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Fragments d’un discours sur l’abolition de l’esclavage

Collection Chatillon, Archives Départementales de la Gironde, Bordeaux.

Fragments Speech Abolition Slavery Slave Trade Africa French National Assembly Mirabeau

In this speech addressed to the French National Assembly, which he never delivered, Mirabeau repeatedly calls on the merchants of France to radically change their way of thinking about Africa and about the slave trade. He calls for efficiency, the maximisation of profits, and the suppression of waste, "starting with the brigandry inflicted upon the unfortunate Africans". He proclaims himself firmly opposed to the slave trade, "intolerable under any circumstances", and suggests that international cooperation would soon bring it to an end: "Could England and France together not put an end to this blight, by imposing their will on the rest of the world?"

This manuscript is only a fifteen page fragment of Mirabeau's planned speech. The entire speech has been edited by Marcel Dorigny: Mirabeau: les baies flottantes des Négriers, ou le discours non prononcé de Mirabeau sur l'abolition de la traite des Noirs (Université de Saint Étienne, 1999).