The French Revolution and the Colonies

The National Assembly was the new government set up by the French Revolution in the summer of 1789. In the next few years, the deputies debated a new constitution for France, including its colonial empire.

Soon after the revolution, the new government set up rules for colonial government, and asserted its ultimate authority.

Decree and Instructions, March 1790:

I. Each colony has the right to express its wishes regarding the constitution, laws, and administration appropriate to its prosperity and the good fortunes of its inhabitants, as long as it conforms to the general principles that connect the colonies to the metropole and guarantee the protection of their respective interests.

II. In colonies that have Colonial Assemblies, freely elected and acknowledged by the citizens, these assemblies will be allowed to express the wishes of the colony. Those colonies without such assemblies will immediately create them in order to perform the same functions . . .

IV. The plans prepared by these Colonial Assemblies will be submitted to the National Assembly, which will examine them, issue a decree, and present them for royal acceptance and approval.

V. The National Assembly's decrees on the organization of municipal governments and administrative assemblies will be sent to these Colonial Assemblies, which will be authorized to execute those parts of the said decrees that can be adapted to local customs, pending the final decision of the National Assembly and the king on any modifications, and with the governor's provisional approval of measures voted by the administrative bodies.

Instructions Addressed by the National Assembly to the Colony of Saint-Domingue

I. As soon as the Saint-Domnigue's governor receives the king's dispatch containing these Instructions and the National Assembly's March 8 colonial decree, he will immediately communicate them to the Colonial Assembly if one is already formed, notify the provincial assemblies, and inform the residents of the colony legally and authentically by having them proclaimed and posted in all parishes.

II. If a Colonial Assembly exists, it may declare that it would be better for the colony to form a new assembly rather than continue it sown activity, and in this case new elections will be held immediately . . .

IV. Immediately after the proclamation and the posting of the decree and the Instructions in each parish, all persons having attained twenty-five years of age and owning property or, failing this, resident in the parish for two years and paying taxes will gather to form a parish assembly . . .

XVII. Examining the forms that will guide how legislative power is to be exercised over the colonies, the will recognize that, though they may discuss and prepare their own laws, those laws do not fully and definitively exist until the National Assembly has ratified them and the king approved them. And while purely internal laws may be provisionally executed with the governor's approval, awaiting the definitive approval of the king and the French legislature, laws that affect external affairs, and that might in any way modify or change the relations between the colonies and the metropole, cannot be even provisionally executed until the are established by the national will.

The next year, after further debates on the colonies, the National Assembly declined to abolish slavery, but affirmed the rights of free blacks

Decree of May 13, 1791:

The National Assembly decrees as an article of the constitution that the legislature shall make no law on the status of unfree persons in the colonies except at the specific and unprompted request of the colonial assemblies.

Decree of May 15, 1791:

The National Assembly decrees that the legislature will never deliberate on the political status of people of color who were not born of free fathers and mothers without the previous, free, and unprompted request of the colonies; that the presently existing Colonial Assemblies will remain in place, but that the Parish Assemblies and future Colonial Assemblies will admit the people of color born of free fathers and mothers if they otherwise have the required status.

Official Explanation:

The National Assembly, attentive to tall means of assuring prosperity in the colonies, to ensure that the citizens living there enjoy the advantages of the constitution . . ., recognizes that local circumstances and the kind of agriculture that brings colonial prosperity appear to require introducing into the colonial constitution several exceptions to the [French Revolution's] general principles.

. . . On March 28, 1790, The National Assembly declared the the legislature would discuss the status of nonfree persons only on the unprompted request of the Colonial Assemblies.

The National Assembly was able to make this commitment because it only involved individuals of a foreign land who, by their profound ignorance, the misfortune of their exile, the consideration of their own interest, and the urgent law of necessity , can only hope that in time the progress of public opinion and enlightenment will produce a change of conditions that, in the present state of things, would be contrary to the general good and might become equally dangerous for them. . .

The National Assembly could not refuse to render this March 28 [1790] decree; it is not up to it to restrict its meaning, damaging the essential rights of the citizens; it cannot grant one part of the empire the ability to exclude men from active citizenship when the constitutional laws guarantee those rights in the entire empire. The rights of citizens exist before society; the serve as its base. The National Assembly can only recognize and declare them; fortunately, it is powerless to infringe upon them.

After a slave uprising on Saint Domingue, the National Assembly reversed itself in September 1791, and restored the power of Colonial Assemblies to deny free blacks voting rights. Then, after new elections, a more radical Assembly reversed course again, and issued a decree in April 1792, that reiterated black citizenship. Note the change in tone and language.

The National Assembly, in view of the fact that the enemies of the public whave used the minor disagreement s that have developed in the colonies to maintain their own power by raising the slaves in revolt, disrupting the forces of order, and dividing the citizens, whose unified effort is the only thing that can save their property from the horrors of fire and pillage;

That this odious plot appears to be part of the conspiracies that have been hatched against the French nation and that have occurred simultaneously in the both hemispheres;

In view of the Assembly's hope that the love of all colonists have for the fatherland will allow them to forget the causes of their conflicts and the various wrongs done to all sides as a consequence, and that they will unreservedly devote themselves to reuniting openly and sincerely, which is the only thing that can stop the troubles that have affected them all and would allow them to enjoy the advantages of a solid and lasting peace; it decrees that this is a matter of great urgency.

The National Assembly recognizes and proclaims that the free blacks and men of color, as well as the white colonists, should enjoy equality in political rights. And, after having proclaimed the urgency of this situation, decrees the following:

. . . The free blacks and men of color will be admitted as voters in all the parish assemblies and will be eligible for all offices, as long as they meet the conditions prescribed by Article IV of the March 28 [1790] Instruction.