One of the amazing things I’ve discovered from reading various books has been Lafayette’s goal for freedom for all people, which grew his work in the abolitionist movement.
Some quick highlights:
AMERICAN REVOLUTION INFLUENCE
Lafayette had extensive discussions regarding the need to end slavery with a fellow aide-de-camp during the American Revolution, John Laurens, both of whom were in their early 20s.
In 1781, Lafayette strategized with James Armistead, a slave, to become a double agent so he could spy on British General Cornwallis in Yorktown.
Armistead fed valuable information to General Lafayette that helped win the battle.
After the Yorktown surrender, British officers angrily recognized Armistead standing near Lafayette.
AN IDEA FROM FRANCE
Lafayette wrote Washington in 1783 about his desire to buy land in Cayenne, today’s French Guiana, where slaves would be freed.
1784 LAFAYETTE’S RETURN TRIP TO AMERICA
In 1784, Lafayette returns to America to visit friends made during the war, during which Lafayette encouraged the abolition of slavery.
After reuniting with James Armistead in Richmond, Lafayette used his influence to have Armistead freed.
Once freed, Armistead took the name Lafayette as his own.
BUYING LAND TO FREE SLAVES
Although he tried to enlist financial backing, including from King Louis XVI, Lafayette finally used his own money in 1785 to purchase two plantations in French Guiana, which came with 48 slaves.
Wanting to pay them a wage, educate them, and give them free time with their families, his goal was to manumit them.
ABOLITIONIST SOCIETIES
In 1787, Lafayette helped found an abolition society in France, then joined two others, one in Britain, and one in America.
FRENCH REVOLUTION
With the onset of the French Revolution, Lafayette turned his attention to political matters in Paris.
Meanwhile, his wife, Adrienne, wrote many letters on behalf of her husband to advance the cause of the abolition movement.
As Lafayette’s attentions were increasingly drawn to the unfolding revolutionary drama in France of 1789, the running of the Cayenne estates fell to his wife Adrienne. She relished the role and corresponded frequently with the estate managers as well as with the priests at a nearby seminary whom she asked to look after the religious welfare of the slaves. When Lafayette was imprisoned in 1792, his properties were confiscated and the Cayenne blacks were resold as slaves. However, Lafayette later took heart from the fact that when the French National Convention freed all slaves in 1794, Cayenne was the only French colony that did not experience great social upheaval. –Lafayette College
