The Abolition of Slavery, pg. 129

This chapter is a narration of the speeches given during the French National Conventions abolition of slavery. The French were very in favor of freeing all slaves, which they did. They also granted them full citizenship. The French even fraternally kissed the colored diplomates. It appears that the French are acting selflessly and are sorry for having slavery before and very much care about the people of color in their colonies. They seem to be open to change and them all seem like good people. However, their actions tell a different story. At this time, the good French were going around their country executing all the old nobles and rich, including their women and children. They were executing so many people that they did not have enough swords to chop off all their heads, so they had to invent a new creation, the guietine (or however you spell it), to execute people. They also seem contradictory because just a few years later, under Napoleon, they re-instituted not slavery, but African servitude just like slavery in the colonies. It appears to me that in all the momentum of human rights the French decided to abolish slavery because they thought it was the right thing to do, however, when this became inconvenient they basically reversed their decision, showing how much they really cared about human rights.