The First Emancipation: The Forgotten History of Abolition in Revolutionary France

A new history of slavery and the French Revolution

When the French revolutionaries passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in 1789, they immediately faced a burning question: did that document's first article-"Men are born and remain free and equal in rights"-apply to the 800,000 enslaved Black people in the country's colonies? Over the next dozen years, revolutionary leaders fought over this question.The First Emancipationtells how French lawmakers initially protected slaver...