Henri Grégoire papers

1809-1850

A catholic clergyman, abolitionist, and statesman, Henri Grégoire was a founding member of the anti-slavery Société des Amis des Noirs, and played an active role in the politics of France from the opening of the General Estates in 1789 to the restoration of the monarchy. Grégoire went to the National Assembly as a representative of the clergy, but soon sided with the Third Estate and became one of its more radical and outspoken leaders. He fought for universal suffrage and the abolition of all privileges, and was one of the first priests to take the oath of loyalty to the new Constitution. He became both president of the Assembly and Constitutional Bishop of Blois in 1791. Elected to the National Convention in 1792, he played a major role in the abolition of slavery in France's colonies and in the granting of civil and political rights to French Jews. Grégoire was also a member of the Conseil des Cinq-Cents. Elected senator under Napoléon and to the Chamber of Deputies under Louis XVIII, he led the opposition in parliament for the return to democracy and the republican constitution. He was the author of "An Inquiry Concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties and Literature of Negroes," "An Essay on the Physical, Moral and Political Reformation of the Jews," and "A History of Religious Cults." The Henri Grégoire Papers consist of miscellaneous religious writings and annotations, and draft letters and notes sent by Grégoire to his editor and colleagues, many of them recorded on the back of incoming letters. Included are several handwritten quotations from the religious writings of the French philosopher and economist Claude Henri de Saint-Simon and an excerpt from a Declaration by Toussaint-Louverture on the religion of the blacks in Saint-Domingue. The writings deal predominantly with issues of Catholic dogma, the infallibility of the Pope, problems of jurisdiction between the Vatican and Catholic bishops, comparative religion, and the exegesis of various biblical texts.