In April 1848, France abolished slavery in its colonies. In Saint-Louis, Senegal, a permanent French fort and city since 1659, half of the population was consequently freed from the bonds of servitude. Though generously compensated, masters demonstrated their vigorous opposition to the abolition decree. Slaves' reactions were limited to a few public festive demonstrations. Many of them remained in the service of their masters. This opens the question of the specificity of slavery in Saint-Louis, where slaves were fully integrated with the master's family–a radical contrast to the plantation model of slavery. Focusing on the status and the functions of these slaves, it is possible to demonstrate that despite the masters' ideology, St. Louis remained an actual slave society from the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

Ibrahima Thioub is professor of history at the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. He heads the regional center of excellence bringing together the universities of Dakar; Niamey Niger; Yaoundé 1 and Ngaoundere, Cameroon; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; and the State University of Haiti; around the project: Slavery and Trafficking: Communities, Identities, and Frontiers. His research focuses on memory and historiography of slavery and drafts in Africa. He is currently preparing a book Slavery in Everyday Life in Saint-Louis du Senegal (XVIII- XIX centuries).