Plan of the brig negrier la vigilante and its interior fittings

The slave trade began in France in 1673. At the time, the English and Dutch dominated the Atlantic trade. France quickly caught up with the competition and in the 18th century became the second largest slave-trading nation after England. In all, 17 French ports took part in some 3,000 slave trade expeditions, launching numerous ships on the Atlantic routes.

La Vigilante was one of the slave ships taking part in these campaigns. On leaving the African coast, once the holds had been emptied of European cargo, the purchased slaves were piled up, sometimes as many as 600 on board. This is the stage depicted in the lithograph by Charles Philibert de Lasteyrie.

Documents showing the living conditions of the slaves on board were used by abolitionist movements to illustrate the barbarity of the slave trade. The plans for La Vigilante were published in 1823 to denounce the system of human exploitation.

Slave ships rarely differed from other merchant vessels, except in some cases for the presence of a larger tween-deck, which allowed the creation of an intermediate height or "scaffold" if necessary, as on La Vigilante. The most popular type of ship from the eighteenth century onwards was the brig, whose speed and manoeuvrability meant it could make shorter crossings to minimise losses and make the triangular circuit more profitable. The speed of brigs made them the preferred vessel of slave traders after the ban on the slave trade following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, enabling them to continue their illicit activity while avoiding capture and repression.