived in France. They cited a 1402 case in which the syndic of Toulouse ruled that four slaves who had escaped to Toulouse were free by the privilege of that city. The Parlement of Bordeaux took similar action in 1571, when a Norman slave merchant attempted to sell a cargo of slaves in Bordeaux. The merchant was arrested and the slaves were freed.

Problems arose by the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, as increasing numbers of black slaves began to arrive in France as domestic servants for their colonial masters. Occasionally, they escaped and sought refuge with sympathetic French subjects. When masters took their slaves to court to reaffirm their property rights, the courts frequently upheld the slaves' right to freedom.

In 1716, the mayor of Nantes urged the king's ministers to draw up definitive legislation for use in cases involving black slaves. His proposals were ultimately incorporated into the Edict of October 1716. The edict established the conditions under which colonists could bring their slaves to France without losing them. Slaves could be brought to France for two reasons: for religious instruction or for training in a particular trade. To retain their slaves, owners were required to obtain permission from the colonial governors before departing, and to register their slaves at the nearest office of the Admiralty within eight days of their arrival in France.

As a result of a significant lawsuit in 1738 (Boucaux vs. Verdelin), a new royal Declaration was issued, one that both further restricted the import of slaves into France, yet also seriously harmed the prospects of freedom for slaves within France. Slaves who were brought to France in violation of the 1738 law were now to be confiscated, shipped back to the colonies, and sold to new owners (the king would pocket the profit), instead of being freed to live out their lives in France.

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[2] The French Revolution and Slavery.

The exact number of Africans, free or enslaved, in eighteenth century France is not known, but the highest rough estimates suggest that there were between 4,000 to 5,000 entering and leaving the country throughout the century. The black population appeared to have never comprised more than .025 percent of the French population.

The continued need for lawsuits in France for the manumission of individual slaves throughout the mid-1700??s shows that, French denials notwithstanding, slavery did indeed continue to exist in France itself, and that slaves were not automatically freed the moment that they stepped onto French soil.

Under the Revolution, two decrees combined to outlaw slavery, not just in metropolitan France but also in its colonial possessions. These were the decrees of ??the civil rights of freedmen?? (April 4, 1792) and, ultimately, the emancipation decree of 16 Pluviose Year II (February 4, 1794). It seems, however, that the application of these Revolutionary decrees to the colonies was caused less by a principled concern for abolition than as a practical response to reduce the incidence of slave revolts in the West Indies.

Although freedom was formally granted to slaves throughout France??s possessions, it was in reality a ??freedom?? in name only. On Guadeloupe, for example, after ex-slaves helped the French reconquer the island in 1796, they were then forced to continue working on the plantations.

In 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte resolved the issue of freedom for slaves in France??s colonies. He restored slavery!

Worse, under Napoleon, slavery was brutally reinstated in those of France??s colonies that his troops could control.
On the French island colony of Haiti, then known as Saint Domingue, Napoleon's troops launched a vast operation of ethnic cleansing in 1802, to stamp out a slave revolt. French troops used sulphur dioxide gas to suffocate slaves: they were shot, drowned, fed to dogs or gassed in the holds of slave ships.
During three weeks of resistance to French rule in Guadeloupe, Napoleon??s generals refused to take prisoners. Instead, they shot men, women and children in their own homes. Hundreds of islanders were executed in cold blood in town squares, on beaches and in military installations.
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[3] The end of Slavery.

Slavery was finally abolished in all French territories and possessions by a decree of the Second Republic in 1848.