France has repealed the Black Code, which recognized slaves as property — The Guardian
The French National Assembly voted unanimously to repeal the so-called “Black Code”—a 17th-century law that allowed enslaved people to be treated as property.
This was reported by The Guardian.
254 deputies voted in favor of repealing the document; there were no votes against it.
The law in question was signed by King Louis XIV in 1685 and regulated slavery in French colonies.
The “Black Code” permitted forced labor, corporal punishment, the sale, rape, and even murder of enslaved people.
One of its articles explicitly classified a person as “movable property.”
French President Emmanuel Macron stated that this code “should never have survived the abolition of slavery” in 1848.
“The silence, even the indifference, that we have maintained regarding this ‘Black Code’ for nearly two centuries is no longer an oversight. It has become a form of insult,” Macron emphasized.
The French president also stated that the country should not shy away from discussing potential reparations for slavery.
During the parliamentary debate, Martinique MP Stevie Gustave made an emotional statement:
“We are not the descendants of slaves; we are the descendants of people who were born free and then reduced to the worst of the worst—reduced to slavery.”
As The Guardian notes, despite the abolition of slavery as early as the 19th century, the “Black Code” itself formally remained in effect for nearly 180 years.
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