L'Esclavage des noirs, ou la mauvaise conscience d'Olympe de Gouges

摘要

René Tarin : L'Esclavage des noirs and Olympe de Gouges' Guilty Conscience. In December 1789 the Théâtre de la Nation staged L'Esclavage des noirs ou l'heureux naufrage, by Olympe de Gouges. This production was not a success, but like all her works the play was noteworthy for the unrest and scuffles it occasioned. The colonial lobby saw it as a threat. Some denounced the author's subversive aims ; did men declared free by the Declaration of Rights stop being free in the colonies ? Olympe de Gouges' play is part of the debate on the colonial issue, a major political question in the period 1789-1794, and it illustrates what was at stake and the contradictions of the debate.