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| IX. The free men who will have one or several children from their concubinage with their slaves, together with the masters who permitted this, will each be condemned to a fine of two thousand pounds of sugar; | Free men who have sexual relations with enslaved women will be fined, and so will the enslavers who allowed the relationship. |
| and if they are the masters of the slave by whom they have had the said children, we wish that beyond the fine, they be deprived of the slave and the children, and that she and they be confiscated for the profit of the [royal] hospital, without ever being manumitted. | If an enslaver has sexual relations with an enslaved woman and she gets pregnant, she and her children will be taken from him and given to the hospital and enslaved for life. |
| Nevertheless we do not intend for the present article to be enforced if the man who was not married to another person during his concubinage with his slave would marry in the church the said slave who by this means will be manumitted and the children rendered free and legitimate. | If a free man or enslaver chooses to marry an enslaved woman in the church, the woman will become free, and their children will be born free. |
| XII. The children who will be born of marriage between slaves will be slaves and will belong to the master of the women slaves, and not to those of their husband, if the husband and the wife have different masters. | If two enslaved people have a child together, the child will belong to the mother’s enslaver. |
| XIII. We wish that if a slave husband has married a free woman, the children, both male and girls, will follow the condition of their mother and be free like her, in spite of the servitude of their father; and that if the father is free and the mother enslaved, the children will be slaves the same. | Children will inherit the status of free or enslaved from their mother. |
Le Code Noir (À Paris: Chez L.F. Parault). New-York Historical Society Library. Translated by John Garrigus in Le Code Noir ou Recueil des règlements rendus jusqu’à present, 1767. The Société, d’Histoire de la Guadeloupe.
Background
The “Royal ordinance concerning the police in the Islands of French America” was a set of laws that governed the practice of slavery in the French colonies in North America. The law was signed by King Louis XIV in 1685. Over time it came to be known as the Code Noir, or Black Code. In the late 1600s many European governments in North America were defining the legal status of enslaved Black people. The Code Noir was written to specifically address slavery on the sugar plantations of the French Caribbean. But the laws were adjusted for other parts of the French Empire, including New France and Louisiana.
About the Document
These three sections of the Code Noir show the status of enslaved Black women in the French colonies. Law IX states that any white man who impregnates an enslaved Black woman would be punished. The law then clarifies that if the white man marries the enslaved woman, she and any children they have together would be freed. This law might seem like protection for enslaved women. But laws are only effective if they are enforced. While there are some examples of Black women being freed by white men who chose to marry them, it is unclear from the records if any men were actually punished for sexually exploiting their enslaved women.
Laws XII and XIII make it clear that enslaved status was inherited through the mother. This meant that enslaved women carried the burden of birthing new generations of enslaved people. These laws reflect the French government’s interest in continuing the practice of slavery for the profit of the empire. In the next century, these economic interests would win out and the laws governing free Black people and interracial relationships would become more restrictive.
Vocabulary
- exploiting: Using in an unfair or selfish way.
Discussion Questions
- What do these laws reveal about attitudes toward enslaved women in the French colonies?
- Why does the French government call for steep fines against men who have children with enslaved women?
- How do you think these laws impacted the lives and relationships of enslaved Black women?
Suggested Activities
- APUSH Connections:
- 2.6 Slavery in the British colonies
- 2.4 Transatlantic Trade
- Use this document in any lesson about the practice of slavery in the American colonies.
- The French were not the only colonial power figuring out how to legislate racial inequality in the 1600s. Ask students to compare this document with Legislating Reproduction and Racial Difference and Life Story: Elizabeth Key Grinstead about similar laws in the Virginia colony.
- The sexual exploitation of women was practiced throughout the colonial Americas. You can learn more about this widespread problem by exploring the following resources:
Themes
POWER AND POLITICS
