French Views of Slavery during the Enlightenment

French Views of striverry\n\nThe issue of slaveholding has been fey upon often in the configuration of history. The institution of slavery was turn to by French intellectuals during the Enlightenment. Later, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly issued the resolving of the Rights of Man, which declared the equality of exclusively told men. Issues were raised concerning the application of this affirmation to the French colonies in the due west Indies, which used slaves to cash in ones chips the land. As they had different interests in mind, the philosophes, slave owners, and political leaders took argue contemplates on the interpretation of ecumenic equality. Many of the philosophes, the leaders of the Enlightenment, were against slavery. They held that all plenty had a natural dignity that should be recognized. Voltaire, an eighteenth century philosophe, pointed out that hundreds of thousands of slaves were sacrificing their lives save so the Europeans could quell their peeled taste for sugar, tea and cocoa. A similar view was taken by Rousseau, who stated that he could not bear to scout his fellow human beings be changed to beasts for the service of others. Religion entered into the compare when Diderot, author of the Encyclopedia, brought up the situation that the Christian religion was essentially opposed to Black slavery but employed it at any rate in order to march the plantations that financed their countries. All in all, those influenced by the rootls of the Enlightenment, equality, liberty, the right to dignity, tended to oppose the idea of slavery. Differing from the philosophes, the political leaders and station owners tended to see slavery as an element that die harded the economy. These pack believed that if slavery and the slave clientele were to be abolished, the French would recidivate their colonies, commerce would collapse and as a result the merchandiser marine, agriculture and the arts would decli ne. Their worries were slimly merited; by 1792 French ships were delivering up to 38,000 slaves and this trade brought in 200 million livres a year. These people had economic incentives to support slavery, however others were simply ignorant. integrity man, Raynal, said that white people were incapable of working in the hot sun and blacks were a great deal better suited to prod and labor in the importunate heat. Having a similar view to Raynal, one property owner stated that tearing the blacks from the completely homes they knew was actually humane. Though they had to work without...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website:

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