Dark side of the light : slavery and the French Enlightenment / Louis Sala-Molins ; translated and with an introduction by John Conteh-Morgan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sala-Molins, Louis.

Standardized Title:

Misères des Lumières. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Slavery--France--Colonies--America--History--18th century.

Slavery.

Abolitionists.

History.

Colonies.

West Indies, French--Race relations--History--18th century.

West Indies, French.

Abolitionists--France--History--18th century.

Enlightenment--France.

Enlightenment.

France.

America.

Physical Description:

xxxvi, 165 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2006]

Language Note:

Translated from the French.

Summary:

Enlightenment thinkers such as Rousseau and Montesquieu are best known for their humanist theories and liberating influence on Western civilization. But as renowned French intellectual Louis Sala-Molins shows, Enlightenment discourses and scholars were also complicit in the Atlantic slave trade, becoming instruments of oppression and inequality.

Translated into English for the first time, Dark Side of the Light scrutinizes Condorcet's Reflections on Negro Slavery and the works of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Diderot side by side with the Code Noir (the royal document that codified the rules of French Caribbean slavery) in order to uncover attempts to uphold the humanist project of the Enlightenment while simultaneously justifying slavery. Both an urgent critique and a measured analysis, Dark Side of the Light reveals the moral paradoxes of Enlightenment philosophies and their worldchanging consequences.

Contents:

Translator's Introduction: The Color of the Enlightenment vii

Dark Side of the Light: Slavery and the French Enlightenment

1 Condorcet, "Lamenting" 11

At Thirty-five, You Will Become a Human Being, My Son

Animal, We Will Give You a Soul

Ham's Time. Shem's Love. Japheth's Goodness

Nobody's Fault but His Majesty's, Sugar

2 The Market of Equals 55

"All French Men Are Born and Remain Free and Equal"

A Young Black Child in the Boudoir

Dawn, after the Night of Prejudice

Perfectibility and Degeneracy

3 Of Men and (Under) Dogs 113

The Dogs of the Colonies

The Men of the Nation

At Twilight: The Enlightenment by Day ...

...And at Night.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-162) and index.

ISBN:

081664389X

0816643881

OCLC:

61879630