Escaping Slavery and Building Diasporic Communities in French Soudan and Senegal, Ca. 1880-1940

Abstract

... Too little is known of the fate of formerly enslaved populations in the aftermath of slavery, especially in French West Africa, where slavery was abolished in 1905.1 Even less is known about slaves who obtained their freedom before the official end of slavery. Indeed, even before the French colonial authorities abolished slavery, many slaves had begun to escape. While some slaves gained their freedom by paying a ransom to their masters, many others used the new venues of emancipation offered by the French authorities, such as settling in liberty villages or being recruited in the French army. Some were eventually able to return to their homelands.2 Others founded new independent villages in the region where they had been enslaved, or migrated to wealthier areas, such as the Senegambian peanut basin.