France legally abolished racial distinctions among free people in 1792 to save slavery

Evidence

On April 4, 1792, the National Assembly declared: “the hommes de couleur and the nègres libres must enjoy, along with the white colons, equality of political rights.” They would be allowed to vote in local elections and be eligible for all positions if they had met the financial criteria for “active” citizenship. The decree was presented as a way of responding to the “the uprising of the slaves”; it noted that the “unity” of citizens was “the only thing that can preserve their property from pillage and fire.” … From that day forward, there would be only two categories of people in the colonies, free and enslaved; and there would be no racial distinctions among the free. It was a dramatic step. In the heart of the slave societies of the Americas, legal distinctions on the basis of race were outlawed. With free-coloreds so numerous in Saint-Domingue, the decree assured that people of African descent would have significant political power. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 444

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s wider interest in how slave revolts expanded political horizons — and to the broader Atlantic revolutionary narrative.
• QUESTION: Financial criteria for ‘active’ citizenship — what exactly did these rules exclude, and how did this shape Saint-Domingue’s new electorate?