The issue of slavery has been touched upon often in the course
of history. The institution of slavery was addressed by French
intellectuals during the Enlightenment. Later, during the French
Revolution, the National Assembly issued the Declaration of the
Rights of Man, which declared the equality of all men. Issues
were raised concerning the application of this statement to the
French colonies in the West Indies, which used slaves to work
the land. As they had different interests in mind, the
philosophes, slave owners, and political leaders took opposing
views on the interpretation of universal equality. Many of the
philosophes, the leaders of the Enlightenment, were against
slavery. They held that all people had a natural dignity that
should be recognized. Voltaire, an 18th century philosophe,
pointed out that hundreds of thousands of slaves were
sacrificing their lives just so the Europeans could quell their
new taste for sugar, te...