In 1794, slavery was abolished in France- I assume that means it was also abolished in all overseas French colonies. Is that accurate or not?
Napoleon re-legalized slavery in 1802. But what happened in the meantime? Were slaves in the Louisiana territory freed just temporarily? If not, did Louisiana just start bringing in a host of new slaves from other regions?
Did black slaves who were liberated in 1794 remain free after 1802, or were many/any re-enslaved?
The decree sounds very strongly worded to me.
I couldn’t find anything on how it was actually implemented in the colonies. If former slaves were French citizens wouldn’t that allow them to travel? Leave the area where they were enslaved? Sadly, they had no way of knowing the decree would soon be reversed.
http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/Slavery-Slavery-was-abolished-in.html
Technically, yes. In practice, not really.
In the meantime, Louisiana was a possession of Spain ( since 1762 ), who did not consider themselves bound by the French Revolutionary leadership’s pronouncements ;). Napoleon acquired the territory in 1801-1802 and sold it in 1803, just in time to not allow anyone to be emancipated.
In the meantime the agitation led to the Pointe Coupee Conspiracy in 1795 in which a slave revolt was planned against the Spanish, but was betrayed and aborted.
I’m sure their masters were happy to free their slaves after the abolition decree. They probably went right up to them and told them, “You’re free now! Go wherever you want!”
On second thought . …
In Haiti, they didn’t have to worry about that. The slaves had already freed themselves. The revolutionary government recognized the emancipation and for a time worked in concert with the slave leader Toussaint L’Ouverture. Napoleon attempted to restore slavery in 1802-03 and failed miserably, leading Toussaint’s successors (he had been captured) to declare independence and Napoleon to give up his dream of reasserting French control over Louisiana.
Wow. Have some historians contended that the Hatian independence movement, then, indirectly helped prevent a Napoleonic entanglement in what is now US territory (perhaps preventing, or at least delaying, its becoming exactly that?) Or is that a stretch (Napoleon would have avoided wasting energy in the Americas in any case?)
According to Crash Course (Raoul Meyer/John Green)… yeah. The successful Haitian rebellion (formally France’s richest colony) was instrumental in forcing Napoleon to give up the American colonies.
Merci!
Yeesh, I didn’t know that. Yet another reason to loathe him.
This might be of interest: http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=1121