“They Are Free with Me”

Abstract Abolitionist lawmakers promulgated policies during the July Monarchy designed to ameliorate the conditions of enslaved people in France's colonies. These reforms focused on family life and curtailing abusive corporal punishment. Scholars have argued these policies were weak and ineffective. However, a series of lawsuits, filed by both enslaved and freed women, reveals how reform engendered conflicts before emancipation in 1848. These lawsuits reveal three important dynamics about the final years of French slavery: how abolitionists drew on these cases to advance reform priorities, how colonial elites reinforced slavery in response, and the critical role enslaved and freed women played as Antillean abolitionists.