The Society of the Friends of the Blacks (French: Société des amis des Noirs or Amis des noirs) was a group of French men and women, mostly white, who were abolitionists (opponents of black slavery and the African slave trade). The Society was created in Paris in 1788, and remained in existence until 1793. It was led by Jacques-Pierre Brissot, with advice from Thomas Clarkson, who headed the abolitionist movement in the Kingdom of Great Britain. At the beginning of 1789, it had 141 members.
During the five-year period of its existence, it published anti-slavery literature and addressed its concerns on a substantive political level in the National Assembly of France. Ironically, however, any real, practical legislative mitigation of the slaves' plight would emerge only after the demise of the Society in 1793. In February 1794, the National Assembly legislated the Universal Emancipation decree, which effectively freed all colonial slaves.
Several articles and monographs have explored the question of how influential the Society was in bringing about the abolition of slavery with opinions covering the entire spectrum, from those that identify the Amis des Noirs as instrumental in the abolition of slavery, to others that say the Society was nothing more than a "société de pensée" (philosophical society).
Read more about Society Of The Friends Of The Blacks: History, Outcome, Notable Members
Famous quotes containing the words society, friends and/or blacks:
“Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the publick interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it.... He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.”
—Adam Smith (1723–1790)
“For character too is a process and an unfolding ... among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protruberent there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?”
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“In the United States the whites speak well of the Blacks but think bad about them, whereas the Blacks talk bad and think bad about the whites. Whites fear Blacks, because they have a bad conscience, and Blacks hate whites because they need not have a bad conscience.”
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