Victor Schœlcher's Tomb

This room holds the tombs of three men who fought for equality and peace from the 19th to the 20th century. From left to right they are Félix Éboué, Jean Jaurès, and Victor Schœlcher. None of the names may sound familiar, but each left a lasting mark on the history of human rights in France. Félix Éboué was France's first Black colonial governor, who sought to guarantee the rights of colonized peoples. Jean Jaurès was a leading French socialist politician who made the suffering of workers in harsh conditions known. Victor Schœlcher led the movement to abolish slavery in the French colonies, and he lies alongside the tomb of his father, Marc Schœlcher.

Here we'll briefly tell the story of Schœlcher, a pioneer of abolition in the French colonies. In the late 1820s, he set off for the United States, Mexico, and other places on behalf of his father's porcelain business. There he came face to face with the terrible conditions endured by Black slaves in the French colonies. Shocked as a human being by the sight of people not treated as human, he returned to France, declined to take over his father's business, and committed himself to the abolition movement. In 1848 he became France's Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, and on April 27 of that year he pushed through the law abolishing slavery in the colonies, formally declaring slavery abolished. Schœlcher kept writing to protest colonial injustices until the day he died.