France Repeals 340-Year-Old Slavery Law Still on Books

Nearly two centuries after France abolished slavery, the law that once classified humans as property has sat quietly in the legal code. This Thursday, that finally changes.

French lawmakers are set to vote to officially repeal Code Noir, the 1685 decree King Louis XIV signed to govern slavery across France's colonies. The law was never formally eliminated, even after France abolished slavery in 1848.

The discovery has shocked many French citizens. "A law that treated Black people as property was left sitting there," said Muriel Jean-Baptiste, a Paris nurse whose parents are from Martinique.

Code Noir's 60 articles turned people into "movable property" and ordered brutal punishments for those who fled. President Emmanuel Macron said last week that the code "should never have survived the abolition of slavery."

The repeal comes thanks to Max Mathiasin, a lawmaker from Guadeloupe who didn't realize the law still existed. As the great-great-grandson of enslaved people, he had never been able to read the full text he kept on his shelf.

France ran the third-largest slave trade in history, shipping about 1.4 million Africans to plantations. Four former slave colonies became full French departments in 1946, making their 1.9 million people French citizens with equal rights on paper.

The Ripple Effect

The vote represents more than legal housekeeping. For Mathiasin, it's "a way of restoring our ancestors, restoring our humanity" before a France whose motto promises liberty, equality, and fraternity.

The repeal opens conversations about how France remembers its colonial history. While the law lost all authority in 1848, letting it sit in the legal code for 178 years sends a message advocates want changed.

Max Relouzat, 81, president of the Association for the Memory of Slaveries, sees the repeal as an important first step. His African ancestor had no name under French law, only a number. The family received the name Relouzat only at emancipation.

The overseas departments remain among France's poorest territories, with unemployment running roughly double the mainland rate. But this vote signals that France is beginning to confront uncomfortable truths about its past.

For the descendants of enslaved people who are French citizens today, Thursday's vote acknowledges that their history matters and their humanity was never in question.