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Concept
Abolitionism
Summary
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved people around the world.
The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. The first and only country to self-liberate from slavery was actually a former French colony, Haiti, as a result of the Revolution of 1791-1804. The British abolitionist movement began in the late 18th century, and the 1772 Somersett case established that slavery did not exist in English law. In 1807, the slave trade was made illegal throughout the British Empire.
In Eastern Europe, groups organized to abolish the enslavement of the Roma in Wallachia and Moldavia between 1843 and 1855, and to emancipate the serfs in Russia in 1861. The United States would not abolish slavery until after the American Civil War. In 1888, Brazil became the last country in the Americas to outlaw slavery.
After centuries of struggle, slavery was eventually declared illegal at the global level in 1948 under the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mauritania was the last country to officially abolish slavery, with a presidential decree in 1981. Today, child and adult slavery and forced labour are illegal in almost all countries, as well as being against international law, but human trafficking for labour and for sexual bondage continues to affect tens of millions of adults and children.
Balthild of Chelles, herself a former slave, queen consort of Neustria and Burgundy by marriage to Clovis II, became regent in 657 since the king her son Chlothar III was only five year old. At some unknown date during her rule she abolished the trade of slaves, although not slavery. Moreover, her (and contemporaneous Saint Eligius') favorite charity was to buy and free slaves, especially children. Slavery started to dwindled and would be superseded by serfdom.
In 1315, Louis X, king of France, published a decree proclaiming that "France signifies freedom" and that any slave setting foot on French soil should be freed.
Official source
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