Victor Schoelcher's Views on Race and Slavery
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This dissertation has been 65-13,290 microfilmed exactly as received W E L B O R N , Jr., Max, 1928- VICTOR SCHOELCHER'S VIEWS ON RACE AND SLAVERY. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1965 History, mo d e m University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan VICTOR SCHOELCHER'S VIEWS ON RACE AND SLAVERY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University Max Welbom, Jr., B.A., M.A. *♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ The Ohio State University 1965 Approved by Adviser Department of History ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the assistance rendered by the staffs of the following libraries: the RLbliotheque Nationale, BLbliotheque d'Outre-Mer and the Archives du Ministere des Colonies in Paris J The Ohio State University, Miami University, University of Cincinnati, Wilberforce College, and Cleveland Public Libraries in the United States. I should also acknowledge the valuable help offered me in Paris during the research phase of this dissertation by Professor Aaron Noland of the City College of New York, and by Miss Mary Storer, an American resident in Paris. Above all, I am indebted to tty adviser, Professor Robert H. Bremner of The Ohio State University, whose services in connection with this dissertation were of inestimable value. ii VITA October 12, I928 B o m - New York, New York 195 1............ B.A., Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 1952 ••••••• M.A., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I 9 5 7 . I 9 5 9 ........ Graduate Assistant, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1959-1961........ Assistant Professor, Department of History, Baylor University, Waco, Texas 1961-1962. .... Instructor, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1963-196........ 4 Instructor, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1964-196 5........ Instructor, Department of History, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Art History. Professors Frank Seiberling and Frank Ludden. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ........................... 1 Chapter I. SCHOELCHER*S EARLY ANTI-SLAVERY WRITINGS......... 7 II. THE MATURE ABOLITIONIST............................. 33 IH.THE SOCIOLOGIST OF RACE............................. 65 IV. SCHOELCHER AS A DEFENDER OF THE FREE BLACKS, PROLETARIANS, AND IMPERIALISM.................... 89 V. SCHOELCHER* S POSITION IN THE ANTI-SLAVERY SPECTRUM . 123 FOOTNOTES ......................................... 171 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................. 207 iv INTRODUCTION 2 Slavery was introduced in the French Caribbean possessions around 1 2 1640 and in Reunion some three decades later, to provide labor for trop ical plantations. It was sanctioned and subsidized by the French govern ment as early as 1670.^ Certain of slavery's worst features were regulated by the Code Noir of 1685 and it continued to enjoy official support until the Revolution of 1?89» There was, however, considerable anti-slavery agitation outside official circles among the ohilosophes. including Montesquieu and Condorcet, and among members of the Catholic hierarchy, notably Abbes Raynal. k In 1788, ah abolitionist society, the Amis des Noirs, was created which directed the campaign against the slave trade and slavery. Surviving until 1799» it numbered among its ranks many prominent Frenchmen— Condorcet, Necker, Lafayette and the Abbes Sieyes and Gregoire.^ Anti-slavery propaganda and agitation during the Revolution of '89 caused much unrest in the overseas colonies, with the Negro slaves dreaming of liberty and the free blacks of equality. Civil war developed when the white residents showed themselves opposed to any reforms. Hope lessly outnumbered, whites in Santo Domingo offered the island to England if she would maintain the old order. It was a desperate step, b o m of fear but savoring of treachery, which prompted the National Convention to abolish slavery on February 4, 1794,^ in the hope that this would win black support against British seizure. Shelby McCloy held that political motivations, rather than humanitarian considerations, patently lay behind g this notable step. 3 This first abolition decree was put into practice, however, only in Guadeloupe, Haiti and French Guiana, for the colonists of Reunion drove away the representatives of the National Convention who were sent to enforce it. Meanwhile, Martinique in 1793 had gone over to the British who preserved slavery during their nine-year rule on the island. Slavery in France’s overseas possessions was revived by Napoleon in May 1802. Gaston-Martin shed light on his reasons for doing so: The persistent troubles in the islands, LeClerc's difficul ties, his conflict with Toussaint-Louverture, the cries of the colonists who didn't stop attacking the government and continued to bribe ministerial functionaries or state ad visers, led the first consul to present (such a) project to the Corps Legislatif... The blacks of Guadeloupe fought valiantly against the Napoleonic expedition commanded by General Richespanse but were beaten. On Haiti it was another story, for LeClerc's army failed in its objective and the island proclaimed independence. Victor Hughes restored slavery rather quietly in Guiana. Slavery may have been restored but emancipationist sentiment still rode high. Many Frenchmen picked up the scattered threads of the cause in the 1830's. One of these was Victor Schoelcher, the hitherto obscure son of a Paris porcelain manufacturer. A series of letters by Schoelcher on Cuba, New Orleans, and Mexico appeared in the Revue de Paris for I83O. In the fifth, the author expressed his indignation over slavery, demanded that the illicit slave trade be sup pressed and made vague recommendations for emancipation after "fifteen or twenty years, if you (would). The letter for the most part was only an impassioned protest, for it contained few suggestions as to how to ac complish abolition. Schoelcher's first book, De l'Esclavage des Noirs et de la Legislation Coloniale (Paris 1833)» found him more at home with the subject for he was then able to submit a detailed scheme for eventual emancipation. Seven years later in his second book, Abolition de l'Es- clavage (Paris 1840), he revealed himself as an incisive analyst of race and slavery and an ardent champion of immediate emancipation. In the 1840's he completed four studies of slavery: Des Colonies Fran^alse: Abolition Immediate de l'Esclavage (Paris, 1841), Colonies Etrangeres et Haiti: Resultats de 1 1Emancipation Anglaise (Paris, 1842-3), L'Egypte en 1845 (Paris, 1846) and Histoire de l'Esclavage pendant les Deux Deraieres Annees (Paris, 1846-7). He was also writing in several journals (Reforme, Revue Independante among others), and was editing a number of anti-slavery petitions. Schoelcher was not alone in demanding immediate emancipation. In 11 the Chamber of Deputies, influential figures like Ledru-Rollin argued in its behalf, using Schoelcher*s articles and petitions. A number of depart mental councils petitioned in the 1830's and 1840's for emancipation. They were at times guided by altruistic motives, but in other cases, their requests were based on economic reasons, for they represented beet sugar interests which reasoned that emancipation would ruin their cane sugar 12 competition in the colonies. But Schoelcher and those favoring immediate emancipation were out side the mainstream of the contemporary French anti-slavery movement. The bulk of the anti-slavery forces— led by the Due de Broglie and Alexis de 13 Tocqueville— favored gradual elimination of slavery. They contended that legislation had to be enacted to prepare the slaves for freedom and that it was necessary to avoid too abrupt a transition to a new society. A survey of colonial legislation enacted by the Chamber in the 30* s and especially in the 40's discloses many measures designed to ameliorate the 5 slaves' lot and to insure their better understanding of the duties as well as the joys of liberty when this might come. Whether the assaults came from moderates like Broglie or "radicals" such as Schoelcher, all were badly received in the colonies. The planters had been in difficult straits for years. The economies of French Caribbean possessions had suffered general decline since the Seven Years' War, and a resurgence of the beet sugar industry in the 1830's (aided by governmental support) worsened their lot. Like members of any deteriorating society accused of being retrogade, they reacted in a highly emotional way. The sessions of the General Councils of Martinique, Guadeloupe and Reunion given over to the discussions of the ameliorative laws handed down from Paris in the 1840's varied between vehement opposition, self-pity and martyr- like resignation. Martyr-like resignation? Yes, because requests for abolition came from Guiana and Guadeloupe during this same period.^ They were, in both cases, to be accompanied by indemnities for the masters, and periods of forced labor following the end of bondage. Clearly, slavery was crumbling and one might suspect that it would simply have vanished during the liberal tide of 1848. So it did, but not without crucial aid from Victor Schoelcher. The colonies and their allies, the French ports— notably Nantes and Bordeaux— which had close economic relationships with the Antilles, made one final attempt to avert emanci pation. The colonial delegates in Paris— Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Reunion each supported two salaried agents or lobbyists— put pressure on Frantjois Arago, the New Minister of the Navy, to postpone any govern mental settlement of the slavery issue. Arago, more at home in the realm of astronony than politics, much less colonial affairs, nearly acceded to their fervent urgings. But Schoelcher, who arrived in Paris on March 4-, 6 soon changed Arago*s mind. He stressed the necessity for an act granting emancipation after a brief delay. In the interim period, Schoelcher, appointed by Arago as Assistant Secretary of State of the Colonies, pre sided over the Commission institute pour preparer l'acte d* abolition im mediate de l'esclavage.