What was true of the naturalization bill was equally true of adapted education, the decision to suppress certain customs, and the nonrecognition of slavery during Roume's tenure. In these instances as well, the French were not content simply to qualify Africans as barbarians. They were barbarians, in each instance, capable of-and in the process of receiving-republican civilization. By inaugurating policies that were consistent with France's revolutionary heritage, Roume here too managed to normalize the presence of so many sub- jects in a nation of citizens.

Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The …, loc. 364