Question

What do you know about the slave trade?What legislative measures ere taken to end slavery in france?

Answer 1

Answer:

One of the most revolutionary social reforms of the Jacobin regime

was the abolition of slavery in the French colonies. The colonies in

the Caribbean – Martinique, Guadeloupe and San Domingo – were

important suppliers of commodities such as tobacco, indigo, sugar

and coffee. But the reluctance of Europeans to go and work in distant

and unfamiliar lands meant a shortage of labour on the plantations.

So this was met by a triangular slave trade between Europe, Africa

and the Americas. The slave trade began in the seventeenth century.

French merchants sailed from the ports of Bordeaux or Nantes to

the African coast, where they bought slaves from local chieftains.

Branded and shackled, the slaves were packed tightly into ships for

the three-month long voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

There they were sold to plantation owners. The exploitation of slave

labour made it possible to meet the growing demand in European

markets for sugar, coffee, and indigo. Port cities like Bordeaux and

Nantes owed their economic prosperity to the flourishing slave trade.

Throughout the eighteenth century there was little criticism of slavery

in France. The National Assembly held long debates about whether

the rights of man should be extended to all French subjects including

those in the colonies. But it did not pass any laws, fearing opposition

from businessmen whose incomes depended on the slave trade. It

was finally the Convention which in 1794 legislated to free all slaves

in the French overseas possessions. This, however, turned out to be

a short-term measure: ten years later, Napoleon reintroduced slavery.

Plantation owners understood their freedom as including the right

to enslave African Negroes in pursuit of their economic interests.

Slavery was finally abolished in French colonies in 1848.