Club de l'hôtel de Massiac or the Massiac Club was a political club in Paris in France during the French Revolution.Augustin Challamel, Les clubs contre-révolutionnaires, Paris, 1895 The club was formed on 20 August 1789 and dissolved after the

Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution ( or ; ) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolution was the only known Slave rebellion, slave up ...

in August 1791. It was situated in the Hotel Massiac in Paris, hence its name. It was a counter-revolutionary club composed of slave owning planters from the

French Antilles The French West Indies or French Antilles (, ; ) are the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean: * The two Overseas department and region of France, overseas departments of: ** Guadeloupe, including the islands of Bass ...

with the purpose of promoting their interests in the French parliament, particularly in regards to the issue of

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, and to lobby against the implementation of the

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human and civil rights document from the French Revolution; the French title can be translated in the modern era as "Decl ...

and the

abolition Abolition refers to the act of putting an end to something by law, and may refer to: *Abolitionism, abolition of slavery *Capital punishment#Abolition of capital punishment, Abolition of the death penalty, also called capital punishment *Abolitio ...

of slavery in the

colonies A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...

, while also working against the abolitionist

Society of the Friends of the Blacks The Society of the Friends of the Blacks (''Société des amis des Noirs'' or ''Amis des noirs'') was a French abolitionist society founded by Jacques Pierre Brissot and Étienne Clavière and directly inspired by the Society for Effecting the ...

. Through pro-slavery parliamentary lobbying, the club delayed the implementation of the rights introduced in Paris for a long time.

Club at Hotel Massiac - Lobbying in favour of slavery

Louis-Claude-René de Mordant (1746-1806), who styled himself Marquis of Massiac, owned a private mansion, formerly Hôtel de Pomponne, located Place des Victoires in Paris. He inherited it in 1770 from his great-uncle, Claude-Louis d'Espinchal, the Minister of the Navy. In 1787,

Brissot Jacques Pierre Brissot (, 15 January 1754 – 31 October 1793), also known as Brissot de Warville, was a French journalist, abolitionist, and revolutionary leading the faction of Girondins (initially called Brissotins) at the National Conventio ...

had founded the

, which wanted to abolish the slave trade in the

. From 20 August 1789, a “White Settlers’ Club” began to meet at the Hotel Massiac, the mansion of the Marquis of Massiac, in order to combat the influence of the

. The Massiac Club of White Settlers initially brought together 70 members, all slave owners in

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colonization of the Americas, French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the isl ...

or the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

, and had more than 400 members during the 1791 debate in the Assembly on the colonies.

Opposition to the Society of Friends of Blacks

Since 15 July 1789, a first assembly of "settlers residing in Paris" met at the initiative of Louis-Marthe de Gouy d'Arsy in order to obtain the representation of the colonies in the Assembly and the creation in the colonies of colonial assemblies exercising local political control. The club created correspondence companies in ports. This was to prevent the Assembly from taking measures hindering the interests of the settlers. The Massiac club was dominated by personalities, like Gouy d'Arsy, from the nobility and holders of immense fortunes in

, as well as by the Martinican Creole Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, theoretician of the club. The group relied in the Assembly on Malouet, Barnave, as well as on Alexandre de Lameth. In his Monday session of 8 March 1790, Sieur Barnave, rapporteur of the Colonial Committee, read a report on the work of this committee, then submitted to the Assembly a draft decree whose preamble declared that: ''"Considering the colonies as a part of the French empire and desiring them to enjoy the happy regeneration which has taken place there, she however never intended to include them in the Constitution which she decreed for the kingdom, and to subject them to laws which could be incompatible with their local conveniences or particulars”.'' Six articles followed which indicated the means for each colony to equip itself with the administration which 'best suited' its prosperity and that of its inhabitants by conforming to the principles which bound the colonies to the metropolis by "ensuring the conservation of their respective interests". The Massiac Club campaigned against the equality rights of free men of colour as well as against the most active defenders of

equality rights Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain Public good (economics), publ ...

. As such, the club accused

Abbé Grégoire ''Abbé'' (from Latin , in turn from Greek , , from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is also the title used for lower-ranki ...

of acting under the improper influence of his brother who was married to a woman of colour.

The claim for twenty seats in the Estates-General

Based on the demographic weight of

, including

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, the delegation claimed to obtain twenty seats in the Estates General. The representation of Saint-Domingue was finally reduced to six, but the question of the status of men was raised, opening a breach in the system of slavery. After the slave revolt of 1791 (Haitian Revolution), many planters fled the island and formed French refugee communities of Saint-Domingue in America, especially in the southern parts of the United States, where the center of gravity of the settler lobby moved. Louis Marthe de Gouy d'Arsy was

guillotine A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...

d, but other orators and elected officials from Saint-Domingue settled in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, the US capital of the time, such as Denis Nicolas Cottineau de Kerloguen.

Main members

* Yves Cormier (1740-1805), secretary then president of the Massiac Club, as well as the Monarchist Club; previously prosecutor of the king at the Presidial of Rennes. He was the son of Yves-Gille Cormier, a merchant, general farmer of the bishopric of Rennes, and alderman of the city. * Louis Claude René de Mordant (1746-1806), known as the Marquis de Massiac. His father, Louis Mordant, ennobled in 1759, master advisor at the Court of Auditors of Rouen, had amassed a very large fortune thanks to commercial speculation within the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. * Louis Marthe de Gouy d'Arsy, deputy of the nobility of

in the Estates General of 1789 * Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, Creole settler, scholar, slave owner, club theorist and inventor of the concept of "aristocracy of the epidermis". * Alexandre de Lameth, initially a member of the Society of Friends of Blacks * Charles-Malo de Lameth, brother of Alexandre de Lameth.

Bibliography

Augustin Challamel, ''Les Clubs contre-révolutionnaires : cercles, comités, sociétés, salons, réunions, cafés, restaurants et librairies,'' ounter-revolutionary Clubs: circles, committees, societies, salons, meetings, cafes, restaurants and bookstores Paris, L. Cerf,1895, pp. 633 Gabriel Debien, ''Colons de Saint-Domingue et la Révolution : essai sur le club Massiac (août 1789-août 1792)'' he Colonists of Saint-Domingue and the Revolution: Essay on the Massiac club (August 1789-August 1792) Paris, Armand Colin,1953, pp. 414 Jacques Thibau, ''Le Temps de Saint-Domingue : l’esclavage et la Révolution française'' he Times of Saint-Domingue: slavery and the French Revolution Paris, Jean-Claude Lattès, 1989, pp. 384 Déborah Liébart, ''Un groupe de pression contre-révolutionnaire: le club Massiac sous la Constituante'' counter-revolutionary pressure group: the Massiac club under the Constituent Assembly ''Annales historiques de la révolution française'' istorical Annals of the French Revolution Paris, October–December 2008, p. 29–50

References