Victor Schœlcher

Victor Schœlcher ( born July 22, 1804 in Paris, † December 25, 1893 in Houilles in Paris) was a French politician and opponent of slavery in the French colonies.

Life

The parents of Schœlcher came from Fessenheim in Alsace, he himself grew up in Paris. After his education at the Lycée Condorcet he frequented in the artistic circles of Paris and met George Sand, Hector Berlioz and Franz Liszt know.

He inherited parental china factory. For a business trip to Mexico, Cuba and the southern United States 1829-31, he met the then prevailing there still slavery know.

After his return to Paris he sold the factory and began to politically and journalistically to engage for the abolition of slavery.

As a Member of the National Assembly for Martinique in 1848, he was the initiator of the décret d' abolition de l' esclavage du 27 avril 1848 ( decree on the abolition of slavery on April 27, 1848), proclaimed on 22 May 1848 that in the complete abolition of slavery France and its colonies are wrote. 1849 and 1850 he represented Guadeloupe at the National Assembly. After the coup of Napoleon III. In 1851 he went into exile in Belgium and later to London, where he in 1870 after the end of the reign of Napoleon III. again returned to Paris and from 1871 to 1875 again Martinique represented in the National Assembly. In 1875 he was appointed a senator for life.

Victor Schœlcher died in 1893 at the age of 89 years at his home ( 24 rue d' Argenteuil, today Schoelcher Avenue ) in Houilles. After his death, he was buried beside his father at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Honors

Upon resolution of the National Assembly of the Fourth Republic, the remains of Victor Schœlcher and his father on May 20, 1949, transferred simultaneously with those of the colonial politician of African descent Félix Éboué the Panthéon and buried in a grave of honor.

During his lifetime, took over in 1888, the then Case- Navire called third largest municipality in Martinique the name Schœlcher to. Also named after him is that he initiated in and year of his death opened Bibliothèque Schœlcher in Fort- de -France, which he donated his substantial collection of books.

In 1952, a 5,000 -franc note was put into circulation with his portrait. Since 1982, the house of his ancestors housed in Fessenheim a museum dedicated to him. Several schools and streets bear his name.

François Mitterrand put the day of his inauguration as President of France in 1981 down a rose on the grave of honor Schœlcher.