📅 4 April 1792
France enacted a law granting equal political rights to free men of color in its colonies. It addressed neither the legal status of enslaved people nor the fundamental power of plantation owners. In...
📅 26 August 1789
The declaration proclaimed universal rights but left colonial slavery unresolved. Free people of color and enslaved people in the colonies contested the limits of French revolutionary citizenship,...
📅 26 August 1789
France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaimed liberty and equality as universal principles, but colonial slavery and racial hierarchy remained in place. Enslaved people, free...
📅 15 May 1791
The French National Assembly voted to extend political rights to free men of color born to free parents. The measure did not emancipate enslaved people and excluded many free people of color whose...
📅 30 April 1849
The law fixed compensation for colonial owners after abolition. It converted enslaved people’s freedom into a public financial liability to former owners, while the newly emancipated received no...
