The “Dreaded Comparison” Revisited: Animal and Black Human Rights

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter looks at the intersection between human and animal rights within the context of the French and Haitian Revolutions. As Napoleon Bonaparte reinstated slavery in the French colonies in 1802, France turned to the question of animal rights as a diversion from, but also a bridge to, the more pressing issue of human rights in the post‐1789 era. TheCode Noirhelps us understand to what extent slave and animal law serve a similar purpose of hiding the overall barbaric nature of the French deemed unfit for the Enlightenment.