On the Spirit of Rights and Abolitionism
On the Spirit of Rights and abolitionism

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the thesis that abolitionism in France was encouraged by Roman law and free-market ideology. Grenouilleau stresses that abolitionism was much more than we usually think. It was not only an effort to reform or renounce the participation of one’s country in the slave trade, but an effort to eradicate the slave trade and slavery everywhere. In an effort to identify its history, he distinguishes between its possible sources (i.e. retrospective deduction) and its real developments (i.e. real-time reconstruction). The essential factor was the convergence of a conservative „theological“ movement with a secular „liberal“ one, in which free-market arguments might have been deployed merely as a tactical device. While Grenouilleau agrees that sentimentalism may not be seen as the source of abolitionism, he argues that it was essential to the dissemination of its message. In the long-term perspective, the 18th century appears to be a turning- point closing the long period of casuistry and starting the era of abolitionism. It included even countries such as Brazil which abolished slavery only in 1888. The reasons for this turning-point seem to be mainly moral ones.

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