Paper short abstract:

After the abolition decree in Algeria in 1848, slaves were still held under servitude by the colonial officers, as well as the Church and the Muslim Scholars. This is the case even if all of these categories claim the opposite.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I explore the limitations of the abolition of slavery in Algeria from the mid to the end of the nineteenth century. Looking at colonial reports, slave sale, and emancipation records, I examine how captivity, labor exploitation, and social subjugation continue to permeate Algerian society after emancipation. In fact, I show that the revolutionary decree abolishing slavery in Algeria in 1848 turned out to be a dead letter. This was witnessed by the slaves themselves who struggled to attain their freedom. I argue in this paper that military officers, the Catholic Church, and Muslim scholars were agents of slavery, rather than committed to emancipation. While the colonial military officers were struggling to attract trans-Saharan traders, they closed their eyes when it came to commerce in human begins. The Catholic Church developed a scheme to recruit slaves in exchange for their freedom, which was effective between 1889 and 1892. Muslim scholars, ignored by the colonial forces, tended to devise strategies to disguise the sales of captives, such as the case of 1905 Berriane. In sum, all actors contributed in the expansion of slavery in Algeria during the so-called era of abolition. This study engaged with a broader historiography on slave studies in Africa, colonialism, imperialism, and emancipation.