Slavery in France, and by extension, the French Empire, covers a wide range of disparate topics.
During the Middle Ages, chattel slavery was legal in France itself. In the early Merovingian Middle Ages, there was a trade in slaves from the British Isles to France. In the Frankish Middle Ages, France served as a middle station in the saqaliba slave trade of Pagan slaves from Northeastern Europe to al-Andalus in the Southwest, which were transported from Prague to the Caliphate of Cordoba via France.
Chattel slavery in France gradually transitioned to serfdom and was finally abolished in the 1310s, specifically with a decree in 1315. While chattel slavery was never again made legal in France itself, it was later allowed in the French colonies from the 17th century. During the French colonial empire, slavery was legal in the colonies while remaining banned in France itself. Despite being illegal, some Africans remained enslaved within France in practice. This was a common parallel system used in many European countries at the time. In 1794, slavery was abolished in the French colonies of America and the Caribbean. Slavery was reintroduced in the colonies in 1802 and finally abolished in 1848 - with the exception of West African domestic slavery which persisted until the 20th century.
Slavery in France Slavery in Merovingian France
In 486, Clovis I, the son of Childeric, defeated Syagrius, a Roman military leader who competed with the Merovingians for power in northern France. Like the Roman empire before them, the Merovingians used slavery.
Slavery in Merovingian France included several Frankish queens in the Merovingian dynasty who had formerly been slaves. Only five slave queens have been identified in Merovingian France, though there may have been more: Ingund, Fredegund, Bilichild, Nanthild, and Balthild.Jo Ann McNamara, John E. Halborg, and E. Gordon Whatley, eds., Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1992), p.264E. T. Dailey, Queens, Consorts, Concubines: Gregory of Tours and Women of the Merovingian Elite, (Brill, 2015), p.116Copied from the article Slavery in Merovingian France Slavery continued during the Carolingian Empire.
Slavery transforms to serfdom
Slavery was gradually phased out and replaced by serfdom in Francia in parallel with the establishment of feudalism in Western Europe (later France and Germany), a system which did not include slavery. This was a system that was completed by Charlemagne (r. 768814), but the process of phasing out slavery had been set long before the reign of Charlemagne.
In Roman Gaul, the land estates of the Roman country villas in Gaul had been worked by slave laborers called ancillae (sing. ancilla) or servi (sing. servus), who worked the land of the landowner, the dominus.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 51 When Roman rule in Gaul was replaced by the migrating Germanic tribes in settling in Gaul in the 5th century, the Roman villa estates started to transition to become feudal estates, and the transition of slavery to serfdom was a part of this.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 51 The slavery system was dependent upon a strong central power and legal enforcement, which was no longer possible in the Post Roman world, where an estate was now forced to be self-sufficient, and rely on cooperation.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 55 In order to keep their labor force and ensure their cooperation, the landowners started to manumit their slaves and give their former slaves, called coloni or servi casati, their own land, known as mansi, in exchange for working also on the landowner's own land, demesne.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 51
When the former slaves were given their own land, they could no longer be sold or bought as property, but was liberated and referred to as franci or coloni.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 53 As free peasants with their own land the former slave laborers were motivated to work better for the landowner; and when they were free to marry and leave their land as inheritance to their children, the labor force of the landowner started to reproduce itself instead of the landowner being responsible for supplying new laborers (via slave purchases).Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 52 The method of freeing the slaves and giving them land in exchange for working duty on the landowners land, was seen as more efficient by the landowners, since the free laborers were motivated to work and did not have to be supervised; and while slavery was not abolished, the new labor method became so popular among the landowners that by the 7th century, the rural slave laborers had been almost completely replaced by free serf peasant laborers, and slavery reduced to urban house slaves.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 51 The former rural slaves mixed via intermarriage with the originally free rural population, and the peasantry merged to become a single class. Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 52
This development was completed during the reign of Charlemagne (r. 768814), who wanted to unite Western Europe under an efficient central state control by establishing the feudal system, a system were serfs were included rather than slaves.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 52 By the 11th century, the feudal system had become more clearly defined in reference to serfdom: the manses igenuiles were the originally free peasants; the manses seviles were the descendants of the manumitted rural slaves; and the manses lidile were likely the descendants of the former Germanic settlers.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 55
However, the transformation from rural slavery to serfdom did not eradicate slavery, only marginalized it. Urban house slaves continued to be popular for centuries after the eradication of rural slavery, and were phased out in favor of free workers much slower, disappearing earlier in the North and slower in the South.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 53 By the 12th and the 13th century, almost all rural slaves in Western Europe had been replaced by serfs; the urban house slaves had been replaced by free servants; and the rural peasantry had come to be collectively defined as serfs.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 58
Slave trade
There is little information about the slave trade in Francia between the Roman era and the 8th century. However, it is believed to have continued along the old Roman slave route from the British Isles in the Northwest to Marseilles in the Southeast. This was the old slave route during Roman times, when slaves were the only type of goods desired from Northern Europe in exchange for luxury goods from the East.
This appear to have continued during the 6th and 7th century; Anglo-Saxon slaves are known to have been imported to Italy in this time period. One of the earliest accounts of slaves from early medieval Britain come from the description of fair-haired boys from York seen in Rome by Pope Gregory the Great, in a biography written by an anonymous monk. Pagan Angels and Saxons were known to be exported from the British Isles over the English channel to Arras and Tournai and then across France to the Mediterranian via the great slave port of Marseilles.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 60-61 It is known that the Frisian slave dealers visited Ango-Saxon London during the 7th and 8th centuries to purchase slaves, which they then sold along the river ways to the German cities and Southward to Paris.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 60-61
However, from the 8th century onward, the slave trade in Francia became an important industry, when France became a slave trade transit area for European slaves to the Muslim world. While slavery was slowly phased out in France itself during the Middle Ages, the slave trade was nevertheless profitable in France, because it targeted European slaves for destinations in the big and profitable slave market of the Muslim world. This made France an important transit area for slaves trafficked from Europe North of France to the Muslim world in the South. This slave trade was profitable for France for centuries, despite slavery dying out in France itself.
In the Germanic Kingdoms, Christians were banned from selling Christians as slaves to the non-Christians in the Church council of Orleans (627630) and the Council of Chalon (639654).Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 60 The prohibition in selling Christians made the trade in non-Christian specifically targeted for the slave trade. The slaves trafficked in the slave trade via France were therefore mainly Pagans.
There were two big slave routes in the Carolingian Empire in the 8th century: the South route trafficked Pagan Slavs via Bavaria over the Alps to Venice and from there via the Venetian slave trade to the Middle East; and the Western route from Germany to France via the Moselle, Meuse and Rhone to Arles and Marseilles, from where they were trafficked to their destination for slavery in al-Andalus, Maghreb and Egypt; the victims were mainly Pagan Slavs, but also Pagan Saxons and British peoples.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 61 Marseilles was one of the biggest slave markets in France, primarily dealing in non-Christian slaves, Moors, Pagans and Anglo-Saxon slaves. Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 60
During the 9th century, the slave trade in the Carolingian Empire was mainly a transit trade, in which Pagan slaves were trafficked via France to their destination in the Muslim world, were the slave market were.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 61 The Church repeatedly opposed the slave trade, but their prohibitions had limited effect, since the Franks wanted gold and Eastern luxury goods, and slaves were the only goods the Middle East wanted from Europe in exchange.Phillips, W. D. (1985). Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade. Storbritannien: Manchester University Press. p. 61