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Observations sur la traite des noirs, en réponse au rapport de M. Courvoisier sur la pétition de M. Morenas, par M. l'Abbé Giudicelly, Ancien préfet apostolique du Sénégal et de Gorée

Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Observations Slave Trade Response French Petition Morenas Senegal Colonies Africa

Published in support of Joseph Morenas's 1820 petition against the slave trade in Senegal, Abbé Giudicelly's observations were based on his first hand experience of the colonial administration in Senegal in 1816-18. Accused of "imposture and extravagance" (5) by the authorities, in this pamphlet Giudicelly defends himself and Morenas, reiterating that French slave ships were still calling at Senegal and being captured by the British navy on their way to the Americas, as reported in the press. As an eye-witness to the slave trade, Giudicelly gives further details of events alluded to by Morenas, including names of slave traders, and testimonies of captured slaves.

Giudicelly's Observations were much cited in British abolitionist publications of the 1820s, including Statements illustrative of the Nature of the Slave Trade (1824), A Short Review of the Slave Trade (1827), Second Report of the Female Society for Birmingham (1827) etc. His description of a conversation with a twenty year old female slave in Senegal, who asked him why white people do not prevent the slave trade,was picked up by the British abolitionist movement and appears repeatedly in their writings.