 Slave rebellions in 1789, 1815 and 1822, plus the campaigns of abolitionists such as Cyrille Bissette and Victor Schoelcher, persuaded the French government to end slavery in the French West Indies in 1848.As a result, some plantation owners imported workers from India and China.Despite the abolition of slavery life scarcely improved for most Martinicans; class and racial tensions exploded into rioting in southern Martinique in 1870 following the arrest of Léopold Lubin, a black trader who retaliated after he was beaten by a Frenchman.