Challenges in Commemorating the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the Académie d'Amiens Poetry Contest of 1819 and 1820

Abstract:

This article considers the timing of the Académie d'Amiens poetry contest on "L'Abolition de la traite des Nègres" (1819–20), the little-known predecessor to the Académie française prix de poésie on "L'Abolition de la traite des Noirs" (1823). The Amiens concours attempted to offer a timely commemoration of the slave trade's abolition. Close readings of the competition's archival records, including twelve submitted poems and two reports, suggest reasons why a winner was never chosen. The persistence of the clandestine slave trade and pro-slavery arguments blaming abolitionism for the recent events of the Haitian Revolution challenged the possibility and value of the proposed commemoration. The Amiens contest ultimately bears witness to a shift in contemporary perceptions of the slave trade's abolition during the Bourbon Restoration: from the celebration of an event to the realization that its history was far from over.