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Portrait of Madeleine, also known as Portrait of a Black Woman is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Marie-Guillemine Benoist, created in 1800. |
Napoleon Bonaparte was a product of the radicalism of the Terror. He Provided the opposite of the chaos: He came and provided order and to many, his power meant stability in the state. How did he treat those less fortunate than his white French constituents?
He waited until 1808 to stride a modus operandi with his Jewish citizens.
His actions on the rights of black residents of France and its colonies is vastly different
Treatment of French Jews:
In 1808 Napoleon organized the "Consistoire central des Israélites de France", the administrative agency for all French Jews. Judaism became a recognized religion and under government control. Traditionally, the Consistoire has had a member of the Rothschild family as president.
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Louis_Gaudin, Casino de Paris, Josephine Baker. 1930 |
During the Terror, Danton and his clique declared blacks were free and had full citizenship February 4, 1794. The devastatingly violent revolt in Saint-Domingue three years earlier was the influence as well as the need to implement the rule of equality among all men. The world-wide news of the brutality of sugar and coffee plantation owners and the enormous death toll demanded a proper outcome.
But by 1802, Napoleon re-instituted slavery in French colonies.
Slavery was again abolished in France in 1848 when the French assembly repealed the Code Noir (Black Code)—the 1685 royal decree.
The French acceptance of their black colonials meant that when American black soldiers went abroad to serve in France, they were received better than they were at home. But by American officers, American black soldiers were put into harsh combat zones to ‘try them out.” After their discharge, many American blacks remained in France or returned there after the war and took official residence.
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