Editing Abolitionism (section)

===First general abolition of slavery (1794)===
{{More citations needed|section|date=July 2019}}
[[File:Jacques Pierre Brissot (1754-1793).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jacques Pierre Brissot]] (1754–1793), who organized the [[Society of the Friends of the Blacks]] in 1788]]

The convention, the first elected Assembly of the [[French First Republic|First Republic]] (1792–1804), on 4 February 1794, under the leadership of [[Maximilien Robespierre]], [[Law of 4 February 1794|abolished slavery in law]] in France and its colonies.<ref>Popkin, J. (2010) You are all Free. The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery, pp. 350–70, 384, 389.</ref> [[Henri Grégoire|Abbé Grégoire]] and the Society of the Friends of the Blacks were part of the abolitionist movement, which had laid important groundwork in building anti-slavery sentiment in the [[metropole]]. The first article of the law stated that "Slavery was abolished" in the French colonies, while the second article stated that "slave-owners would be indemnified" with financial compensation for the value of their slaves.  The French constitution passed in 1795 included in the declaration of the Rights of Man that slavery was abolished.