Jacques-Pierre Brissot And The French Revolution

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The word revolution can be defined as a sudden, radical, or complete change. The French Revolution was a period of social and political upheaval in France 1789 to 1799. The revolution marked the decline of monarchy and the rise of democracy. One of the more important documents to rise out of this democracy was Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Within this document contains the words “that all men are born free and equal in rights” (Hunt, et al, 641). The revolution did not just affect continental France it also had an affect on France’s Caribbean colonies, where the use of slaves was integral to the revenue that was being generated from those colonies. Leaders of the French Revolution, specifically the Society of the Friends of Blacks, pushed the abolition of the slave trade. Their address in a pamphlet written in February of 1790 on the abolishing of the slave trade reveals that they did not support abolishing slavery altogether just the abolition of the actual slave trade itself.
The Society of the Friends of Blacks was a group of French men and women who were abolitionist during the French Revolution era. They were founded in 1788 in Paris and remained in existence until 1793. Jacques-Pierre Brissot led the society. During his tenure Brissot received advice from the head of the abolitionist movement, Thomas Clarkson, in the Kingdom of Great Britain. Brissot undertook the initial formation of the Society. Brissot was a follower of the philosophes and his anti-slavery efforts were due to his exposure to the humanitarian efforts on both sides of the Atlantic. While in the United States he took a particular interest in Thomas Jefferson’s humanitarian nature. Additionally, he spent time in Engl...

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... means to pacify the colonists to get them to see that they did not need to keep recruiting blacks in Africa. Additionally, the pamphlet addresses that if the inhumane treatment of the slaves were to persist then the slaves would grow tired and push them towards an insurrection. A prospect that came true when in 1791 there was a slave revolt in St. Domingue.
The effort of the Society of the Friends of Blacks was a just cause because they fought for the abolition of the slave trade in France. How truly influential their methods were in this fight for the abolition of the slave trade can be argued, however, what cannot be argued is that they at least brought attention to this matter. The pamphlet addressing the slave trade was a way for them to address the issue and to offer a warning that if matters did not change a slave revolt would happen.

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