18th century France produced many conflicting currents of thought regarding all manner of socio-political ideology. The treatment of Blacks was certainly no exception. The situation of Blacks in France in the 1700s was not static, but highly variable, and the subject of intense debate. Attitudes regarding Blacks among the European-born French were inconsistent; in philosophical circles, the subjugation of any race seemed a violation of natural law (Diderot), while economists and social ôscientistsö often argued that the Black race was actually better off when consigned to servitude (Mellier). In the domain of law, statutes concerning slavery were no less cohesive, as contradictory edicts protected slavery in some French regions while prohibiting it in others (Alexander).
Enlightenment concepts of personal liberty and the natural rights of man were duty-bound to consider slavery and the treatment of the Black race. Throughout 18th century France, opposition to the monarchy and the ancien regime galvanized as philosophes popularized notions of egalitarianism and individualism. As it pertained to the Black race, philosophes Diderot and DÆAlembert concluded in their Encyclopedia that the slave trade was ôodious commerceö and ôcontrary to natural lawsö (79). In an age in which personal liberty was presented as a natural right, philosophers like Diderot perceived that the Africans had been deprived of their liberty on the grounds that enslavement was a means to spiritual salvation; this flimsy philosophical construct, underpinned by an ôindispensable need for sugar and agricultural products in Franceö (Diderot 79), made clear the fact that economic concerns were driving policy regarding Blacks in France.
Indeed, social commentary often enforced the idea that slavery was to the Black race what liberty was to the White race: an expression of its truest, purest nature. When men such as Gerard Mellier posited that th...