De l'état d'esclave à " l'état de citoyen ". Modalités du passage de l'esclavage à la citoyenneté aux Antilles françaises sous la Seconde République (1848-1850)

Abstract

Inside the general issue of identifications and citizenship, and specially the transition between slavery and citizenship we focus on the topic of abolition of slavery in the French colonies in 1848. The problem lies in the theoretical antinomy between the « state » of slave and the « state » of citizen. As a matter of fact, simultaneously to Abolition, the French Second Republic (1948-1951) proclaimed political equality and political rights for the former slaves by universal ballot as an absolute principle ; but, in the same year, administrative decrees erpetuate the socio-economic organization based on the slave System. Some years later, in 1853, the laws on the Colonial Organisation of Work in the Colony will a separate legislation for the new citizens and indentured labourers retracting full political and social rights and perpetuating economic exclusion.The traditional Historiography of the French territories does not analyse this paradoxical making of post-abolition citizenship. It establishes a mechanical between the social dynamics and the political evolution of the territories. So, this periodisation inside which the social evolution is read has the major to separate the political instance and the socio-economic one and suggests and opaque interprétation of the transition between slavery and citizenship. At the same time it leads to the mythification of the event of abolition of slavery because it lays over-invests on the date of 1848, which has far reaching implication on the collective mental representation of French citizenship and abolition of slavery. A diachronic revisiting of the process should account for the part played by the official status and that played by the vernacular states. On the other hand, it should also highlight the interaction between the dynamics of the making of citizenship and the social reconstruction of the former slaves. The leading concept is that of the transition from slavery to citizenship. In the British process, distinction is made between the abolition of juridical slavery and social and individual émancipation ; the process was planned and concretised by Apprenticeship (1833-1838). In the French abolition, there was no official between slavery and citizenship : in the mind of the abolitionists, " no between slavery and freedom was conceivable " (Schoelcher's report - April 1848) but this lack of transitions law didn't eliminate the modalities of the passage. The main methodological approach requested is a diachronic survey years between slavery period and thèse post-abolition years of " virtual social and political rights ".