French officials justified abolition by claiming freed slaves worked harder than they did enslaved

Evidence

Liberty is now acquired … Other indications which are growing stronger daily further testify to the excellence of the task realized, and reinforce our conviction that there is a happy overlap between the immediate interests of colonization and the generous humanitarian principles whose implementation we are pursuing. It suffices, in this context, to consider the still slow but spontaneous changes that are occurring in the native regime du travail. Since the ancient conditions of production have been abruptly modified, the pressure of economic necessity is currently encouraging an organization of free labor; this organization is assuming a variety of interesting forms, depending on the region in question, such as labor contracts in agricultural areas … Among other consequences, it is interesting to note that this latter [labor form) indicates clearly the initiative and the intelligent activity of free labor, as opposed to the proverbial apathy of the black employed in servile tasks. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 343

Categorization

• XREF: The French claim that ‘economic necessity’ naturally drives free labor recalls rhetoric in the reader’s broader theme of imposed Western labor/value systems on West African society.