In The Earl’s Revelation, there is mention of taking slaves to Isle Bourbon (present day Réunion). According to Réunion - Wikipedia, ‘the slave trade openly operated in the colony after French rule was restored, and despite international condemnation, Bourbon Island imported 2,000 slaves every month during the 1820s,’ which obviously also included the lead up to those years. It is conceivable that some slaves originated outside of Africa or the Caribbean.
To be faithful to French legal history requires a certain tolerance for contradiction. Fortunately, readers tend to forgive a novelist when the finer points of royal decrees and colonial ordinances blur at the edges. Still, the research itself is irresistible—especially when it concerns a country that, for centuries, declared itself the land of liberty while simultaneously maintaining one of the largest slave systems in the Caribbean.
My first step was to understand the central paradox: slavery was illegal in France, but legal in French colonies. This duality is not a modern interpretation; it is explicitly documented. Chattel slavery existed in medieval France, but it was gradually phased out and formally abolished in the early 14th century, with a decree in 1315 ending the practice within the kingdom’s borders. From that point onward, the legal principle “France signifies freedom” became a point of national pride.
But the colonies were another matter entirely.
In 1685, Louis XIV issued the Code Noir, a sweeping legal code that regulated every aspect of enslaved life in the French Caribbean. It dictated religion, labour, punishments, marriage, burial, and even the clothing of enslaved people. It also confirmed, in stark legal language, that slavery was fully sanctioned in the colonies and would remain so until 1848. The Code Noir was not a symbolic document, it was the backbone of France’s plantation economy.
The Revolution briefly disrupted this system. In 1794, the National Convention abolished slavery across all French colonies, granting full citizenship to formerly enslaved people.
It was a radical act, driven by revolutionary ideals and the urgent political need to secure the loyalty of enslaved populations during the Haitian uprising , with a short-lived victory.
In 1802, Napoleon reinstated slavery in the colonies, motivated by economic pressures and his ambition to restore France’s Caribbean empire. The re‑establishment was brutal, sparking renewed resistance and contributing to Haiti’s eventual independence. It was not until 1848, under the Second Republic, that France abolished slavery for the final time. The Code Noir’s authority ended, and the legal contradictions that had defined French policy for centuries were finally resolved.
What fascinates me most is how France managed to maintain this dual system for so long. In the metropole, a single enslaved person stepping onto French soil could claim freedom. Yet in the colonies, millions lived and died under a legal code that defined them as property. For a novelist, this tension is a rich seam: a nation that proclaimed liberty while legislating bondage, a legal system that split itself in two, and human lives caught in the gap.
References
LegalClarity Team. (2025, August 6). When was slavery officially banned in France? https://legalclarity.org/when-was-slavery-officially-banned-in-france/
Library of Congress. (2011, January 13). Slavery in the French colonies: Le Code Noir (the Black Code) of 1685. https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2011/01/slavery-in-the-french-colonies/
Wikipedia. (n.d.) Réunion Réunion - Wikipedia
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Slavery in France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_France
Add comment
Comments