French administrators combined racist stereotypes with free-labor economic liberalism to legitimate forced labor.

Evidence

The 1924 circular confirms the combination of racist and liberal assumptions in French thinking at the time. Although Carde accepted the stereotype of the lazy African, this did not prevent him from applying the principles of economic liberalism to African labor, once it had been forcibly mobilized. One classic tenet of free-labor ideology was a belief that the free market would ensure equitable remuneration and decent working conditions. These fair prices, and the material rewards to which they gave access, provided the incentive to work harder and better. Carde’s insistence that forced labor in West Africa prove remunerative to the farmer subjected to its provisions reflected this ideology. His very emphasis upon the notion that fair prices be paid for crops grown under compulsion suggests that the Government General’s long-term objective remained a free-labor economy in which the self-directed laborer worked to satisfy ever-expanding wants. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 803