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The present contribution analyzes the conditions that made possible the construction of the issue of reparations for the harm suffered by slaves in metropolitan and overseas France as a public problem (1998-2001). The commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery offered an opportunity for memory entrepreneurs to further problematize and publicize the memory of slavery and the African and transatlantic slave trade. Rather than glorifying the greatness of the French Republic, which freed the slaves from their chains, the debates now evolved around the conditions under which “reparations” for the harm suffered by the victims of slavery and their descendants would be conceivable. The article focuses on the collective actors who initiated the process, on the certification and labeling spaces, as well as on the instruments mobilized that contributed to the construction of reparations as a public problem.