"THERE ARE NO SLAVES IN FRANCE": A RE-EXAMINATION OF SLAVE LAWS IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FRANCE.

Samuel L. Chatman [*]

The French held tightly to the maxim that "There are no slaves in France." This maxim is a potent element of the French national ideology and serves to foster a romanticized view of racial egalitarianism in French society. Indeed, the maxim predates France's involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. The maxim was thriving at least two hundred years before the phrase "Liberte, egalite, fratenite" was shouted in the 1789 French Revolution. This paper sets out to show how, in law, the "Freedom Principle" for African peoples was eroded in eighteenth century France during a period when France was developing a radical new political discourse based on ...

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