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Reglemens de la Société des Amis des Noirs

Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature, University of London.

Regulations French Society Abolition Slave Trade Amis Noirs

The regulations of the French abolitionist Société des Amis des Noirs (Society of Friends of the Blacks), which was founded in Paris in 1788. The preface explains the problems facing the Society, and the extent of the slave trade and its "monstruous array of injustice and cruelty" (6). It also refers to abolitionist societies in Britain and the US, and stresses the need for international co-operation (foreign members are admitted to the Amis des Noirs, according to the regulations). The aims of the Society are established: to conduct research, to compile information, and to enlighten public opinion on the slave trade.

The Bibliothèque Nationale de France suggests that these regulations may have been drawn up by Condorcet, and gives an estimated date of publication as 1789 (the Society was founded in 1788). Cites the French minister Jacques Necker, De l'administration des finances de la France, vol. I (1784) and Granville Sharp, The Just Limitation of Slavery (1776).