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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2022

Vulnerability beyond Revolutions: Rural Workers, Former Slaves and Indentured Migrants in the French Empire

Résumé

In 1834, a society for the abolition of slavery, connected to the British associations, was created in Paris. Led by Duke Victor de Broglie, the French society encouraged legislative reforms, manumission and limited recognition of civil rights for gens de couleurs. 1 Several pamphlets and studies produced by parliamentary commissions summarised the longstanding debate over the comparative efficiency of wage labour versus slavery. 2 Contrasting estimates were produced, with some claiming the profitability of slavery and others challenging it. At the same time, new considerations arose: the profitability of slavery was said to be demonstrable only for the individual planter, but not for the "nation." Two main positions emerged; for some, slavery was an ethical and religious affair more than an economic issue. In response to this argument, anti-abolitionists replied that Africans would suffer famine if left in Africa; slavery was openly declared to be a humanitarian project. In 1838, a new commission was set up, chaired by Alexis de Tocqueville; he produced a final report, using an enormous amount of statistical data to establish the need for immediate emancipation. Tocqueville justified this conclusion by pointing out that gradual emancipation would require special rules for a particular group of labouring people, with the attendant risk of social tensions. Instead, a general emancipation would simplify the issue. Tocqueville added some ordinary considerations about slaves' lack of motivation and low productivity. He also criticised the British solution of an apprenticeship period, which he saw as the source of undue abuses by planters and thus of social conflict. 3 In 1842, Victor Schoelcher submitted a detailed plan for abolition in which he assigned a central role to the "association principle," allowing groups of freed slaves to form an association with their former masters and share the profits. 4 In 1843, the De Broglie Commission finally published three volumes of its minutes and criticised the idea of ownership of slaves as a natural right. This was acceptable for other kinds of property, but not for human beings. But it also added a new insight: the need for the strict regulation of free labour: once freed, former slaves had to be put under surveillance and strictly regulated. In the end, the Commission opposed immediate abolition and suggested two alternative, gradual forms of emancipation, one that would take place over ten years, and another that would take place over twenty years. Opinions were also divided over the amount of compensation owed to slave owners and who should pay it. 5 In response, Schoelcher and the other abolitionist leaders intensified their action. In 1844-1845, they gained the support 1 "Gens de couleurs" was the term used for all free non-whites, that is, former slaves or non-whites born as free.

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halshs-04301014 , version 1 (22-11-2023)

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  • HAL Id : halshs-04301014 , version 1

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Alessandro Stanziani. Vulnerability beyond Revolutions: Rural Workers, Former Slaves and Indentured Migrants in the French Empire. Rolf Bauer, Global Agricultural Workers from the 17th to the 21st century, Leiden, Brill, Brill, pp.359-383, 2022, 978-90-04-52942-7. ⟨halshs-04301014⟩

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