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Benjamin Sig. Frossard à la Convention Nationale, Sur l’Abolition de la Traite des Nègres, Paris le 12 décembre 1792, l’an premier de la République Française

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

National Convention Parliament France Abolition Slave Trade Speech French Revolution Proposition Law

This speech by the abolitionist Benjamin Frossard to France's National Convention in December 1792 was delivered in favour of a proposition to abolish slave trading, which he argues would be a just and "natural law" (2), entirely in accordance with the Declaration of Rights as well as public opinion. Frossard refers to the writings of Clarkson, Condorcet, Grégoire and other leading European abolitionists on the subject. He describes slave trading as a crime of "lese-humanity" (4), and explains how it came about, its effects and why it should be abolished by the French Convention, setting an example for the rest of Europe to follow, as "liberators of two worlds" (32).