Résumé :

Monuments designed to last for eternity and mark the union of the faithful through the sacred, religious buildings no longer carried the same message during the French Revolution: considered as vestiges of a despised Ancien Régime, they remained places where a cult was practiced that kept the people submissive to the king and imposed the most blind devotion on them under the threat of Hell. Should they be destroyed or preserved? The question was debated until the Directoire and the Consulate. The article reports on the political vision defended by Barbault Royer, a free man of color of Indo-European descent, to whom we have devoted an essay, Le Métis révolutionnaire, homme de lettres et voyageur engagé (Paris, Garnier, 2021, 341 p.). This Jacobin, a disciple of Helvétius, was originally from Isle de France, a slave colony where forced conversions were practiced under the rule of its Intendant General, Pierre Poivre. His speeches at the Rochefort People's Society, newspaper articles, and reports written between 1791 and the end of the Consulate advocated for the vigorous de-Christianization of the nation. However, in 1800, he published a travelogue entitled His speeches at the Rochefort People's Society, newspaper articles, and reports written between 1791 and the end of the Consulate advocated for the vigorous de-Christianization of the nation. However, in 1800, he published a travelogue entitled Voyage dans les départemens du Nord, de la Lys, de l'Escaut, etc. etc., pendant les années VII et VIII (Journey through the Departments of the North, the Lys, the Scheldt, etc., during the years VII and VIII), by citizen Barbault-Royer, former High Juror of Saint-Domingue, in which he opposed the destruction of the vestiges of Catholicism without regard for their artistic or historical value. He argued for their preservation, likening them to the antiquities exhibited in the Museum, about which he wrote in issue no. 239 of May 9, 1798, of the Journal de Paris: “Metal monuments bring back majestic memories; they speak more vividly to the soul than the tablets of history, especially in a government modeled on ancient forms.” (Journey through the Departments of the North, the Lys, the Scheldt, etc., during the years VII and VIII), by citizen Barbault-Royer, former High Juror of Saint-Domingue, in which he opposed the destruction of the vestiges of Catholicism without regard for their artistic or historical value. He argued for their preservation, likening them to the antiquities exhibited in the Museum, about which he wrote in issue no. 239 of May 9, 1798, of the Journal de Paris: “Metal monuments bring back majestic memories; they speak more vividly to the soul than the tablets of history, especially in a government modeled on ancient forms.”