Following his travels in the Caribbean, the United States and Africa, Victor Schœlcher advocated since 1840 the economic and intellectual autonomy of slaves in several studies intended for colonial societies.
Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Navy in the provisional government after the Revolution of February 1848, and at the head of the Commission for the Abolition of Slavery, he contributed to the adoption of the decree on the abolition of slavery in the colonies.
Deputy of Guadeloupe and Martinique between 1848 and 1851, he had to go into exile in Great Britain during the establishment of the Second Empire on December 2, 1852. He lived there for nineteen years, during which he strongly criticized the imperial power. When Napoleon III abdicated in September 1870, he was re-elected Deputy of Martinique in 1871. In 1875, he became a permanent senator.
President of the Mutual Aid Society of Creoles since 1874, he intervened again on the colonial question. He was also a member of the Society for the Improvement of the Lot of Women (1875) and chaired the anticlerical congress alongside Maria Derasmes (1881). He also campaigned for the application of universal suffrage, for the abolition of the death penalty and for the development of children's rights.
He died in 1893, and his ashes were transferred to the Pantheon in 1949.
1804 - 1893
Status
Politician