The Code Noir ("Black Code") set the rules of slavery, and the rights of all Black subjects, free or enslaved, across the French empire. It was first issued as a royal edict of King Louis XIV in March 1685, signed at Versailles, and recorded by the sovereign council of Saint-Domingue on May 6, 1687. The National Park Service, at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, presents it as part of its series on the history of slavery in St. Louis.
From the Caribbean to St. Louis
| Year | |
|---|---|
| 1685 | Code Noir issued for France's American island colonies |
| 18th century | Enforced by French authorities in the Louisiana Territory as France expanded into land that would become part of the United States — including St. Louis |
| 1762 | France ceded the Louisiana Territory to Spain; the code stayed in force |
| 1803–1804 | The United States acquired the territory in the Louisiana Purchase; the code remained on the books until then |
| After 1821 | Parts of it reappeared in the Missouri State Constitution after statehood |
Some articles were revised in later years, but the 1685 version captures how slavery was regulated and policed in Louisiana, and so in St. Louis, under French and Spanish rule.
What the code required
The edict opened with the king asserting his authority over his distant island colonies — to uphold the Catholic faith and to settle the "condition and quality" of enslaved people there. Its articles, summarized:
| Subject | Provisions |
|---|---|
| Religion | Jews were to be expelled from the islands within three months. Every enslaved person was to be baptized and instructed as a Catholic; buyers of newly arrived Africans had eight days to report them. Only Catholicism could be practiced publicly, and only Catholics could oversee enslaved workers |
| Sundays and holy days | No one could work, or make enslaved people work, on them, nor hold slave markets |
| Marriage and family | Marriages of non-Catholics were declared invalid. Priests could not marry enslaved couples without their masters' permission, but masters could not force enslaved people to marry. Children took their mother's status: born to an enslaved mother, a child was enslaved; born to a free mother, free. A free man who fathered children with an enslaved woman was fined in sugar, and if he was her master, she and the children could be taken and never freed |
| Control | Enslaved people could not carry weapons or heavy sticks, gather with people from other plantations, or sell sugar cane — or any goods without written permission |
| Care | Masters had to feed and care for enslaved people who were old or sick; if abandoned, they went to a hospital at the master's expense |
| Courts | Enslaved people could not be parties to lawsuits, though crimes against them could be prosecuted |
| Punishment | Striking a master or his family so as to draw blood, or in the face, was punishable by death. Running away for a month brought mutilation and branding with the fleur-de-lis; repeat escapes brought worse, and a third, death. Free people who sheltered runaways were fined. Masters could chain and beat enslaved people but were forbidden to torture or mutilate them, and officials were to prosecute masters who killed them |
| Property | Enslaved people were legally property, divided among heirs, but a husband, wife and young children held by the same master could not be sold apart |
| Freedom | Masters aged 20 or older could free enslaved people without giving reasons. An enslaved person named a master's sole heir, executor or tutor to his children was considered free. Freed people needed no naturalization and were granted the same rights, privileges and immunities as the freeborn |
A long afterlife
The code's rules outlived French rule: they stayed in force in Spanish Louisiana until the Louisiana Purchase, and parts of them resurfaced in Missouri's state constitution.
Sources
Based on "Transcription of 'The Code Noir' (The Black Code)," Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The article's English translation of the 1685 edict, from the Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution project, is summarized here in hubnx's own words rather than quoted.
In these publicationsUlysses S Grant National Historic Site
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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