Explain the position of france on slavery in the 18th and 19th century.
Answers
b. In the 18th century, there was little criticism of slavery in France.
c.No laws were passed against it. It was in 1794 that the convention freed all slaves.
d. But 10 years later slavery was reintroduced by Napoleon.
e. It was finally in 1848 that slavery was abolished in the French colonies.
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As of 1778, the French were importing approximately 13,000 Africans for enslavement to the French West Indies.[2]
In France the slaving interest was based in Nantes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, and Le Havre during the years 1763 to 1792. The men involved defended their business against the abolition movement of 1789. The 'négriers' were merchants who specialized in funding and directing cargoes of black captives to the Caribbean colonies, which had high death rates and needed a continuous fresh supply. The négriers intermarried with each other's families; most were Protestants. Their derogatory and patronizing approach toward blacks immunized them from moral criticism. They strongly opposed to the application of the Declaration of Rights of Man to blacks. While they ridiculed the slaves as dirty and savage, they often took a black mistress. The French government paid a bounty on each captive sold to the colonies, which made the business profitable and patriotic.[3]
Creole women in the French Caribbean
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This section is entirely based on Jacqueline Couti’s book Dangerous Creole Liaisons, Sexuality and Nationalism in French Caribbean Discourses from 1806 to 1897. Creole women were an essential part of the history of the slavery period in the French Caribbean and especially on Martinique Island as well as in France. Creole women always have been a source of exoticism and adventure for people in the mainland, in the French imaginary, their sensuality represented this exoticism related to Martinique and French Caribbean islands in general as they looked different and were believed to have different sexual practices as white french women at the time (due to their African and Native origins). As Creole women were slaves, the masters would turn to them to fulfill their sexual desires and leave behind white french women. The ideal woman at the time was a white pure mother explaining the reason why so many slave owners turned to Creole women, hence abandoning their duties as fathers according to the French beliefs and traditions. Authors like Traversay argue that the fault is in fact on Creole women as they are the one supposedly luring men into failing white, respectable, French women. With the end of the 18th century comes a troubled time for France in general. As the monarchy is collapsing, the new government aims to change the image of France as an equal and right country with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the first document allowing every man basic rights and paving the way for future human rights’ declarations. With this new era of human rights, the government still intends to keep a refined and traditionalist image of the country. During the revolution, white women were the representation of this newly acquired liberty with the examples of Liberty Leading the People and Marianne. A problem, therefore, occurred when both liberty and the image of women were problematic in the French Caribbean, slavery and Creole women were simply not a good representation of free, pure and motherly France according to the ones in charge. Authors (like Levilloux and Maynard) now glorify this new image of France, appealing to the new democratic public, considering the new world and more importantly the French Caribbean and Creole women as a representation of the colonialist past of the French monarchy : lavish, sensual, erotic and exotic, values that can no longer be considered acceptable by the new regime. Interracial marriages and relations were therefore forbidden as they tried to change the image of the country, as much as the French Caribbean was considered morally lost, they still had to take control and avoid métis children and freed slaves to take over the islands. The different revolutions were also traumatic for the Creole people, as they supported the return of monarchy with the Bourbon dynasty since the 1814 Restauration, the July Revolution was felt like a final blast on them. Around this time came the modern idea of racism with the skin color at the center of questioning. Black skin was then considered unpure and almost disease-like in order to differentiate the ‘true’ colons and French citizens from Natives and former slaves and Creole people. The hierarchy of race began in this late 18th century period with whiteness at the top of the scheme. In this scenario, black women are at the origin of white men’s lust and are considered once again, the source of the loss of the white culture in the Caribbean. Creole women and their bodies, in particular, are seen as representing the ‘abject mix’ (Dangerous Créole Liaisons, 67) between African bodies and white bodies. But the masters, unwilling to change their habits, find new excuses to explain their behavior.