France’s revolutionary Convention framed racial equality as one more aristocracy to overthrow

Evidence

When the men entered the Convention, a deputy rose and announced that it was a great day. While the “aristocracy” of both nobility and church had been destroyed by the Revolution, the “aristocracy of the skin” had remained strong. All that, however, had just changed. “Equality is consecrated; a black, a yellow [i.e., mulatto], and a white have taken their seat among us, in the name of the free citizens of Saint-Domingue.” The Convention erupted with applause, and another deputy asked that particular recognition be given to the two free men of color—Belley and Mills— whose class had been oppressed “for so many years.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 585

Categorization

• DEFINE: “Aristocracy of the skin” is the period’s revealing framing connecting racial hierarchy to the aristocracy the Revolution had already destroyed.