The French Code Noir from myths to facts: Recent advances in

American Society for Legal History, Washington, DC, 29 Oct – 1 Nov 2015
Panel title :
“The French-Danish-Swedish legal Caribbean:
Making, changing, copying and adapting colonial slave law c. 1670–1848”
JF Niort, associate prof. of History of Law, Faculté des Sciences juridiques, Université des Antilles and CNRS, Pointe-àPitre, Guadeloupe (FWI) ( [email protected] ; [email protected])
Paper title :
The French Code Noir from myths to facts: Recent advances
in Caribbean French legal history [research]
(draft paper)
As the title of the paper said, I am going to talk about French “Code Noir” , more precisely the royal
“ordonnance” or “édit” (I will use both terms like equivalents in this paper) for the 'police' of the
French islands of America (called 'Antilles françaises' - French West Indies), ordinance promulgated
in March 1685 (sixteen heighty five), wich will later called “Code Noir” at the beginning of the
eighteen century and until now. This text has soon become a byword for French colonial slave law,
until now, but many aspects of it have remained poorly known and little studied until recently,
leading to the creation of many popular misconceptions (“idées reçues” in French).
I will brievly present the recent scholar developments about this text, and more generally
about the French Colonial Slave Law history, advances mainly realized by my research group
(the GREHDIOM : Groupe de recherche en histoire du droit et des institutions des outre mers),
specially with my colleagues Jérémy Richard and Frédéric Charlin (two Ph.D. scholars in French
Colonial Slave Law since 2009). Recent developments that I summarized in a little book, written for
a large public, isssued recently, and titled Le Code Noir. Idées reçues sur un texte symbolique
(Editions du Cavalier Bleu, february 2015 - image n° 1) : “The Black Code. Common beliefs about a
text with symbolic meanings (in my own english traduction), a book published at the occasion of
the 330th (three hundredth and thirtieth) anniversary of the promulgation of the ordinance, in
March 1685.
ASLH Panel proposal, Jean-François Niort abstract, Washington DC, Oct-Nov 2015, p. 1 (1)
* The first development concerns the common belief (“idée reçue”) that the Code Noir has been
concieved and written by Colbert in Versailles. Instead, we must emphasize the importance of the
memorandum papers (the 'travaux préparatoires') to the ordinance, specially the reports
(“mémoires”) of the intendants Patoulet in 1682 and Bégon in 1683), reports which outline the
existing legal situation of the French American colonies before 1685, and which forms around of
80% of the content of the ordinance, as our colleague Vernon Valentine Palmer has reminded us in
a famous paper published in the Louisiana Law Review in 1995 (see also, more recently, in his
Through the Codes Darkly. Slaves Law and Civil Law in Louisiana, The Lawbook Exchange, 2012). I
published the main report (mémoire de Bégon, 1683) as an appendix to my book, and I will publish
both reports in an appendix to another book, about the Guadeloupe version of the edict, to be
published next december on behalf of the Société d'histoire de la Guadeloupe (see below) (image
n° 2).
In addition, we need to insist on the fact that as the time of the promulgation of the 1685 edict,
slavery was already prohibited into the French Law, as Colbert himselh recognized in 1681, and
as Sue Peabody, then Erik Noël and Pierre H. Boulle has reminded us in their respectives and
penetrating studies [S. Peabody : 'There are No Slaves in France'. The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the
Ancien Régime, Oxford UP, 1996 ; (with T. Stovall), The Color of Liberties. Histories of Race in France, Duke UP, 2003 ; E.
Noël, Etre noir en France au XVIIIe siècle, Tallandier, 2006 ; P. H. Boulle, Race et esclavage dans la France de l'Ancien
Régime, Perrin, 2007 ; S. Peabody and P. H. Boulle, Le droit des Noirs en France au temps de l'esclavage. Textes choisis et
commentés, L'Harmattan, 2014 (this rich commented legal compilation publish documents since 1155 to 1849)].
Consequently, the 1685 edict can be seen as the “foundation act” of the French Colonial (not
only Slave) Law, in the sense of a special and derogative legal corpus, different from the “common”
French Legal System (as it was specially and notably represented by the Coutume de Paris at this
time), like I have argued in my previous book on Code Noir (Dalloz, 2012).
ASLH Panel proposal, Jean-François Niort abstract, Washington DC, Oct-Nov 2015, p. 1 (1)
* The second development is the study of the different versions of the 1685 edict, which never
compared before, although sometimes they contain important juridical differences. These
versions changed how the edict was locally introduced and applied in Saint-Christophe (St Kitts),
Martinique and Guadeloupe (1685), Saint-Domingue (1687) and Guyane (1704). With Jérémy
Richard, we compared ten versions of the edict and highlighted the variations between them in a
paper published in the Bulletin de la Société d'histoire de la Guadeloupe and in the french national
legal review Droits, in 2010). For this, we used the Guadeloupe version as the reference, because it
was never published before, and seemed to be the the most authentic - and only manuscript - copy
we knew at the time. (copy located in the Moreau de Saint-Mery collection, série F3 of ANOM)
(image n° 2). Then, I added to the comparison some other versions - included the oldest version
and copy of the edict (a manuscript from March 1685, located in B11 serie of the ANOM, which I
published as an appendix to my 2015's “Idées reçues” Cavalier Bleu book on Code Noir), as well as
the memoranda ('travaux préparatoires') already mentioned, and the edicts of 1723 and 1724 (see
below) in the book published in 2012 (Dalloz) and in the two books of 2015 (Cavalier Bleu, 2015 ;
Société d'histoire de la Guadeloupe, forthcoming december 2015) previously mentioned (images 3
et 4).
* The third development concerns the legal modifications (from central government) to the
edict after 1685. Indeed, as early as 1686, important legal changes occured, and this legislative
process continued until 1846. Moreover, this modifications were applied and adapted differently
according to each colony. We are preparing, with Jérémy Richard and Frédéric Charlin, the
publication of a large collection of these texts.
* Fourth. The importance of local regulations and legal practices and their evolution muste be
emphazised, as is clearly shown, for instance, through the 1783 Ordonnance [...] concernant la
Police générale des Nègres & Gens de couleur libres... from the Gouverneur général Damas, applicable
aux “îles du Vent” (Windward Islands). [Fredrik (Thomasson) will speak about this, in reference to
the Swedish “Code Noir” (slave law on Swedish Saint Barthélemy)]. As for me, I will publish a
comparative study between this local regulation and the 1685 ordinance, in the next issue of the
Bulletin de la Société d'histoire de la Guadeloupe, in order to highlight the evolution of the local slave
law, following the social and economical practices of the Winward Islands colonial society.
ASLH Panel proposal, Jean-François Niort abstract, Washington DC, Oct-Nov 2015, p. 1 (1)
* Fifth, but in the same line, I would touch upon how effectively juridical practices in the various
colonies conformed or not conformed to the legal framework. Indeed, local customs and practices
were very influential, and sometimes even went successfully against legal rules, as, for instance,
the practices of the festive meetings (“rassemblements festifs”) and gardening on saturdays
(“samedi-jardin” ou “samedi-nègre”).
Festive meetings (or festive encounters) of slaves owned by different masters, though formally
prohibited by the Code Noir, on pain of whipping or even death for slaves, and fines for masters
(following art. 16 and 17 of the ordinance), nonetheless occurred regularly, with the master's
permission, much to the displeasure of the colonial authorities.
Gardening on saturdays consisted in the master exchanging his legal obligation to feed his slaves
with a free day (additionnal to the sunday) for them, in order to grow their own feed. This practice,
formally prohibited by art. 24 of the ordinance, was also generally used, and was finally legalized in
1845-1846 legislation (the last french legal framework of slave colonial law before slave's abolition
in 1848).
* Six. It is necessary, from a methodological perspective, to underline the various meanings of
the term “Code Noir”, and, consequently, to insist on the importance to specify clearly the way we
use it, in a study, a presentation, or a course, in order to avoid 'semantic' confusions :
- First, strickly speaking, the term “Code Noir”, in a 'strict sense', is applies to the 1685 ordinance,
but only after his first printed edition, in 1718 (édition Saugrain)
- Second, the term “Code Noir” is also used to identify both the edict of 1723, for French colonies
of Indian Ocean (les “Mascareignes”)(1) and the edict of 1724 for colony of Louisiana
- Third, the term “Code Noir” occured later to design the entire slave colonial legislation, like in
the “Libraires associés” edition for instance (1743)
- Fourth, the term “Code Noir” described also the entire colonial - not only slave - legislation, as in
the Prault editions (1742, 1767, 1788), compilation mostly known and used by historians.
(1) Bourbon island and Ile de France island, today La Réunion and Mauritius.
(images n° 4, 5 et 6)
We can notice that the firt two senses refer to one legal text (eventually different texts - edicts of
1685, 1723, 1724 - , but one text at each time), whereas the last two senses refer to a collection of
legal texts... This, is the main difference between the various senses of the term “Code Noir”.
ASLH Panel proposal, Jean-François Niort abstract, Washington DC, Oct-Nov 2015, p. 1 (1)
To conclude, one could summarize the practical consequences of these recent scholarly
developments, on further research in the field of Slave Legal History in the French Colonies, as
follows :
Firstly, clearly define the meaning of the term “Code Noir” in the context it is used.
Secondly, make sure that the version of the ordinance (or edict) used by the researched is the one
which was really applicable to the colony studied. [it was not always the case until recently]
Thirdly, taking to account the three different levels of reality of the Slave Law in each colony :
- the legal framework, coming from central government, the more 'theorical' level of reality
- the local juridical rules, produced by the colonial authorities (“ordonnances” and “réglements”
of the governors, intendants and judicial courts - “Conseils supérieurs” or “souverains”)
- the local experience, both juridical (judicial and notarial practices) and social (customs, usage),
the more 'real', effective part of the reality.
These three levels have to be distinguished intellectually, but, at the same time, have to be
combined, mixed, by the historians, because they are in a permanent, structural, dynamic and
specific interaction, in each French Colonial Slave Society.
All the further researches should take care of this very important methodological point.
I thank you.
NIORT Jean-François
Maître de conférences titulaire (depuis 1999) Habilité à diriger les recherches (depuis 2014) et Qualifié aux fonctions de
professeur des universités (depuis 2015) en Histoire du droit et des institutions (section 03 CNU)
Faculté des Sciences juridiques et économiques de la Guadeloupe
Université des Antilles, Campus de Fouillole, BP 270 97157 Pointe-à-Pitre Cedex (F.W.I.)
Responsable du département Histoire au sein du Centre d'analyse géopolitique et internationale (CAGI), pôle Guadeloupe du
CRPLC (Centre de recherche sur les pouvoirs locaux dans la Caraïbe, UMR 8053 CNRS)
Fondateur et animateur du Groupe de recherches et d’études en histoire du droit et des institutions des outre mers
(GREHDIOM).
e-mails : [email protected] - [email protected]
Personal website : http://jfniort.e-monsite.com
ASLH Panel proposal, Jean-François Niort abstract, Washington DC, Oct-Nov 2015, p. 1 (1)
Related personal bibliography
¤ 2015 (forthcoming December) : Le Code Noir ou Edit de mars 1685 sur la police des îles de l’Amérique française, édition
de la version Guadeloupe, enregistrée par le Conseil souverain de Basse-Terre le 10 décembre 1685, telle que rapportée et
annotée par Moreau de Saint-Méry, suivie des mémoires préparatoires des intendants Patoulet (1682) et Bégon (1683), avec
présentation, notes, sources et bibliographie, Basse-Terre, Société d’histoire de la Guadeloupe, 110 p.
¤ 2015 (February) : Le Code Noir. Idées reçues sur une texte symbolique (avec l'édition inédite, en annexes, de la version
ANOM B11 de l'Edit de mars 1685 et de l'élément principal des travaux préparatoires, le mémoire de l'intendant Bégon de
février 1683), Avant-propos M. Cottias, préface M. Dorigny, postface J. Gillot, Paris, Editions Le Cavalier Bleu, coll. « Idées
reçues », 113 p.
¤ 2014 : (dir., with F. Régent et P. Serna), Les colonies, la Révolution française, la loi, Actes du colloque organisé par l’IHRF
(Paris I), le GREHDIOM (UAG) et le CHJ (Lille II) avec le concours de l’ANR RevLoi et du CPMHE, dans le cadre de
l’Année des outre mers, à la Sorbonne, 23-24 septembre 2011, Presses universitaires de Rennes, coll. « Histoire », 297 p.
¤ 2012 : Code Noir (édition de la version Guadeloupe de l’Edit de mars 1685, comparée avec les autres versions anciennes +
commentaire de cette législation et de son évolution jusqu’à 1848 + bibliographie et notes), Paris, Dalloz, coll. « Tiré à part »,
26 + 55 p.
¤ 2010 (with J. Richard) :
- « L’Edit royal de mars 1685 touchant la police des îles de l’Amérique française dit « Code Noir » : comparaison des
éditions anciennes à partir de la version « Guadeloupe », Bulletin de la Société d’histoire de la Guadeloupe, n° 156.
- « L’Edit royal de mars 1685 touchant la police des îles de l’Amérique française dit « Code noir » : versions choisies,
comparées et commentées » Droits. Revue française de théorie, de philosophie et de culture juridique (PUF), n° 50.
¤ 2010 : « Homo seruilis : essai sur l’anthropologie et le statut juridique de l’esclave dans le Code noir de 1685 », Droits.
Revue française de théorie, de philosophie et de culture juridique (PUF), n° 50 [online on http://jfniort.e-monsite.com]
¤ 2007 : (dir.), Du Code noir au Code civil : jalons pour l’histoire du droit en Guadeloupe. Perspectives comparées avec la
Martinique, la Guyane et la République d’Haïti. Actes du colloque de Pointe-à-Pitre des 1er-3 décembre 2005, CAGIGREHDIOM, préface H. Bangou, Paris, L’Harmattan, 318 p.
ASLH Panel proposal, Jean-François Niort abstract, Washington DC, Oct-Nov 2015, p. 1 (1)