Letter to Those Who Love Mankind, pg. 73

This chapter is a pamphlet published by the Abbe Gregoire, an ally to the Parisian men of color. The pamphlet criticizes the act by the the National Assembly to put all power to reform racial laws in the hands of the Colonial Assemblies. He argued that this was unjust and unfair to the people of color in the French Islands. He said that allowing the decision of whether or not the colored people can continue to be oppressed should not lie in the hands of the oppressors. Oppression of colors surely would continue if those who got to decide if it continued gained from it continuing. He argued that the colored population of Saint-Domingue was expanding rapidly and that they should have rights. He also argued that this law could cause an alliance between colored people and whites in an attempt for Saint-Domingue to fight for independence. The year that this law was passed by the National Assembly surely played an influential role in this law being passed. At the time, the French Revolution was just starting in France. The French passed this controversial law because they did not want to spend time dealing with racial conflicts in their colonies; they were distracted by the Storming of the Bastille and other events.