French republicanism committed to opposing slavery and leading the European antislavery fight.

Evidence

At that time, the Second Republic had formally abolished the institution of slavery and all slave-trading. Any slave who touched French soil was automatically freed. Anyone who engaged in the buying and selling of slaves would be stripped of his or her citizenship. It had also established as a cardinal principle of republican ideology that France, in keeping with its liberal tradition and belief in the equality of all mankind, opposed slavery and remained at the head of the antislavery fight throughout Europe. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 326