The abolition of salvery

The abolition of slavery

One of the most revolutionary social reforms of the jacobin regime was the abolition of salvery in the French colonies. The colonies in the Caribbean-martinique, Guadeloupe and San domingo-were important suppliers of commodities such as tobacco, indigo, sugar and coffee. But the reluctance of Europeans to go and work in distant and unfamiliar land meant a shortage of labour on the plantations.

 So this was met by a triangular slave trade between Europe, Africa and the America. The slave trade began in the seventeenth century, French merchants sailed from the parts of Bordeaux or Nantes to the African coast, where they bought slaves from local chieftains. Branded and shackled, the slaves were packed tightly into ships for the three-month long voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. There they were sold to plantation owners. The exploitation of slave labour made it possible to meet the growing demand in European markets for sugar, coffee and indigo. Port cities like Bordeaux and Nantes owned their economic prosperity to the flourishing slave trade.

The abolition of salvery

Throughout the eighteenth century there was little criticism of salvery in france. The national assembly held long debates about whether the rights of man should be extended to all France subject including those in the colonies. But it did not passed law freely. Due to the big businessman those house run. Out through salvery . It was finally the convention which in 1794 legislated to free all slaves in the France overseas possession. But after ten years, slaves trade comes back. Plantation owners understood their freedom as including the right of enslave African negroes in pursuit of their economic Interests. Slavery was finally abolished in 1848.

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