Paris. The Convention abolishes slavery.

“Levasseur of the Sarthe rose and said: I ask that the Convention, yielding not to a movement of enthusiasm but to the principles of justice, faithful to the Declaration of the Rights of Man, decree from this moment that slavery is abolished throughout the territory of the Republic. Saint-Domingue is part of that territory, and yet we have slaves in Saint-Domingue. I ask therefore that all men be free without distinction of color.”

Lacroix of Eure-et-Loir: “In working on the constitution of the French people we did not turn our eyes upon the unhappy men of color. Posterity will have a great reproach to make us on that score; but we must repair this wrong. In vain have we decreed that no feudal due shall be levied in the French Republic. You have just heard one of our colleagues say that there are still slaves in our colonies. It is time to rise to the height of the principles of liberty and equality. It is idle to say that we recognize no slaves in France; is it not true that the men of color are slaves in our colonies? * Let us proclaim the liberty of the men of color. In performing this act of justice you give a great example to the men of color who are slaves in the English and Spanish colonies. The men of color, like us, have sought to break their chains; we have broken ours; we would submit to the yoke of no master; let us grant them the same blessing.”

Levasseur: “If it were possible to set before the eyes of the Convention the heartrending picture of the evils of slavery, I would make it shudder at the aristocracy exercised in our colonies by a few whites.”

Lacroix: “President, do not suffer the Convention to dishonor itself by a longer discussion.

The Assembly rises by acclamation.

The President pronounces the abolition of slavery amid applause and cries a thousand times repeated of Long live the Republic! Long live the Convention! Long live the Mountain!