Slavery in France

Saint Bathild

Miniature depiction of Louis X from the Life of Saint Louis, c. 1330–1340

A frontispiece of the Code Noir, from the 1742 edition.

A contemporary French illustration commemorating the Law of 4 February 1794

Alphonse Garreau.- L’Emancipation à la Réunion le 20 octobre 1848

Proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies, 27 April 1848, 1849, by François Auguste Biard, Palace of Versailles

Slavery in France, and by extension, the French Empire, covers a wide range of disparate topics.

During the Middle ages, chattel slavery was legal in France itself. In the early Merovingian middle ages, there was a trade in slaves from the British Isles to France. In the Frankish middle ages, France served as a middle station in the saqaliba slave trade of Pagan slaves from Northeastern Europe to al-Andalus in the Southwest, which were transported from Prague to the Caliphate of Cordoba via France.

Chattel slavery in France was abolished in the 1310s. While chattel slavery was never again made legal in France itself, it was later allowed in the French colonies from the 17th century. During the French colonial empire, slavery was legal in the colonies while remaining banned in France itself. This was a common parallel system used in many European countries at the time. In 1793, slavery was abolished in the French colonies. Slavery was reintroduced in the colonies in 1802, and finally abolished in 1848.

Slavery in France

Slavery in Merovingian France

Main article: Slavery in Merovingian France

See also: Merovingian France, List of French monarchs, and List of Frankish kings

In 486, Clovis I, the son of Childeric, defeated Syagrius, a Roman military leader who competed with the Merovingians for power in northern France. Like the Roman empire before them, the Merovingians used slavery.

Slavery in Merovingian France included several Frankish queens in the Merovingian dynasty who had formerly been slaves. Only five slave queens have been identified in Merovingian France, though there may have been more: Ingund, Fredegund, Bilichild, Nanthild, and Balthild. Slavery continued during the Carolingian Empire.

Slave trade

See also: History of slavery in the Muslim world, Saqaliba, and Kievan Rus' slave trade

Between the 8th and the 11th-century, France played an important role as the middleman in the Prague slave trade with saqaliba slaves (Pagan Slavs) to from North East Europe to slavery in al-Andalus in the Southwest.

In Western Europe, a major slave trade route went from Prague in Central Europe via France to Moorish al-Andalus, which was both a destination for the slaves as well as center of slave trade to the rest of the Muslim world in the Middle East. Prague in the Duchy of Bohemia, which was a recently Christianized state in the early 10th century, became a major center of the European slave trade in between the 9th and the 11th century. The revenue from the Prague slave trade has been named as one of the economic foundations of the Bohemian state, financing the armies necessary to form a centralized state, which was not uncommon for the new Christian state in Eastern Europe.

The Duchy of Bohemia was a state in a religious border zone, bordering Pagan Slavic lands to the north, east and southeast. In the Middle ages, religion was the determining factor in who was considered a legitimate target for enslavement. Christians prohibited Christians from enslaving other Christians, and Muslims prohibited Muslims from enslaving other Muslims; however, both approved of the enslavement of Pagans, who thereby became a lucrative target for slave traders.

The Pagan Slavic tribes of Central and Eastern Europe were targeted for slavery by several actors in the frequent military expeditions and raids alongside their lands. During the military campaigns of Charlemagne and his successor in the 9th century, Pagan Slavs were captured and sold by the Christian Franks along the Danube-Elbe rivers. By the mid-10th century, Prague had become a big center of the slave trade in Slavic Pagans to al-Andalus via France.

The slaves sold by the Vikings via the Eastern route could be Christian Western Europeans, but the slaves provided by the Vikings to the slave route of Prague-Magdeburg-Verdun were Pagan Slavs, who in contrast to Christians were legitimate for other Christians to enslave and sell as slaves to Muslims; according to Liutprand of Cremona, these slaves were trafficked to slavery in al-Andalus via Verdun, where some of them were selected to undergo castration to become eunuchs for the Muslim slave market in al-Andalus.

The slaves were transported from Prague to Al-Andalus via France. While the church discouraged the sale of Christian slaves to Muslims, the sale of Pagans to Muslims was not met with such opposition. Louis the Fair granted his permission to Jewish merchants to traffick slaves through his Kingdom provided they were non-baptized Pagans.

The saqaliba slave trade from Prague to al-Andalus via France lost its religious legitimacy and ended when the pagan Slavs of the north started to gradually adopt Christianity from the late 10th century, which made them out of bounds for Christian Bohemia to enslave and sell to Muslim al-Andalus. The Prague slave trade was not able to legitimately supply their slave pool after the Slavs gradually adopted Christianity from the late 10th century onward.

Abolition of slavery and serfdom in France

See also: Serfdom in France and Abolitionism

In 1198, the Trinitarians were founded by John of Matha with the purpose of ransoming war captive Christians by Muslims during the Crusades. King Louis IX installed a house of their order at his château of Fontainebleau. He chose Trinitarians as his chaplains, and was accompanied by them on his crusades. The Master of the Trinity was taken captive together with Saint Louis after the Battle of Mansurah.

In 1315, King Louis X passed a decree that abolished slavery and proclaimed that "France signifies freedom". The decree entailed that any slave setting foot on French ground should be freed. However some limited cases of slavery continued until the 17th century in some of France's Mediterranean harbors in Provence, and slavery was common in many of France's overseas territories until the 18th century and again for the first half of the 19th century.

Most aspects of serfdom were also de facto eliminated between 1315 and 1318. Louis X died two years after these events.

In 1318, King Philip V abolished serfdom in his domain.

Slavery in the French colonies

See also: French colonial empire and List of French possessions and colonies

The French colonial empire practiced slavery in its colonies. Slavery was essential to cheaply extract raw materials and scale large agricultural cultivation. In the mid-16th century, enslaved people were trafficked from Africa to the Caribbean by European mercantilists. Nor were New France, Louisiana, or French African colonies immune.

The French West India Company developed tobacco plantations in French colonies. The company had a monopoly on the slave trade from Senegal, which since 1658, belonged to the Company of Cape Verde and Senegal. The slave trade continued under the operation of the Compagnie du Sénégal from 1658 to 1709. The company traded slaves with the Hausa Kingdoms, Mali, and the Moors in Mauritania.

As of 1778, the French were trafficking approximately 13,000 African people as slaves to the French West Indies each year. Slavery was abolished by the revolutionary convention of 1794.

Slavery in New France

Main article: Slavery in New France

Slavery was practiced by the French North American colony of New France (covering part of modern Canada). By 1750, two thirds of the enslaved peoples in New France were indigenous, but by 1834, most enslaved people were black.

Slave trade

Main article: Atlantic slave trade

The city of Nantes played a main role in the slave trade.

Code Noir

Main article: Code Noir

In 1685, King Louis XIV passed the decree known as Code Noir (French pronunciation: [kɔd nwaʁ], Black Code). The code defined the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire.

Abolition of slavery in the French colonies

The Society of the Friends of the Blacks was founded in Paris in 1788, and remained active until 1793, during the midst of the French Revolution. It was led by Jacques Pierre Brissot, who frequently received advice from British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, who led the abolitionist movement in Great Britain. At the beginning of 1789, the Society had 141 members.

The second general abolition of slavery took place on 4 February 1794, when slavery was abolished in all French territories and possessions, during the convention, the first elected Assembly of the First Republic (1792–1804), under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre, abolished slavery in law in France and its colonies. Abbé Grégoire and the Society of the Friends of the Blacks were part of the abolitionist movement, which had laid important groundwork in building anti-slavery sentiment in the metropole. The first article of the law stated that "Slavery was abolished" in the French colonies, while the second article stated that "slave-owners would be indemnified" with financial compensation for the value of their slaves. The French constitution passed in 1795 included a declaration of the rights of man, which abolishes slavery.

Re-introduction of slavery in the French colonies in 1802

Napoleon re-introduced slavery in sugarcane-growing colonies through the Law of 20 May 1802. Slavery would be legal in French colonies until 1847.

Second end of slavery in the French colonies

Main article: End of slavery in France

In 1815, the Congress of Vienna declared its opposition to the slave trade. In 1818, the slave trade was banned in France. On July 18–19, 1845, the Mackau Laws were passed, which paved the way towards the abolition of slavery in France.

On April 27, 1848, the Proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies was made. The effective abolition was enacted with the Decree abolishing Slavery of 27 April 1848.

The island of Martinique was the first French overseas colony where the decree actually came into force, on 23 May 1848.

Gabon was founded as a settlement for emancipated slaves.

The abolition wasn't strictly putted in place. Several french territories kept practicing slavery until 1904 as it is the case in Senegal or 1894 in Soudan.

Modern day

Main article: Slavery in the 21st century

• In 1890, took place the Brussels Conference Act – a collection of anti-slavery measures to put an end to the slave trade on land and sea, especially in the Congo Basin, the Ottoman Empire, and the East African coast.
• In 1904, the International Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic was signed in Paris. Only France, the Netherlands and Russia extend the treaty to the whole extent of their colonial empires with immediate effect.
• In 1926, the Slavery Convention is ratified by France and other nations.

Even though slavery has been prohibited for more than one century, many criminal organizations continue to practice human trafficking and the slave trade. For this reason, on 25 July 2013, France recognized modern-day slavery as a crime punishable by up to 30 years in jail.

Memorial Associations

See French public institution Fondation pour la mémoire de l'esclavage in French (originally founded on 5 janvier 2004 under the name Comité national pour la mémoire et l'histoire de l'esclavage i.e National Committee for the Memory and the History of slavery).

A permanent structure in June 1999, known as “Le Comité marche ‘98” (The March ’98 Committee) has been created with the objectives to promote processes of recognition and reparation about the past actions of the French government on the issue of slavery in its former colonies. The second aim of the organization is also to preserve the memory of the abolition .

This association was initially chaired by Serge Romana, a geneticist and leading activist for the recognition of the history of Guadeloupean slavery. A first step in the achievement of the committee’s objectives came with the Taubira Law of 10 May 2001. This law recognizes slavery as a crime against humanity. A second crucial step was taken with the adoption of the Overseas Real Equality Act of 14 February 2017, which established 23 May as the commemorative date for the victims of colonial slavery. The association continues to promote annual commemorations known as “Feasts of Brotherhood and Reconciliation” or “Limié Ba Yo” (which translates as “Let’s put them in the spotlight”) every year on 23 May.

See also

• Slavery in the British and French Caribbean
• Slavery in the United States
• Slavery in Haiti
• Affranchi
• Race in France
• Slavery museum (France)