French Republic Abolishes Slavery

February 4, 1794

The National Convention, under pressure from Toussaint Louverture's forces in Saint-Domingue and from its own principles, abolished slavery throughout the French empire. It was the first such decree by a European power. Napoleon would try to reinstate it eight years later, touching off the final Haitian war of independence. The decree freed roughly 700,000 enslaved people across the Caribbean and became the Revolution's most radical social act.