The small village of Champagney just to the south of the Vosges mountains in Eastern France has a museum called the “Maison de la Négritude et des Droits de l’Homme”. Champagney, in 1789 during the lead up to the French Revolution, was the first town in France to raise a petition against both the traffic in slaves and the practice of enslavement in the French colonies. It started by saying “The inhabitants and community of Champagney cannot think of the ills suffered by the Negroes in the colonies, without having their hearts penetrated by the deepest pain, by imagining their fellows, still united to them by the double bond of Religion, being treated harder than beasts of burden…“. The petition was signed by 70 persons, probably the entire male population of the village. The museum as opened in 1971 by Léopold Senghor, then Président de la République du Sénégal. The writer Aimé Césaire was honorary president of the Museum. I was very impressed that a small mountain village in the back of beyond could take a position against slavery at such an early date, when Wilberforce and Clarkson were still only calling for the abolition of the slave trade, being prepared to tolerate the institution itself.
This particular region had long been at the junction of three jurisdictions, the Kingdom of France, the Duchy of Burgundy and the Duchy of Lorraine. The local people had used this position to gain a certain independence and the area was known as both a smugglers haven and a place of refuge for those fleeing the wars of the period. This independence must have contributed to their demand for liberty for others.
The petition goes on to call for the a boycott of slave grown produce: “We cannot persuade ourselves that one can make use of the productions of the said colonies if one reflects that they have been sprinkled with the blood of our fellows: we fear, with good reason, that future generations, more enlightened and more philosophical, will accuse the French of this century of having been cannibals, which contrasts with the name of being French and even more that of Christian. This is why our religion dictates that we very humbly beg His Majesty to find the means to make these slaves useful subjects to the kingdom and the nation“.
Of course, the real job of abolishing enslavement in the French colonies was being carried out in revolutionary fashion by the enslaved labourers themselves in St Domingue, the future republic of Haiti. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see the solidarity displayed by the peasant farmers of a small village.
There was considerable pressure from the French business community to maintain the whole business of slavery and the matter was not resolved until a deputation came from St Domingue and spoke at the revolutionary National Convention in 1794. After their speeches, Jean-François Delacroix exclaimed that the Convention should not “dishonour itself by a long discussion“, and so the Convention immediately passed the law by acclamation.
“The National Convention declares slavery abolished throughout all the colonies: consequently, it decrees that all men, without distinction of colour, domiciled in the colonies, are French citizens, and entitled to the enjoyment of all the rights secured by the Constitution“.
Unfortunately, this did not last long. Napoleon Bonaparte’s counter-revolutionary coup-d’etat of 1799, marked a rightwards turn in French politics. In a vain attempt to curry favour with the British and Spanish governments, as well as enriching his power base amongst the bourgeoisie, Napoleon re-established slavery in 1802, part of the construction of French imperialism. He did not succeed in Haiti, but that is another story. The final ending of enslavement in the remaining French colonies had to await another revolution in 1848.
In 1971, René Simonin (1911-1980), a local historian from Champagney, rediscovered the text of this petition. This aroused the interest of the municipal council and in particular of the future mayor of the commune from 1989 to 2015, Gérard Poivey: “At the time, I was deputy. When we learned of the existence of this document in the municipal council, we looked at each other with wide eyes. We had to see the document to believe it. The decision was taken to found a place of memory, the House of Negritude and Human Rights: It took a year of public meetings, but the decision was taken unanimously. As the inhabitants became aware of their ancestors solidarity with the slaves, they approved of the project“.
A road in the town of Fort-de-France (Martinique), in the Savane district, as named Allée du Vœu de Champagney in March 30, 2012.