Society of the Friends of the Blacks

The Society of the Friends of the Blacks (Société des amis des Noirs or Amis des noirs) was a French abolitionist society founded by Jacques Pierre Brissot and Étienne Clavière and directly inspired by the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade founded in London in 1787. The society's aim was to abolish both the institution of slavery in the France's overseas colonies and French involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. The society was founded in Paris on 19 February 1788, and remained active until autumn 1791. Clavière was elected as their first president. The secretary Brissot frequently received advice from British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, who led the abolitionist movement in Great Britain. At the beginning of 1789, the Society had 141 members and helt 81 sessions in total. During the three-year period that it remained active, the society published abolitionist literature and frequently addressed its concerns on a substantive political level in the Constituent Assembly. It no longer existed for at least three years. In February 1794, the National Convention passed the Law of 4 February 1794, which effectively abolished slavery and the slave trade and gave the formerly enslaved equal rights. This decision was reversed by the Law of 20 May 1802 under Napoleon, who moved to reinstate slavery in the French colonial empire, and unsuccessfully tried to regain control of Saint-Domingue, where a slave rebellion was underway. Brissot's archive passed to his son in 1793, and were purchased in 1829 by Francis de Montrol, who used them to edit the "Memoirs" of Brissot. A part was acquired in 1982 by the National Archives of France, the rest by private collectors.