In this pamphlet, the Abbé Grégoire discusses the penal system as it is applied to those convicted of involvement in the slave trade - slave ship captains, but also financers, insurers, etc. He compares weak French sanctions against the slave trade (confiscation of the ship, dismissal of the captain) with those of British and US penal law. He also discusses the relationship between public opinion, the law and personal reputation, and asks how the law and the church can ensure permanent public disgrace of slave traders. The insufficient penal law against slave traders is contrasted with the harsh physical penalties enacted against the slaves in the French colonies.