During the five-year period that it remained active, the society published abolitionist literature and frequently addressed its concerns on a substantive political level in the National Assembly. In February 1794, the National Assembly passed the Law of 4 February 1794, which effectively abolished slavery and the slave trade and gave the formerly enslaved equal rights. This decision was later reversed under Napoleon, who moved to reinstate slavery in the French colonial empire, and unsuccessfully tried to regain control of Saint-Domingue, where a slave rebellion was underway.