Honoré-Gabriel de Riquetti, comte de MIRABEAU (1749-1791) th - Lot 85

Lot 85
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Honoré-Gabriel de Riquetti, comte de MIRABEAU (1749-1791) th - Lot 85
Honoré-Gabriel de Riquetti, comte de MIRABEAU (1749-1791) the great orator of the early Revolution. Manuscript with autograph additions and corrections, [March 1790?]; 36 pages in-4 composing part A then 16 pages for part B. Important fragments of a long speech on the abolition of the slave trade, in the hand of his secretary (there are shorthand notes in pencil in the margins), but with abundant autograph additions and corrections. This manuscript is related to the speech prepared by Mirabeau and not delivered during the session of March 8, 1790 devoted to the affairs of the colonies. Mirabeau takes the defense of the society of the Friends of the Blacks, whose "noble vow is to propagate liberty", and of the abolitionists, but specifies that it is necessary to discuss with those who live from trade with the colonies: "The colonists will still tell you that the friends of the Negroes belong to a mysterious association spread all over the earth and confederated with charlatans or illuminated people"; one should not give in to these "defenders of an odious trade": one should see in their threats of counter-revolution only "the delirium of personal interest". However, one cannot compare the English system with the French one, because "the product of our islands is infinitely more important, and so much so that after having supplied us, our merchants make pay a considerable surplus of their productions, abroad [...] The British islands contain hardly nine to ten million inhabitants; and France contains twenty five million". The English consume almost all their production, sending abroad only the "quantities despised in their islands", that is 1/10th of their production. In France it is the opposite, and Mirabeau notes: "The more a nation consumes at home, the greater its wealth and its trade is fruitful". It would be necessary to increase the black population of the islands by other means than the slave trade. He demonstrates that the system in place, as absurd as it is cruel, is not at all productive, and that everyone would benefit from a more humane treatment of black populations. "How can we absolve the Negro trade from all the crimes it commits in Africa? If men were not merchandise that is exported abroad to never return to their native land, would the princes of these countries indulge in so many atrocities? He vigorously denounces "this frightening sterility which makes our islands resemble theaters of execution to death, rather than homes of men destined to life". The colonists who treat the slaves like beasts make a bad calculation, it is like "the extraordinary race which one requires of the horses with great blows of whip", instead of taking advantage of their natural gait to gain otherwise. However, the colonists are not ready to take this step, because they indulge "in their expenses in a prodigality which animates the business and which they could not allow themselves if the negroes, put in the rank of men, impose on us the social law not to do to them what we would not want done to us"... We note this long autograph addition, about the theory which motivates the trade of the negroes: We note this long autograph addition, about the theory which motivates the trade of the negroes: "and that one hides vainly under a supposed necessity to employ Africans on the ground of our islands. Horrible and fallacious necessity for which nature is honored as if it had created slavery! As if she had destined a certain people to dig under the whip of some executioners furrows in a land 1500 leagues away from their native soil. And let it not be said that I am slandering the colonists by making them justify the necessity of the slave trade on such grounds. It is enough to analyze with attention all that they grant in their pleas to discover the secret of this barbaric theory"...Mirabeau deepens this reflection in the part B which counts 39 autograph corrections, that is to say more than 25 lines of Mirabeau's hand: "Why the civilization would not make the same progress in Africa? Why should the arts not contribute to the happiness of its inhabitants, if it is not because the slave trade opposes all civilization, stifles the arts in their cradle? They are children of peace and security, and the trade constantly ignites in each man the desire to arm himself to take away the freedom of his neighbor or his brother; it converts an immense continent into a bloody theater of war, cruelty, perfidy, and sordid speculations in order to nourish a traffic that outrages humanity. Yes: as long as the trade in Negroes remains, Africa will languish in the same state of degradation and misery; as soon as the commercial and civilized nations will have renounced this awful brigandage, it will necessarily tend towards civilization and happiness"... Etc.
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