The forgotten story of abolition in revolutionary France – the first emancipation

Decades before the United States, France outlawed slavery during the French Revolution – only to see it reimposed by Napoleon within a decade.

By: Jeremy D. Popkin, University of Kentucky, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: May 28, 2026

Words: 1,442

Last Updated: 1 month, 4 weeks ago

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By Jeremy D. Popkin, University of Kentucky

On Aug. 21, 1789, just a month after the storming of the Bastille that launched the French Revolution, France’s new governing body, the National Assembly, approved the first article of its historic Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

The French document proclaimed that “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights,” echoing the most famous line of the American Declaration of Independence …

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