Code noir

The ( , Black code) was a decree passed by King Louis XIV of France in 1685, defining the conditions of slavery in the Antilles, then also Louisiana, and served as the code for slavery conduct in the French colonies up until 1789, the year marking the beginning of the French Revolution. The decree restricted the activities of free people of color, mandated conversion to Catholicism for all enslaved people throughout the empire, defined the punishments meted out to them, and ordered the expulsion of all Jews from France's colonies. The code has been described by historian of modern France Tyler Stovall as "one of the most extensive official documents on race, slavery, and freedom ever drawn up in Europe".

The ( , Black code) was a decree passed by King Louis XIV of France in 1685, defining the conditions of slavery in the Antilles, then also Louisiana, and served as the code for slavery conduct in the French colonies up until 1789, the year marking the beginning of the French Revolution. The decree restricted the activities of free people of color, mandated conversion to Catholicism for all enslaved people throughout the empire, defined the punishments meted out to them, and ordered the expulsion of all Jews from France's colonies. The code has been described by historian of modern France Tyler Stovall as "one of the most extensive official documents on race, slavery, and freedom ever drawn up in Europe". ===Inception=== In 1681, the King decided to create a statute for the black population of the French Caribbean and delegated its writing to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who, in turn, requested memoranda from the colonial intendant of Martinique, Jean-Baptiste Patoulet and later from his replacement, Michel Bégon, as well as the governor general of the Caribbean, Charles de Courbon de Blénac (1622–1696). The Mémoire (memorandum) of 30 April 1681 from the King to the intendant (who was probably Colbert) expressed the utility of making an ordinance specific to the Antilles. The study, which incorporated local legal customs, decisions, and jurisprudence of the Sovereign Council, as well as a number of rulings by the King's Council, was challenged by the members of the Sovereign Council. When negotiations settled, the draft was sent to the chancellery, which retained what was essential and only reinforced or streamlined the articles such that they were compatible with preexisting laws and institutions. The earliest of these constituent ordinances was drafted by the Naval Minister (secrétaire d'État à la Marine) Marquis de Seignelay and promulgated in March 1685 by King Louis XIV with the title " ". The only known manuscript of this law to have been preserved is currently in the French National Overseas Archives (Archives nationales d'outre-mer). The Marquis de Seignelay wrote the draft using legal briefs written by the first intendant of the French islands of the Americas, , as well as those of his successor Michel Bégon. Legal historians have debated whether other sources, such as Roman slavery laws, were consulted in the drafting of this original text. Studies of correspondence from Patoulet suggest that the 1685 ordinance drew mostly on local regulations provided in the colonial intendant's memoranda. Based on the fundamental law that any man who sets foot on French soil is free, various parliaments refused to pass the original Ordonnance ou édit de mars 1685 sur les esclaves des îles de l'Amérique, which was ultimately instituted only in the colonies for which the edict was written: the Sovereign Council of Martinique on 6 August 1685, Guadeloupe on 10 December of the same year, and in Petit-Goâve before the Council of the French colony of Saint-Domingue on 6 May 1687. Finally, the Code was passed before the councils of Cayenne and Guiana on 5 May 1704. ==Summary== )]] In the preamble of the Code noir, it is stated that it only applies to the Islands of French America (in the Caribbean). In 60 articles, the document specified the following: ===Maternal impact=== Code Noir acknowledged the existence of slave families and marriages. The Code recognized slaves' marriages provided they were contracted according to the Catholic rite, and attempted to regulate family life among slaves. Mothers played a central role in maintaining family structures, and the Code addressed issues related to the separation of families through sales or other means. The child born to a slave woman was a slave; the child born to a free woman was free, per Article XIII: "...if a male slave has married a free woman, their children, either male or female, shall be free as is their mother, regardless of their father's condition of slavery. And if the father is free and the mother a slave, the children shall also be slaves". Article XII states that "the children born in marriage to a male and a female slave will belong to the mother's master if they are owned by two different masters". This reliance upon the mother's status for the determination of the child's status placed the majority of the slave-producing burden upon the enslaved women of the French colonies. ===Prohibitions=== Slaves must not carry weapons except with the permission of their masters for hunting (art. 15) Slaves belonging to different masters must not gather at any time under any circumstance (art. 16) Slaves who contravened this article were at the very least whipped and branded, and could be sentenced to death by a judge in cases of recidivism. Masters had to compensate their neighbors for any damage suffered, and had to pay a fine of ten crowns, doubled for a second offence Slaves should not sell sugar cane, even with permission of their masters (art. 18) Slaves who contravened this article would be whipped, while consenting masters and the purchaser would be fined ten livres. Slaves should not sell any other commodity without permission of their masters (art. 19–21) Masters must give food (quantities specified) and clothes to their slaves, including who were sick or old (art. 22–27) Slaves under ten had to be given half the specified quantities The food could not be replaced by cane brandy. Slaves were not allowed to obtain these supplies by working on their own behalf during some days of the week. Slaves could not work or be sold on Sunday or Catholic holy days. The penalty was the confiscation of the slave and of the product of their work (art. 6) Slaves could testify in court, but their testimony could not be considered proof or be the basis for a ruling (art.30) A slave who struck their master, or the master's wife, mistress, mistress' husband, or their master or mistress's children with bruising, bloodshed or on the face would be executed (art. 33) 'Excess' (?) and assaults would be severely punished, if not by execution (art. 34) Slaves stealing (meaning, with the use of force, threat of force or use of fear) horses or cows would receive 'afflictive sentences', possibly execution (art. 35) Larceny by domestic servants was also punishable by death in France Theft of sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, sugar cane, millet and vegetables would be punished, depending on the details of the theft, by a judge, by whipping and branding (art. 36) These kinds of punishments (branding by iron, mutilation, etc.) also existed in metropolitan France's penological practice at the time. The third attempt to escape was punishable by death (art. 38) A slave husband and wife and their prepubescent children under the same master were not to be sold separately (art. 47) ===Punishments=== Fugitive slaves absent for a month should have their ears cut off and be branded. For another month their hamstring would be cut and they would be branded again. A third time they would be executed (art. 38) Free blacks who harboured fugitive slaves would be beaten by the slave owner and fined 300 pounds of sugar per day of refuge given; other free people who harboured fugitive slaves would be fined 10 per day (art. 39) If a master had falsely accused a slave of a crime and as a result, the slave had been put to death, the master would be fined (art. 40) Masters might chain and beat slaves but might not torture nor mutilate them (art. 42) Masters or 'commandants' who killed their slaves would be prosecuted by agents of the law and punished (art. 43) However, in reality, the conviction of masters for the murder or torture of slaves was very rare. Slaves were community property and could not be mortgaged, and must be equally split between the master's heirs, but could be used as payment in case of debt or bankruptcy, and otherwise sold (art. 44–46, 48–54) Punishments were a matter of public or royal law; punishmentsof slaves was more severe than of domestic servants, but less severe than for soldiers. ===Freedom=== Slaveowners of 20 years of age (25 years without parental permission) could free their slaves (art. 55) Starting in the 18th century, manumission required authorization as well as the payment of an administrative tax. The tax was first instituted by local officials, but later affirmed by the edict of 24 October 1713 and the royal ordinance of 22 May 1775. Slaves who were declared to be sole legatees by their masters, or named as executors of their wills, or tutors of their children, should be considered as freed slaves (art. 56) Freed slaves had to show a special respect for their former master and were punished more severely for any offense against him. However, they were deemed free of any other obligation the former master could claim (art. 58) This principle was later modified to impose harsher punishments on freed former slaves who committed assaults against whites, for the sake of maintaining the slaver regime. Freed slaves were French subjects, even if born elsewhere (art. 57) No naturalization records were required for French citizenship, even if the individual was born abroad The manumission certificate replaced the birth certificate in France. Freed slaves had the same rights as French colonial subjects (art. 58, 59) Fees and fines paid with regard to the went to the royal administration, but one third would be assigned to the local hospital (art. 60) == In colonies other than the Antilles== Two supplementary texts instituted the code in the Mascarene Islands and Louisiana; they were ratified by King Louis XV in December 1723 and March 1724 respectively. While they were essentially derived from the Code noir, these are distinct legislative texts, differing in content and in "spirit": they were far more racialist and segregationist. ==See also== History of slavery in Louisiana Slavery in the French West Indies Slavery in Canada Slavery in Haiti Slave codes Slave rebellions Black Codes Slave Trade Acts Panis ==References== ==External links== Édit du Roi, Touchant la Police des Isles de l'Amérique Française (Paris, 1687), 28–58. * Le Code noir (1685) [http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/amsudant/guyanefr1685.htm The "Code Noir" (1685) (in English), trans. John Garrigus Tyler Stovall, "Race and the Making of the Nation: Blacks in Modern France." In Michael A. Gomez, ed. Diasporic Africa: A Reader. New York: New York University Press. 2006.

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