Enlightenment universalism made racial exclusion the sole unjustifiable barrier to free-colored citizenship

Evidence

The only justification for excluding them was race. For many thinkers influenced by Enlightenment universalism and revolutionary egalitarianism, the “aristocracy of the skin” that the planters were defending was a clear violation of everything the Revolution stood for. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 284

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Echoes the tension between revolutionary universalism and colonial slavery raised throughout the book’s opening chapters on the French Revolution’s reach.
• DEFINE: Introduces the period’s phrase ‘aristocracy of the skin’ as the planters’ defended racial hierarchy.

Related

• Wealth and education made race the only defensible basis for denying free-coloreds citizenship (similarity 0.87)
• The 1791 decree enfranchised only free-born coloreds, excluding the recently freed (similarity 0.80)
• Free-colored planters claimed the Code Noir promised them citizenship rights (similarity 0.79)
• Defenders of slavery argued free-coloreds were ingrates created by masters’ generosity (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Race alone justified excluding free men of color from citizenship #corroborates (0.85)
• Enlightenment antislavery coexisted with racist assumptions about Africans #expands (0.70) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 253