Browse Primary Sources
Locate primary sources, including images, objects, media, and texts. Annotations by scholars contextualize sources.
Declaration of the Independence of the Blacks of St. Domingo
This important and revealing document evokes both the contemporary situation in the colonies and the political developments taking place in Paris. It comes from Marcus Rainsford’s supportive account of the Haitian Revolution.
Discontent Spreads from An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti
Rainsford wrote one of the first favorable accounts of the Haitian Revolution. He blamed the colonists for refusing to alter the slave system. Our excerpts begin with reactions to the revolution in mainland France in 1789 and continue through the death in prison in France of Toussaint L’Ouverture in 1803.
A Female Writer’s Response to the American Champion or a Well–Known Colonist
Better known for her defense of the rights of women, Olympe de Gouges defended the rights of the downtrodden in general. Here she points out the cruelty of slavery and expresses the hope that the slave trade will be abandoned.
A Left–Wing Newspaper Continues the Attack on Slavery (October 1790)
In this article, the influential newspaper The Revolutions of Paris asks if Africans and their descendants are "Born to Slavery?" as part of a general consideration of the situation in the French colonies.
A Left–Wing Newspaper Links the Revolution to the Abolition of Slavery (September 1790)
During the explosion of newspaper publishing after 1789, the Revolutions of Paris consistently supported radical positions, including the abolition of slavery in articles like this one entitled "No Color Bar."
Abbé Grégoire, "Memoir in Favor of the People of Color or Mixed–Race of Saint Domingue" (1789)
Baptiste–Henri Grégoire was a parish priest who was elected to the National Assembly by the clergy of Lorraine. He championed the rights of minorities both before the Revolution and in the legislature. The most noted beneficiaries of his attention were Jews and free blacks.
Viefville des Essars, On the Emancipation of the Negroes (1790)
This project to free enslaved people in the French colonies was presented to the National Assembly. The defensive tone and rhetorical structure that emerge in the course of this document demonstrate the power of the interests opposed to even cautious steps toward emancipation.
Roster of Membership in the Society of Friends of Blacks, 1789
Jacques Brissot founded the Society of the Friends of Blacks in 1788 to agitate against the slave trade and slavery itself. Brissot modeled the Society on the London Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade established in 1787. He hoped that the groups might cooperate in an international effort to eliminate the slave trade.
Grievance List (September 1789)
The Haitian free blacks and creoles, many of them substantial property owners and slaveholders, sent delegates to the National Assembly in France with a list of their stated grievances and demands.
The Coffee Planter of Saint Domingo (London, 1798)
Here Pierre Joseph Laborie provides the perspective of the planter. He gives a detailed description of the organization of enslaved labor in the production of coffee. Although he shared quite negative views of the African enslaved people, he was candid about the extreme brutality that they faced and admitted that it diminished their capacity to work.
The Slaves from Africa
Born in 1750, Mederic-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Mery grew up in Fort Royal, Martinique as a white Creole and studied law in Paris, France. Moreau was a lawyer, philosopher, and Enlightenment polymath but is also remembered for his proslavery theories and writings that circulated in American and European countries.
The Maroons
Born in 1750, Mederic-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Mery grew up in Fort Royal, Martinique as a white Creole and studied law in Paris, France. Moreau was a lawyer, philosopher, and Enlightenment polymath but is also remembered for his proslavery theories and writings that circulated in American and European countries.
That Seductive Mulatto Woman
Born in 1750, Mederic-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Mery grew up in Fort Royal, Martinique as a white Creole and studied law in Paris, France. Moreau was a lawyer, philosopher, and Enlightenment polymath but is also remembered for his proslavery theories and writings that circulated in American and European countries.
Voodoo
Born in 1750, Mederic-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Mery grew up in Fort Royal, Martinique as a white Creole and studied law in Paris, France. Moreau was a lawyer, philosopher, and Enlightenment polymath but is also remembered for his proslavery theories and writings that circulated in American and European countries.
SAINT DOMINGUE: THE FREEDMEN
Born in 1750, Mederic-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Mery grew up in Fort Royal, Martinique as a white Creole and studied law in Paris, France. Moreau was a lawyer, philosopher, and Enlightenment polymath but is also remembered for his proslavery theories and writings that circulated in American and European countries.
Saint Domingue: Some Geography
Born in 1750, Mederic-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Mery grew up in Fort Royal, Martinique as a white Creole and studied law in Paris, France. Moreau was a lawyer, philosopher, and Enlightenment polymath but is also remembered for his proslavery theories and writings that circulated in American and European countries.
THE CODE NOIR (THE BLACK CODE)
The Code noir initially took shape in Louis XIV’s edict of 1685. Although subsequent decrees modified a few of the code’s provisions, this first document established the main lines for the policing of slavery right up to 1789.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
During the period of revolutionary government, the Jacobins had introduced the idea of universal, free, secular education provided by the state.
CULTURE: WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
Among its many lasting contributions to French and western history, the French Revolution initiated the metric system as a more rational and universally applicable way of conveying weights and measures than the various systems in place across France prior to 1789.
THE COUNCIL OF FIVE–HUNDRED CONCURS
The Council of Five–Hundred, the lower house of the legislature under the Directory’s constitution, put up only token resistance to the coup of 18 Brumaire [9 November 1799].