1794 - Human Rights, Social Justice

Human Rights, Social Justice

France's Convention frees slaves in all French colonies February 4, making France the first nation to emancipate her slaves (but see Bonaparte, 1802). Officials at Mauritius (the Ile de France) in the Pacific ignore the Convention's declaration. Slaves in the colony of Saint Domingue on Hispaniola rise in protest against a new Code Rural that bars peasant laborers from leaving their plantations, entering the towns, or starting farms or shops of their own (see Sonthonax, 1793). The French authorities establish a constabulary to enforce the new code, but Pierre Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture (originally François Dominique Toussaint), 51, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, 36, and Henri Christophe, 27, lead nearly 500,000 blacks and mulattoes against the colonial government. Saint Domingue has about 40,000 white Frenchmen and accounts for one-third of France's commerce, producing nearly two-thirds of the world's coffee, nearly half its sugar, and much of its cotton, indigo, and cocoa (see politics, 1802).

Congress votes March 22 to forbid U.S. citizens to participate in the slave trade with foreign nations. Providence merchant Moses Brown has long since freed his own slaves, as have some other members of the family, and has taken a leading role in pushing the Slave Trade Act, but the new law has little popular support; Brown's brother John has been engaged in the triangular trade since 1764 and will disregard the prohibition (see 1797).

English abolitionist Thomas Clarkson issues a pamphlet urging suppression of slavery.

France's Law of 22 Prairial inaugurates the Great Terror. Enacted June 10, it forbids represenation by defense attorneys, provides for no preliminary questioning of defendants or witnesses if the revolutionary tribunal says it has enough factual or "moral" proof, allows juries to convict without hearing evidence or argument, and gives juries no choice other than to acquit or condemn to death. Some 2,639 people are taken in tumbrils to the guillotine at Paris during June and July, inflaming opposition to Robespierre, new prisons are opened to accommodate more than 8,000 suspects at Paris, and at least 3,548 are guillotined in the Loire Valley.