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Pétition contre la traite des noirs, qui se fait au Sénégal, présentée à la Chambre des Députés, le 14 juin 1820

Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Kongelige Bibliotek, Danmark. Rhodes House, Oxford.

Petition Slave Trade Senegal West Africa French Parliament Chamber Deputies Paris

This controversial petition accused the French colonial authorities of turning a blind eye to the illegal slave trade which was still operating from the coast of Senegal, and gives several names of French slave ships that had left the coast in 1818-19, including the case of the Rôdeur which had been reported in the British press. Morenas had formerly been an agriculturalist employed by the French colonial authorities, and was able to give an eye-witness statement testifying to the continued illegal slave trade. The petition was supported by British abolitionists and the Abbé Grégoire, but divided opinion in France, where Morenas was threatened with legal action.

See also J. Morenas, Séconde pétition contre la traite des noirs, présentée à la Chambre des Députés, le 19 mars 1821, et à celle des Pairs le 26 (Paris: Jeunehomme-Crémière, 1821).