No Color Bar
Source: Les Révolutions de Paris, no. 63 (5 September 1790), 523-24. Excerpted in Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution, Jack R. Censer and Lynn Hunt, eds. (American Social History Productions, 2001).
However, it is not that we thought that the patriots of the colonies are yet up to the level of the principles of the French Revolution. Everybody wants them to have liberty, but they refuse the right of citizenship to colored people, and they want to perpetuate slavery and the slave trade. It is true that the aristocrats have included colored people in their party; but they do so only in order to oppress the friends of the constitution, firmly resolved to leave them in contempt, and to add to their chains when they think they can do without them.
As for the slave trade and the slavery of Negroes, the European governments will find it useless to oppose the cries of philosophy and the principles of universal liberty that germinate and spread throughout the nations. Let them learn that it is never in vain for people to be shown the truth, and that once the impetus is given, they must totally give way to the flood that will wash away the old abuses. The new order of things will rise up despite all the precautions that have been taken to prevent it. Yes! We dare to predict with confidence that the time will come, and that day is not far off, when you will see a frizzy-haired African, with no other recommendation than his good sense and his virtues, come and participate in the legislative process at the heart of our national assemblies.
Born to Slavery?
Source: Les Révolutions de Paris, no. 66 (9-16 October 1790), 13-17.
Excerpted in Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution, Jack R. Censer and Lynn Hunt, eds. (American Social History Productions, 2001).
But it is said that Negroes are a type of men born to slavery … they are narrow-minded, deceitful, and wicked. Even they admit to the superiority of Whites, and almost to the legality of their state.
It is not true that Negroes are narrow-minded. Experience has proven that they have succeeded in the sciences, and if the mindlessness in which they are plunged makes them believe that Whites are a superior race, liberty will soon bring them up to the same level. As for what people say of their wickedness, it will never equal the cruelty of their masters.