Schoelcher, Victor [key], 1804–93, French humanitarian and statesman. Long involved in the abolition movement, he presided (1848) over a commission that secured the abolition of slavery in French territory. He opposed the coup of Louis Napoleon (later Napoleon III) of Dec., 1851, and was forced into exile in England until Napoleon's fall in 1870. Elected to the national assembly, he sat with the extreme left. He became senator for life in 1875.
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