Today is Remember French Slavery Day.

CHIRAC ET SARKOZY COMMÉMORENT ENSEMBLE L'ABOLITION DE L'ESCLAVAGE
[CHIRAC AND SARKOZY TOGETHER COMMEMORATE THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY]
PARIS 10 mai 2007 (AFP)

« NOUS DEVONS REGARDER CE PASSE SANS CONCESSION, MAIS AUSSI SANS ROUGIR. »
["WE MUST LOOK AT THIS PAST UNCOMPROMISINGLY, BUT ALSO WITHOUT BLUSHING."]
Jack Instructing On The Remembrance Of Slavery
JARDIN DU LUXEMBOURG 10 mai 2007 (Élysée)

Jack established this commemoration last year for the forgetful French to reflect on the second time France abolished French slavery on April 27, 1848. Jack apparently forgot to set aside a second date for the French to reflect on France's first abolition on February 4, 1794. Once for practice. A second time for show.

To help the French remember that which they barely know, there was to be a nice Web presentation about all this.

Le ministère de la culture et de la communication (Direction des Archives de France, Délégation aux célébrations nationales, Centre historique des archives nationales et Centre des archives d'outre-mer) et le ministère de l'Outre-mer vont réaliser conjointement un site Internet consacré à l'histoire de l'esclavage.

Ce nouveau site trouvera naturellement sa place dans le cadre de la collection des publications électroniques consacrée aux célébrations nationales (www.celebrations.culture.fr/).

... Le site est actuellement en cours d'élaboration. Il sera ouvert au public d'ici la fin de l'année 2006.

[The ministry of culture and communication (Administration of the Archives of France, Delegation to national celebrations, historical Center of national archives and Center of overseas archives) and the Outre-mer ministry will jointly produce an Internet site devoted to the history of slavery.

This new site will naturally find its place within the framework of the collection of the electronic publications devoted to the national celebrations (www.celebrations.culture.fr/).

... The site is currently under development. It will be opened to the public by the end of the year 2006.]

Hhmmm, it looks like someone forgot to put up the presentation (dead link lower left corner). While waiting on the government ministries, check out the Comité pour la Mémoire de l'Esclavage for some background.

As is his special gift, Jack has made a little speech for the occasion congratulating France for doing twice what was better done once.

Our seminal posts on French slavery can be found here and here. Last year's French Slave Day posts, here and here.

PFFT (What is this?): Two times a charm 2 | Rayonnement français 2½