Victor Schœlcher

Schœlcher was born in Paris on 22 July 1804. His father, Marc Schœlcher (1766–1832), from Fessenheim in Alsace, was the owner of a porcelain factory. His mother, Victoire Jacob (1767–1839), from Meaux in Seine-et-Marne, was a laundry maid in Paris at the time of their marriage. He was baptized in Saint-Laurent Church on 9 September 1804. He enrolled in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in 1818, but left one year later and began working at the family's porcelain factory in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis. In his teenage years Schœlcher became an opponent of the Bourbon monarchy while frequenting the literary and political salons of Paris. which was at the time very strongly politicized, not to say openly revolutionary. He later moved to another Parisian lodge, La Clémente Amitié. ==Abolitionism==

In 1828, Schœlcher was sent by his father on an eighteen months-long trip in America, as a representative of the family's porcelain enterprise. While in the continent he visited Mexico, Cuba, Schœlcher inherited the family business on his father's death in 1832, but sold it on in order to dedicate himself to his abolitionism. In the following years he traveled through Europe, and in 1840—Schœlcher became an advocate for the immediate emancipation of slaves, no longer supporting a gradual process. He published these ideas in ''Des colonies françaises: Abolition immédiate de l'esclavage'' ("Of the French colonies: Immediate abolition of slavery") in 1842, In February 1848, a revolution in France overthrew the July Monarchy. Schœlcher arrived from Senegal on 3 March, and quickly went to meet with François Arago, the Minister of the Navy and Colonies of the provisional government of the new Republic. Arago appointed him under-secretary of state for the colonies the next day, as well as president of a new commission charged with drafting the immediate abolition of slavery, Schœlcher had convinced Arago not to wait until the election of the constituent National Assembly, which would be deeply occupied with organizing the new republican institutions, to establish the abolitionist commission, arguing that any postponing of the emancipation could lead to revolt and bloodshed in the colonies. In his capacity as under-secretary of state and president of the commission, Schœlcher prepared and wrote the decree that was issued on 27 April 1848, through which the French government abolished slavery in all of its colonies and granted citizenship to the emancipated slaves. ==Later career==

'' by François-Auguste Biard Schœlcher's ultimate success in ending slavery gave birth to a new republican movement in the Caribbean colonies. Schœlcher was then exiled by the new regime. Refusing to take advantage of the amnesty of 1859, Schœlcher only returned to France in late August 1870, after the declaration of war with Prussia. He was appointed staff colonel of the National Guard on 4 September, the day of the deposition of Napoleon III and the proclamation of the Third Republic. Organizing a legion of artillery, he took part in the defence of Paris. In 1871 he was again elected by Martinique for the National Assembly in Bordeaux, where he voted against the peace treaty. During the subsequent Paris Commune insurrection, Schœlcher tried unsuccessfully to mediate peace talks between the insurgents and the French government, and was briefly imprisoned by the communards. Afterwards he continued to serve in the National Assembly as a member of the Republican Union, and was elected senator for life in December 1875. , between 1876–1884 In 1875, Schœlcher became a member of the ''Societé pour l'amélioration du sort de la femme'' ("Society for the improvement of women's condition"), and in July 1876 he renewed his proposal for the abolition of capital punishment. In 1882 he co-founded, with Gaston Gerville-Réache, the newspaper Le Moniteur des Colonies. Schœlcher published his last work in 1889, a biography of Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture (Vie de Toussaint Louverture). He died on 25 December 1893 in his house in Houilles, near Paris, aged 89. ==Legacy==

Having never married or left issue, in his will Schœlcher distributed his money and donated his collection to Guadeloupe, which is now housed at the Schœlcher Museum (Musée Schœlcher) in Pointe-à-Pitre. First buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, his remains were transferred on 20 May 1949 to the Panthéon on the initiative of Senator Gaston Monnerville from Guiana. Schœlcher had wanted to be buried with his father Marc, who was therefore also interred in the Panthéon. The ashes of Félix Éboué, the first black person to be buried in the Panthéon, were transferred at the same time. Homages celebrating the 1848 abolition of slavery, in Cayenne. Sculpted by Louis-Ernest Barrias, it was listed as a monument historique in 1999 • In homage to his fight against slavery, the commune of Case-Navire (Martinique) took the name of Schœlcher in 1888. • The commune of Fessenheim turned his family's house into the Victor Schœlcher museum. • The Place Victor Schœlcher in Aix-en-Provence is named after him. • A street created at the south-eastern corner of the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris was named Rue Schœlcher in 1894 and Rue Victor Schœlcher in 2000. • Two ships of the French Navy have been named Victor Schœlcher – an auxiliary cruiser during World War II, and a Commandant Rivière-class frigate in service from 1962 to 1988. • On 20 May 2020, two statues of Schœlcher were destroyed in Martinique. French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the acts. Another statue was destroyed in March 2021; their destruction was supported by activists from the separatist "National Front for the Liberation of Martinique", and represents part of wider protests against "colonial memory". • He was honored by the department of Réunion on a commemorative note of five thousand francs first issued in 1946. ==Works==

• ''De l'esclavage des noirs et de la législation coloniale'' (On slavery of blacks and colonial legislation) (Paris, 1833) • ''Abolition de l'esclavage'' (Abolition of slavery) (1840) • ''Les colonies françaises de l'Amérique'' (French colonies of America) (1842) • ''Les colonies étrangères dans l'Amérique et Hayti'' (Foreign colonies in America and Haiti) (2 vols., 1843) • ''Histoire de l'esclavage pendant les deux dernières années'' (History of slavery during the last two years) (2 vols., 1847) • La verité aux ouvriers et cultivateurs de la Martinique (The truth to the workers and farmers of Martinique) (1850) • Protestation des citoyens français negres et mulatres contre des accusations calomnieuses (Protests of black and mulatto French citizens against slanderous accusations) (1851) • Le procès de la colonie de Marie-Galante (The trial of the Marie-Galante colony) (1851) • Histoire des crimes du 2 décembre (History of the crimes of the 2 December) (1852) • Le gouvernement du 2 décembre (The government of the 2 December) (1853) • ''Dangers to England of the alliance with the men of the Coup d'État'' (1854) • Vie de Händel (Life of Handel) (1857) • La grande conspiration du pillage et du meurtre à la Martinique (The great conspiracy of theft and murder in the Martinique) (1875) • Vie de Toussaint Louverture (1889) ==References==