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A Messieurs les Auteurs des Révolutions de Paris

Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Letter Journal Revolution Paris Slave Trade Response Mosneron l'Aunay

Written on 25 January 1790, this letter by French revolutionary Abbé Fauchet responds to an article applauding the defence of the slave trade to the British Parliament, which was published by Mosneron de l'Aunay in the Journal de Paris's January supplement. Fauchet is radically critical of both colonial plantation owners (whom he accuses of "infernal anthopophagism" (41) against their fellow men), and of European slave ports profiting from the trade. He attempts to divide the business interests of a minority from French public opinion as a whole, which he argues "only wishes to see liberty become widespread" (43). He proclaims a new "code français" based on international fraternity, which will replace the old "code noir" (43).

Letter published in the weekly journal of the revolution edited by Louis-Marie Prudhomme, Révolutions de Paris, Dédiées à la Nation, No. 29 (January 1790), 41-43. Cites Abbé Sibire, L'Aristocratie Négrière (Paris: Lesclapart, Desray, 1789). See also Thomas Clarkson's response to the same article by Mosneron de l'Aunay: Lettre aux auteurs du Journal de Paris (Paris: V-ve Hérissant, 1790).