Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849

by Christopher Clark

Victor Schoelcher, who published the abolitionist tract De l’esclavage des noirs in 1833 after his return to Paris from a journey to Mexico, Cuba and the southern United States, knew all too well how difficult it was to overcome the inertia of a society that was aware of the iniquity of slavery but not sufficiently alarmed to act against it. The arguments against this institution, he wrote, were so well rehearsed and of such long standing that it was impossible to come up with new points that might catch the attention of the public. Europeans were easily roused to indignation by this or that narrative of injustice or atrocity, but their sympathy and interest quickly waned. In a compelling passage near the beginning of the book, Schoelcher reflected on the ease with which European visitors to the colonies were seduced into partisanship for slavery. On arriving in a slaving country, he wrote, you are surrounded entirely by the warmth, hospitality and anecdotes of the whites. The whole of the (white) society around you forms a ‘league’ dedicated to educating you in the virtue and necessity of captive labour. You begin blushing at the naivety of your opinions, your earlier ideas seem to have no traction in the world you now find yourself in. You are soon converted, for your initial doubts were weakly sustained, and your isolation is enough to ensure that you are unable to push back the forces that surround you, especially in a country where your generous principles are regarde...