Manumission in Isle de France during the revolutionary and post revolutionary years from 1789 to 1810

Bibliography: leaves 203-212.This research work is an analysis of the whole 'institution' of manumission as it existed in Isle de France during the period between the French Revolution of 1789 and the post-revolutionary years up to British rule in 1810. In his study of 'The Free Population of Colour in Mauritius', Richard Allen emphasizes the fact that "a comprehensive study of manumission in the colony remains to be undertaken, but we do have reliable information on manumisson practices and patterns during the last two decades of the Ancien Régime". Indeed, Muslim Jumeer reports that between 1768- 1789, a total of 785 slaves consisting of 347 women, 173 men, 133 boys and 132 girls were freed according to the acts of manumission. But the existing works do not reveal any manumission figure for the years after 1789, during the revolutionary period up to British rule. As Allen notes, "information on the composition of the manumitted population and on the pattern of manumissions between 1789-1820 is scarce, but only because research on this period remains to be done". This present work has attempted to 'fill the gap' in the study of manumission for the years 1789 to 1803, by a 'comprehensive study' of manumission acts found at the Mauritius Archives