French officials euphemized forced labor to distance themselves from slavery

Evidence

In passing this decree the government stressed “obligatory public labor” rather than “forced labor” in references to French labor policies. The term “forced labor,” it was argued, evoked the horrors of the slave trade, whereas “obligatory public labor” underscored progress. It is important to note that although Paris passed this decree in 1930, it was not promulgated in West Africa until three years later. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 1407

Categorization

• DEFINE: The insistence on ‘obligatory public labor’ over ‘forced labor’ is a precise naming/euphemism taxonomy of how republican France reframed coercion as progress.
• ADDENDUM: Parallels the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ pattern of how terminology is deployed to signal civilization versus barbarism.
• DEEPTHINKING: Euphemism as civilizational self-image — the colonizer rewrites its own coercive practice in the vocabulary of its stated ideals — deserves sustained reflection on how supposedly humanitarian missions maintain moral coherence while coercing.