The Code Noir
“Le Code Noir” was an edict of the King of Navarre and France, the Sun King, Louis XIV, passed in 1685. It was initially written by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, but he died in 1863 before it could be completed. His son, the Marquis de Seignelay, then completed the document and it was ratified by Louis XIV. On March 6, 1687, it was adopted by the Sovereign Council of Saint-Domingue, Haiti.
The edict’s sixty articles are concerned with and establish the condition of slavery in the French colonies. As virtuous as Louis XIV, the monarch of the single longest continuous reign in European history, was, he had no opposition to slavery in his colonies. However, as this code insisted, the entire matter was subject to humanity; there was a consistent theme of humane conducts acknowledged as correct and inhumane conducts lawfully punished. The document detailed the policies of every aspect of a slave’s life and death. It ordered that they be cared for when sick and that they be clothed and fed, lest they be confiscated from their negligent master and be cared for in the Royal Hospital and the cost paid for by the master [1]. Other than this, the slaves were offered little kindness in the Code Noir save the right to engage in a sacred, valid marriage with their master's consent [2]. The children of those marriages bore the same condition as the mother, as decreed in Article XIII, which was a rule taken from the British and later exhibited in the United States.
When this document was ratified, Jews were prominent among the Dutch colonies of the West Indies. They were immediately forbidden from living in or owning slaves in French colonies in Article I, for a significant consequence of this code was the establishment of a single, dominant religion: Catholicism. Slaves were to be baptized and instructed in the beliefs and practices of Roman and Apostle Catholicism, and all other forms of religion were forbidden to be publicly practiced. Masters would be punished if they allowed some of their slaves or even their overseers to follow any other faith than the main religion [3]. Despite how it may seem, the inhabitants of French colonies were not without any negative religious freedom: according to Article V, members of reform religions could do what they pleased so long as they did not “disturb” or prevent everyone else, including slaves, from practicing the main religion [4]. Free people could have belonged to other religions but only practiced them in private. Still, only Catholic marriages were recognized [5].
Although humanity was a core concept behind the code, slaves were still by law property and thus could own no possessions nor sell any commodities [6]. The entire code eliminated any positive freedom from the enslaved people of the French colonies. Slaves from different masters or mistresses were strictly prohibited from congregating, even if the reason was claimed to be marriage [7]. Haiti had a large population of slaves facing harsh conditions, thus it was common for small revolts to take place, and thus group meetings became outlawed. These revolts and insurrections eventually reached a boiling point which became the Haitian Revolution.
[1] Article XXVII: Slaves who are infirm due to age, sickness or other reason, whether the sickness is curable or not, shall be nourished and cared for by their masters. In the case that they be abandoned, said slaves shall be awarded to the hospital, to which their master shall be required to pay six sols per day for the care and feeding of each slave...
[2] Article XI: We forbid priests from conducting weddings between slaves if it appears that they do not have their masters' permission. We also forbid masters from using any constraints on their slaves to marry them without their wishes.
[3] Article IV: No persons assigned to positions of authority over Negroes shall be other than a member of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith, and the master who assigned these persons shall risk having said Negroes confiscated, and arbitrary punishment levied against the persons who accepted said position of authority.
[4] Article V: We forbid our subjects who belong to the so-called "reformed" religion from causing any trouble or unforeseen difficulties for our other subjects or even for their own slaves in the free exercise of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith, at the risk of exemplary punishment.
[5] Article VIII: We declare that our subjects who are not of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith, are incapable of contracting a valid marriage in the future. We declare any child born from such unions to be bastards, and we desire that said marriages be held and reputed, and to hold and repute, as actual concubinage.
[6] Article XIX: We also forbid slaves from selling any type of commodities, even fruit, vegetables, firewood, herbs for cooking and animals either at the market, or at individual houses, without a letter or a known mark from their masters granting express permission. Slaves shall risk the confiscation of goods sold in this way, without their masters receiving restitution for the loss, and a fine of six pounds shall be levied against the buyers...
[7] Article XVI: We also forbid slaves who belong to different masters from gathering, either during the day or at night, under the pretext of a wedding or other excuse, either at one of the master's houses or elsewhere, and especially not in major roads or isolated locations. They shall risk corporal punishment that shall not be less than the whip and the fleur de lys, and for frequent recidivists and in other aggravating circumstances, they may be punished with death, a decision we leave to their judge. We enjoin all our subjects, even if they are not officers, to rush to the offenders, arrest them, and take them to prison, and that there be no decree against them...
“The Code Noir (The Black Code),” Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, accessed December 2, 2018, http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/335.
Images:
https://creoleways.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/code_noir_moreau_le_jeune.jpg?w=608&h=413
By Tristian de la Navarre