Europe28 May, 20262 min read
France’s National Assembly Votes 254-0 To Repeal Code Noir Slavery Law
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National Assembly voted unanimously 254-0 to repeal the Code Noir. Move described as symbolic repeal since slavery was outlawed long ago.
Black Code repeal vote
France’s National Assembly voted unanimously on Thursday, May 28, to adopt a bill repealing the Code Noir, a 1685 royal decree that governed slavery across France’s colonies and legally classified enslaved Black people as property. The Associated Press reported that the National Assembly voted 254-0 to wipe the colonial-era law from French law, after France abolished slavery in 1848 but left the Code Noir on the books.
The repeal motion came after President Emmanuel Macron said last week that the Code Noir “should never have survived the abolition of slavery,” and the vote was described as a rare show of unity in France’s lower house. The Code Noir’s legal framework included Article 44, which declared enslaved people “movable property,” and other provisions that mandated baptism in the Catholic faith and imposed brutal punishments on enslaved people who resisted or escaped.
Tears, accountability, and reparations
In the chamber, Steevy Gustave, a lawmaker descended from enslaved people in Martinique, broke down while explaining why the repeal mattered, saying, “We are not descendants of slaves,” and adding, “We are descendants of human beings born free, then reduced to the worst — reduced to slavery.” Max Mathiasin, the Guadeloupe lawmaker who introduced the repeal proposal, told MPs, “This was made by human beings — against human beings,” and said the vote was “a way of restoring our ancestors, restoring our humanity.”
Macron framed the long silence around the law as more than oversight, saying, “It has become a form of offence,” while the Guardian reported he said the issue of reparations was one “we must not refuse,” but that France “must not make false promises.” DW reported that the bill would require the government to report to parliament on the consequences of colonial law and the lasting effects of slavery on racism and discrimination in French society, as well as how the history of slavery is taught in schools.
What changes next
The repeal still required Senate approval, with Complex noting that the repeal bill “still needs Senate approval” after the National Assembly’s 254-0 vote. DW described the measure as a symbolic move to formally repeal an old royal decree that was superseded not overturned, and said the legislation to be repealed was a series of royal edicts issued between 1685 and 1724 known as the “Code noir” or Black Code.
DW also reported that Macron lent his support to the motion this month, even raising the subject of reparations but without making concrete proposals, while Marcellin Nadeau said, “we must fight on the issue of reparations, which is the essential question.” Beyond the text itself, the Associated Press said France’s four oldest overseas departments—Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Réunion—were made full French overseas departments in 1946, and that their roughly 1.9 million people, most descended from the enslaved, are French citizens governed from Paris.