Write a short note on French slave trade?

Write a short note on French slave trade?

Ans.

(i) Acute shortage of labour in the French Caribbean colonies led to a triangular slave trade between Europe, America and Africa in the 17th century.

(ii) French merchants sailed from Bordeaux or Nantes to the African coasts, where they bought slaves from local chiefs. These slaves were then sold to plantation owners in the Caribbean.

(iii) Slave labour enabled the Caribbean colonies to meet the growing demand in European markets for sugar, coffee and indigo.

(iv) The Convention of 1794 passed laws freeing slaves in the French colonies. Slavery was however, reintroduced by Napolean but finally abolished in 1848.