Decree sets final rules for colonial indemnities

On 10 June 1848, Commissioner-General André-Aimé Pariset proclaimed the abolition decree in French Guiana. The proclamation made the decree public in the colony; it did not mean emancipation took...

On 10 August 1848, the April abolition decree took legal effect in French Guiana, freeing people still enslaved under colonial law. About 12,943 people were recorded as enslaved in the colony in 1847....

On 10 August 1848, abolition took legal effect in French Guiana. In the following years, many formerly enslaved people left plantations. Historical research records some establishing small...

Article 6 of the Constitution of the Second Republic states that slavery cannot exist on any French territory. The constitutional guarantee followed emancipation in French Guiana and made abolition...

A law provides indemnities to colonial owners after abolition. The state compensated former enslavers for the loss of people it had treated as property; formerly enslaved people received no equivalent...

A national law provides for colonial banks, including a bank in French Guiana. The scheme was tied to the post-emancipation economy and was discussed as a possible source of credit for freedpeople...

The 1851 colonial-bank law is promulgated in French Guiana. Although proponents described colonial banks as a possible source of loans for new freedpeople to acquire land, the banking framework also...

A decree governs immigration, work contracts, rural policing, and the punishment of “vagrancy” in the colonies. In the post-emancipation setting, rules tying legal status and mobility to work made...

A second decree organizes recruitment, transport, arrival, and repatriation for workers sent to French colonies. On paper it required informed consent and set rules for voyages and contracts. In...

Local order no. 398 establishes prisons and disciplinary workshops for workers sanctioned under the 13 February decree. It allowed those sentenced to perform labor and, in specified circumstances,...