THE GUARDIAN: National assembly votes to repeal Code Noir under which enslaved people were beaten, raped and killed
For almost 180 years after France abolished slavery, the Code Noir (Black Code) allowing enslaved humans to be treated as property and worked, beaten, sold, raped or killed, remained in place.
On Thursday, the country’s bitterly divided national assembly voted unanimously to repeal it, in a rare show of political unity.
The vote, passed by 254-0, puts an end to a 17th century law, signed by King Louis XIV in 1685, which codified the treatment of enslaved people in France’s colonies.
It is an important step in acknowledging Paris’s role in slavery and will open the way to possible reparations, an idea floated by France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, last week.
The French leader said the code “should never have survived the abolition of slavery” in 1848.
“The silence, even the indifference, that we have maintained for nearly two centuries towards this Code Noir is no longer an oversight. It has become a form of offence,” he added.
Macron added the issue of reparations was one “we must not refuse”, but the country “must not make false promises”. » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Thursday, May 28, 2026
