“Anthony Benezet’s Antislavery Reputation in France: An Investigation”

Abstract

International audienceAnthony Benezet was the prime source for antislavery arguments in the British campaign against the slave trade in the 1780s and 1790s. Historians used to assume his influential works had been translated into French and were also influential there. However there is no evidence that his works were indeed translated into French. In point of fact, his name became known in French antislavery circles thanks to his participation in the Quaker campaign against slave-ownership in Pennsylvania which was praised in the works of Raynal, Crèvecoeur and Brissot. His antislavery actions made him famous but his antislavery works did not circulate broadly in France apparently, leading the Société des Amis des Noirs to start a translation of his most famous pamphlet, which was never completed