{"id":10389,"date":"2020-09-16T17:55:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T15:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/fr\/?page_id=10389"},"modified":"2025-12-02T15:22:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T13:22:45","slug":"guizot-and-slavery","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/guizot-and-slavery\/","title":{"rendered":"Guizot and slavery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article written by Jean Bergeret (2020)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Historical background<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u00abIt was neither economic factors nor the resistance of the slaves themselves that brought about the definitive abolition of slavery in France.\nof the slaves themselves that led to the definitive abolition of slavery in the former\nformer French colonies, but the development during the July Monarchy of an abolitionist\nJuly monarchy of an abolitionist culture which achieved its aims as soon as the\nRevolution of 1848 overthrew the Orleanist regime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cautious and gradualist during the 1830s, the French abolitionist\nabolitionist movement began to turn to immediatism in the\n1840s, when it became clear that the government would only allow a very distant\nemancipation, and finally freed the 250,000 slaves in the French colonies after the\nFrench colonies after the revolution had swept away the monarchy.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text taken from : <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennings Lawrence C. The second movement for the abolition of\nFrench colonial slavery<\/em>. In: Overseas<\/em>, Volume 89, no. 336-337,\n2nd semester 2002. slave trade and slavery: old problems, new perspectives\nperspectives <\/em>? pp. 177-191.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Illustration taken from Guizot, The history of Civilization<\/em>, vol. 1, London, 1846 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00abBefore the Revolution broke out in France,\nboth England and France were involved in the slave trade. In\nAt the beginning of the 19th century, England, which had become abolitionist, abolished the slave trade,\nin 1807, then slavery in 1833. In France, attitudes changed less quickly.\nslavery had been abolished by the Convention in 1794, Bonaparte reinstated it in France.\nBonaparte reinstated it in 1802, as well as the slave trade, by implication.\nLouis XVIII banned the slave trade in 1818 but remained in favour of progressive measures.\nFrench shipowners continued the slave trade.\nSeveral abolitionist laws were needed to discourage this illegal trade.\nillegal trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Repr\u00e9sentation<\/a>

Commandant Labillardi\u00e8re, Atlas to serve as a report of the voyage in search of La P\u00e9rouse<\/em>, Paris, Year VIII of the Republic.
The legend gives a rather negative perception of a man from the Admiralty Islands <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

England, champion of the abolition of the slave trade, took international action to purge the coast of Africa of slave traders. It signed conventions with various countries and used the right of visit to force ships to respect them. France also gradually organised surveillance of the African coast by its navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after the accession of Louis-Philippe, a bilateral agreement was signed with England to coordinate surveillance of the coast of Africa by exercising reciprocal visiting rights (1831 and 1833). France was the only country to use its navy to crack down on the slave trade. British ships were deployed from Sierra Leone to control the slave trade centres in Benin and the Gulf of Guinea. French ships were based in Saint-Louis du S\u00e9n\u00e9gal and Gor\u00e9e. Joint commissions were set up to try, without appeal, the slave traders seized by the repressive cruisers. This concerted action led to a significant decline in the slave trade from 1840 onwards.

But Louis-Philippe's France, which had not yet abolished slavery, was above all concerned not to appear to be following in England's footsteps. A \u00abvisiting rights crisis\u00bb soon shook political life. National pride was aroused by a power struggle between Adolphe Thiers, who had been removed from the Foreign Office because of his adventurous policy against England, and Fran\u00e7ois Guizot, his replacement at the Ministry. When Guizot tried to update the convention with England in December 1841, months of parliamentary debate and numerous articles in the press, orchestrated by Thiers, prevented its ratification.

The visit of French ships by the English navy gave rise to a visceral antagonism against England in France, reinforced by various high-profile cases, such as the seizure by the English in 1839 of Senegambia<\/em>, which transported not captives but workers hired for Cayenne.

In reality, the two navies no longer seized black captives from French ships because the French slave trade no longer existed. The right of visit that inflamed French public opinion was no longer relevant in 1844. The trade had taken more complex routes, under other flags\u00bb.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text by Luce-Marie Albig\u00e8s, April 2007. History website\npar l'image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In France<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A Society for the Abolition of Slavery was created in\n1834. It was dissolved in 1848 when slavery was abolished in France.\nThe founding members were friends of Guizot: Victor de Broglie,\nCharles de R\u00e9musat, Ag\u00e9nor de Gasparin, etc. Guizot was not one of them,\nnor, it would seem, did he belong to the associate members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on 13 February 1838, the Chamber of Deputies, after many unsuccessful\nnumerous unsuccessful attempts by the abolitionists, discussed a new\na new proposal and Guizot was appointed chairman of the committee responsible for\nto examine it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles de R\u00e9musat presented the commission's report to the\nChamber of Deputies on 18 June 1838. But instead of abolition solely for the benefit of\nfor unborn children, which would lead to slow abolition and \u00abenvious rivalries\nwould lead to \"envious rivalries, after recalling that there were\nthat there were 258,956 slaves in the French colonies, indicated that it wanted\nmass emancipation, but proposed to wait until 1840 to fully judge the British\nthe British experience and indicated that in the meantime it was advisable to\nthat in the meantime measures should be taken to prepare for emancipation (pecuniary support, redemption,\nreligious education).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The King dissolved the Chamber in 1839. The bill\ndid not succeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First international congress in favour of the abolition of slavery
<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The convention was attended by Fran\u00e7ois-Andr\u00e9 Isambert,\na member of the French Society for the Abolition of Slavery: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abWhen Mr Isambert entered the room, accompanied by Mr Dussailly and Mr Haur\u00e9\nMr. Dussailly and Mr. Haur\u00e9, members of the French Society, he came to take his place on the right of the chair reserved for the president.\ntook his place on the right of the chair reserved for the president. The French delegation\nThe French delegation was greeted with great acclaim. The same happened when the\nthe entrance of the French ambassador, M. Guizot. Next to the French deputies\nwas M. Guizot.me<\/sup> the Duchess of Sutherland, HRH the Duke of Sussex and Mr. O'Connel.\nO'Connel were greeted with thunderous applause.\u00bb <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Peinture<\/a>

Haydon<\/strong> Benjamin Robert (1786-1846), The anti-slavery society Convention, 1840.<\/em>
Oil on canvas, coll. National Gallery, London <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The July Monarchy dithered over the abolition of slavery, despite\nslavery, despite repeated calls from French society. It was\npromulgated by a provisional government made up of eleven people, five of whom\nfive of whom were members of the French Society for the Abolition of Slavery\nslavery: Fran\u00e7ois Arago, Adolphe Cr\u00e9mieux, Alphonse de Lamartine,\nLouis Blanc and Alexandre Ledru-Rollin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guizot's role<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Guizot was against slavery. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abGuizot was a member of the Society of Christian Morals,\nThis \u00absociety, to which Protestants belong in large numbers and to which the flower of the liberal opposition belongs, [has] a philosophical and political vocation.\nthe flower of the liberal opposition [has] a philosophical and philanthropic vocation\nphilanthropic vocation, leading the fight against the death penalty in political matters\nand the slave trade, for the improvement of prison conditions and\nconditions in prisons and for the emancipation of the Greeks - all convictions\nto which Guizot will always remain attached ... Guizot's main contribution seems to have been to\nGuizot's main contribution seems to have been his sustained efforts, when he was ambassador to\nBritain, to get an international treaty signed authorising the boarding\nthe boarding of ships belonging to participating nations in order to check that\nthat they were not carrying human cargo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During debates in the Chamber of Deputies in 1841, Guizot strongly\nthe treaty to be signed between S. M. the King of the French and S. M. the Queen\nof the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the two countries undertaking to\ncontinue to prohibit ... any trade in blacks in the colonies they\nown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His talents as a negotiator and orator prepared the ground\nfor the definitive abolition of slavery in the French colonies in\n1848, for which Sch\u0153lcher deserves the greatest credit. The hope of\nFran\u00e7ois Guizot that his name would be associated with all those who fought for the\nthe abolition of slavery and the slave trade has so far been disappointed.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text taken from the guizot.com website<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a>

Pingret, Visit by His Majesty Louis-Philippe I to Windsor Castle<\/em>. Paris, London, 1846
Coll. Val-Richer.
Louis-Philippe, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in a carriage of the royal train. <\/figcaption><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article \u00e9crit par Jean Bergeret (2020) Contexte historique \u00ab Ce ne furent ni les facteurs \u00e9conomiques, ni la r\u00e9sistance des esclaves eux-m\u00eames qui amen\u00e8rent l’abolition d\u00e9finitive de l’esclavage dans les anciennes colonies fran\u00e7aises, mais bien le d\u00e9veloppement au cours de la monarchie de Juillet d’une culture abolitionniste qui r\u00e9alisa ses buts d\u00e8s que la R\u00e9volution de […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10389","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10389"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12421,"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10389\/revisions\/12421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guizot.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}