‘How should slaves disappear?’: defending slavery in France, 1834–1848

This article traces the rhetorical strategies of pro-slavery advocates in July Monarchy France between the 1833 British Emancipation Act and the 1848 French Emancipation, a period during which both sides of the debate saw emancipation as inevitable. Defenders of colonial slavery sought to defer such action for as long as possible. In doing so they drew upon metropolitan cultural anxieties about revolution and rapid social change, socio-cultural shifts occasioned by industrialization and urbanization, and fears of French economic decline to make their case to the French lawmakers and public