By: Leon Kwasi Kuntuo-Asare
First decreed by King Louis XIV in 1685, this brutal legal framework defined enslaved Black humans in French colonies as “movable property.”
It stripped our ancestors of their basic humanity, explicitly sanctioning severe corporal punishment, torture, branding, and execution just for daring to seek freedom. Our women ancestors were sexually assaulted to such a high degree, that in many of their colonies they created a sizable mixed-race population.
While France abolished slavery in 1848 (almost half a century after the Haitian Revolution), the horrific legislation technically remained on the books as an unrepealed legal artifact.
Activists and lawmakers have long pointed out that leaving such a document intact in the official state records was a deeply painful symbol of lingering institutional racism. The recent unanimous vote by French parliamentarians represents a symbolic victory for descendants of the enslaved across the French Caribbean and the African diaspora.
But let’s be entirely clear: wiping a 340-year-old decree off the archives is a necessary baseline, not the finish line. True justice requires addressing the systemic inequalities, economic disparities, and psychological scars that the Code Noir set into motion centuries ago. True accountability means reckoning with the wealth built on our ancestors’ backs that France and other western nations still benefit from today. Which is why reparations are so needed to rebuild destroyed Black communities, the same way the Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe.
We honor the resilience of those who survived the horrors of the French plantations. This repeal proves that our collective voices can force empires to acknowledge their past, but the struggle for real, structural equality continues to this very day.
For Additional Information And Sources Use Links Below:
https://apnews.com/article/france-slavery-law-code-noir-repeal-74ce7aecfdd7172bc5b54fcecf9cc789
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_noir
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