Slavery During The Enlightenment And French Revolution

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Slavery During the Enlightenment and French Revolution During the Enlightenment and French Revolution, the National Assembly, the government that took over France during the French Revolution, wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which stated, "All men are born and remain free and equal in rights." People living in France and in the colonies of France started to wonder if that applied to the slaves in the West Indies. Although many consider slavery to be simply a social issue the enlightenment and French Revolution shows that this issue goes far beyond morality. Despite being thought of as morally unjust, the philosophers, slave owners, and political leaders, whose thoughts once contradicted each other, had to agree that slavery was a necessary evil if the economy was to prosper. Despite the fact that slavery allowed white aristocrats to maintain power while fattening their wallets the thought of the enslavement of another human being caused Enlightened France to fight over their freedom of these people, even though it would hurt the economy, social, and political order of France. If slavery ended in Europe during this period, the economy would have no doubt been damaged in these nations. According to a report made by Antonie Barnave to the National Assembly’s Committee on the Colonies, he thought that if slaves received freedom then there would have been economic shock. Barnave even thought that slaves should eventually have freedom, but he also thought at the same time if the National Assembly were to give them that now then France would no doubt be hurt economically. This document is not biased, but Barnave’s point of view. This is because he wanted to show that he was for change of slaves, but that they should ease out of it so that the economy would not be hurt. (14) Another person who had the mentality of not freeing slaves was Denis

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