Slavery and colonization

This book presents a collection of selected texts by Victor Schoelcher, initially published in 1948 with a preface by Aimé Césaire that specifies the conditions in which the liberating decree was hard-won, as well as the strong opposition of the colonists to its application. The whole constitutes a fundamental work, since historians have gathered for the first time the essential texts of Schoelcher's combat before abolition, his decree of 1848 and all the intervention writings of the famous French abolitionist until his death. Its other interest is this famous preface by Césaire, a magnificent text in which the Martinican poet opens the gigantic site of the work of memory and history on slavery.