Schiavi, illuministi, storici

This paper deals with the issue of the relationship between Enlightenment and slavery from an historiographical point of view, highlighting how far in the last decades studies have been revisited to such an extent that consolidated interpretations have been completely overturned. After being subtracted to the oblivion to which the 19th century condemned them and after being elevated to fathers of antislavery, Enlightenment thinkers gradually became, on the historiographical scene, first moderate critics of slavery, then, in recent studies, its supporters. These pages aim to reconstruct how this process occurred, analyzing studies and works on French Enlightenment from the beginning of the 19th century until today. They also want to bring out the distortions which the trial about slavery in a catholic as well as in a secular culture against the Enlightenment have generated also among not specialized public opinion.