France issued the Code Noir in March 1685 to regulate slavery in its Caribbean colonies, creating a legal structure that supported plantation production and slave-based commerce. This colonial system shaped the demand for ships, credit, and imported labor that Atlantic ports such as Nantes would increasingly serve.
The first confirmed slave-trading expedition from Nantes dates to 1688. This marked Nantes’ entry into the transatlantic slave trade, linking the Loire estuary to African coastal trading zones and to plantation colonies in the Caribbean.
After the War of the Spanish Succession, Nantes’ Atlantic commerce expanded sharply, including voyages that fit the “triangular trade” pattern (European goods to Africa, captives to the Americas, colonial products back to France). Growth in this period helped make Nantes a major French port for colonial trade and related industries.
Across the 1700s, Nantes organized more slave-trade expeditions than any other French port, accounting for a very large share of France’s total. Profits from this trade fed local shipowning fortunes and strengthened Nantes’ connections to Caribbean plantation markets and to inland redistribution networks in France.
The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) created major risks for French shipping, including capture and blockade, and it disrupted long-distance trade. For a port like Nantes—deeply tied to colonial imports and exports—wartime conditions could sharply reduce voyages and profits, showing how dependent the port economy was on international conflict.
In October 1764, the slave ship Marie Séraphique (launched as Dannecourt) was built and launched at Nantes. Surviving images and plans associated with the ship have become well-known evidence of how French slaving voyages were organized and how captives were confined during the Middle Passage.
The Eden Treaty (a 1786 trade agreement between France and Great Britain) lowered some trade barriers and increased competition in certain manufactured goods. For French port cities involved in Atlantic commerce, it added new economic pressures at a time when colonial trade and shipping were already exposed to price swings and wartime risks.
In 1789, the French Revolution brought new debates about rights, citizenship, and the future of slavery and colonies. Nantes’ merchants and shipowners, heavily invested in Atlantic trade, faced growing uncertainty as political conflict began to affect colonial governance and commercial stability.
On the night of 21 August 1791, a major enslaved uprising began in Saint-Domingue, France’s richest sugar colony. Because Nantes traders had strong links to Caribbean plantation economies, the revolt threatened supply chains, debts, and the broader business model that relied on slavery and colonial exports.
On 29 June 1793, republican forces defended Nantes against a major royalist assault during the War in the Vendée. The city’s survival mattered beyond politics: continued control of Nantes helped preserve a key Atlantic gateway and river-based supply routes during a time of civil war and economic strain.
Between November 1793 and February 1794, mass executions by drowning occurred in Nantes during the Reign of Terror, ordered by representative-on-mission Jean-Baptiste Carrier. The violence reflected how revolutionary conflict and civil war overwhelmed local institutions, damaging Nantes’ social stability at a moment when maritime commerce was already under pressure.
On 4 February 1794, the National Convention voted to abolish slavery in all French colonies. This decision directly challenged the slave-based Atlantic trade system that had fueled Nantes’ 18th-century prosperity and marked a major turning point in the relationship between the French state, colonial production, and port-city commerce.
Port of Nantes and French Atlantic trade networks (1680-1793)