Understanding Code Noir:The 1685 French Regulation Governing Enslavement of Millions

PARIS — France’s powerful lower house finally voted to remove a fundamental slavery-era edict from French law on Thursday.

After the National Assembly approved the bill to repeal Code Noir by a unanimous vote of 254‑0, the measure now proceeds to the Senate, where passage is expected.

Code Noir — also known as the Black Code — was promulgated by King Louis XIV at Versailles in 1685 to regulate slavery throughout France’s colonial empire.

French philosopher Louis Sala‑Molins has called it “the most monstrous legal text of modern times.”

The original 60 articles first applied to the French Caribbean — Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint‑Domingue (present‑day Haiti) — and were later extended to French Guiana, Louisiana, and the Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius.

Between the 17th and 18th centuries France transported roughly 1.4 million Africans across the Atlantic, making its slave trade the third‑largest of any European power after Portugal and Britain.

The majority were forced to work on sugar‑cane plantations, where they endured brutal conditions that claimed more lives than births; replacements arrived in regular shiploads.

By 1789 Saint‑Domingue alone held about 500,000 enslaved people, more than any other Caribbean colony, and had become a major global source of sugar and coffee, earning it the title of the world’s richest colony.

Although France abolished slavery in 1848, the Code Noir remained on the books without ever being formally repealed.

Article 44 defined enslaved persons as “movable property.”

A master could purchase, sell, mortgage, or bequeath enslaved people as he would land or furniture.

Article 28 stipulated that they could “own nothing that does not belong to their master.”

Any earnings or gifts acquired by an enslaved person were automatically the master’s property.

Legally, enslaved individuals had no recognized names.

From 1839 each enslaved person in the colonies was assigned a number and a registration code.

Only upon abolition were freed persons granted surnames.

Article 38 punished attempted escapes progressively: the first offense involved cutting off an ear and branding a fleur‑de‑lis on a shoulder; a second offense cut a leg tendon and re‑branded; a third offense carried the death penalty.

Article 33 mandated death for any enslaved person who struck a master, his wife, or their children in a manner that left a mark or drew blood — or who struck a master in the face.

Enslavers who murdered their slaves were seldom held accountable.

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