Browse Primary Sources
Locate primary sources, including images, objects, media, and texts. Annotations by scholars contextualize sources.
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
The African born enslaved people brought with them to Haiti their African rituals and customs, but the white planters also tried to get them to accept French manners and mores. This description written by Moreau de Saint–Méry demonstrates how whites had a deal of great curiosity about all parts of these Africans’ lives while also maintaining a pose of cultural superiority.
The Maroons
In this passage, Moreau de Saint–Méry explains that runaways in Haiti, known as Maroons, are and have always been a persistent problem and details the tremendous efforts put into retrieving the runaways. Despite this effort, some Maroons survived and thereby regained their freedom.
That Seductive Mulatto Woman
Moreau de Saint–Méry painted a particularly negative portrait of mulatto women in Haiti. He paints Creole women as unduly promiscuous and a threat to morals and decency.
Voodoo
Among the African rituals and customs described by Moreau de Saint–Méry, none terrified white planters in Haiti more than the practice of voodoo. His description of the rituals associated with voodoo and the hold it had on the minds of the enslaved people demonstrates both his fascination with the topic and the importance he attached to it.
SAINT DOMINGUE: THE FREEDMEN
As many as two–thirds of the enslaved people in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) in 1789 had been born in Africa, but by that time a significant number of Africans or children of Africans had become free. Here Moreau de Saint–Méry details the origins of this pivotal group.
Saint Domingue: Some Geography
Here Moreau de Saint–Méry describes the topography and peoples of the French part of the island of Haiti, providing some important basic knowledge which he expands upon in subsequent passages
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].
BRUMAIRE: BONAPARTE’S JUSTIFICATION
Having seized power through the coup of 18 Brumaire [9 November 1799], Bonaparte—now First Consul—set out to win public support for yet another new government. His first public pronouncement was the proclamation reprinted below, in which he claims he had acted to defend liberty and the republic against internal enemies.
CIRCULAR ON ELECTIONS
A former playwright and old regime colonial official, Nicolas–Louis François de Neufchâteau, twice Minister of the Interior under the Directory, here outlines the importance of elections for the Directory.