In 1789, French society, through the French Revolution, boldly proclaimed ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.’ Yet this revolution, which claimed to bring complete change, did not seek freedom for all. The vile and inhumane system of slavery was reinstated after the revolution, and the three French estates – the peasants, the nobility, and the Church – remained complicit in maintaining slavery for the sake of economic gain.
By 1848, when slavery was finally abolished, the French government shamelessly compensated slave owners, while the newly freed people were left to fend for themselves. They were expected to carve out a ‘French life’ in a society that continued to oppress them, a struggle that still affects their descendants today.
Transported in large French slave ships and brought to the French mainland and colonies, they were reduced to unpaid labour. Who among us will be the revolutionary voice for the former enslaved and their descendants? Where is our sense of universal justice as we lift the historical French veil and find poverty and racism still entrenched?
There has been no entry into the French aristocracy for the formerly enslaved and their descendants. No pathway has been offered to a life of dignity, despite their labour helping to build the very foundation of France.
Let us hear the revolutionary voices of the past and present calling for FREEDOM FOR ALL! Let us declare VIVE LA FRANCE FOR ALL!
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