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Since the revolutionaries explicitly proclaimed liberty as their highest ideal, slavery was bound to come into question during the French Revolution. Even before 1789 critics had attacked the slave trade and slavery in the colonies. France had several colonies in the Caribbean in which slavery supported a plantation economy that produced sugar, coffee, and cotton. The most important of these colonies was Saint Domingue (later Haiti), which had 500,000 slaves, 32,000 whites, and 28,000 free blacks (which included both blacks and mulattos). Some free blacks owned slaves; in fact, the free blacks owned one-third of the plantation property and one-quarter of the slaves in Saint Domingue, though they could not hold public office or practice many professions (medicine, for example).
The slave
system in the colonies was regulated by a series of royal edicts, the most
important of which was promulgated by Louis XIV in 1685. Taken together, the
edicts constituted the Code noir, or slave code. This code prescribed a harsh
regime of penalties for slaves who resisted their captivity, especially if they
tried to harm their masters in any way. Saint Domingue provided extraordinary
sources of wealth to the French. To protect their investments, French
slaveholders had to learn at least a minimal amount about their slaves. One of
the most astute commentators, Médéric-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry, wrote a
massive two-volume work on life in Saint Domingue in the 1780s. He described
many of the features of slave life that worried slaveholders, including voodoo
imported from Africa, the presence of many people of mixed race (mulattos), the
threat of slaves becoming Maroons (runaways), and the intense fear among
slaveholders that their slaves would try to poison them. After the French
Revolution broke out, planters looked back on pre-1789 conditions, trying to
understand how slavery might have been better organized. Their observations
provide yet another contemporary perspective on the plantation and slave
system.
The Caribbean
colonies were quick to respond to the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789. The
white planters of Saint Domingue sent delegates to France to demand
representation at the new National Assembly, as did the mulattos. Several
prominent deputies in the National Assembly belonged to the Society of the
Friends of Blacks, which put forth proposals for the abolition of the slave
trade and the amelioration of the lot of slaves in the colonies. When these
proposals fell on deaf ears, some deputies sympathetic to blacks turned to
arguing that full civil and political rights should be granted to free blacks
in the colonies. Before long, radical journalists in Paris began to take up the
cause of black slaves, pushing for the abolition of slavery, or at least for a
more positive view of the Africans. The pioneering feminist and playwright,
Olympe de Gouges, also wrote a pamphlet challenging the colonial pro-slavery
lobby to improve the lot of the blacks.
As the
agitation in favor of granting rights to free blacks and abolishing the slave
trade gathered steam, the colonies became filled with uncertainty and
expectations began rising, especially among the free blacks and mulattos. In
response, the white planters mounted their own counterattack and even
contemplated demanding independence from France. Less is known about the views
of the slaves because hardly any of them could read or write, but the royal
governor of Saint Domingue expressed concern about the effects of the
Revolution on the colony's slaves. In October 1789 he reported that the slaves
considered the new revolutionary cockade (a decoration made up of red, white,
and blue ribbons worn by supporters of the Revolution) a "signal of the
manumission of the whites . . . the blacks all share an idea that struck them
spontaneously: that the white slaves kill their masters and now free they
govern themselves and regain possession of the land." In other words, the
black slaves hoped to follow in the footsteps of their white predecessors,
freeing themselves, killing their masters, and taking over the land.
Most
deputies feared the effects of the loss of commerce that would result from
either the abolition of slavery or the elimination of the slave trade. Fabulous
wealth depended on slavery, as did shipbuilding, sugar-refining, and a host of
subsidiary industries. Slaveowners and shippers did not intend to give up their
prospects without a fight. The U.S. refusal to give up slavery or the slave
trade provided added ammunition to support their position.
References:
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap8a.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution (Best on this issue)
The white planters who derived their wealth from the sale of slave-produced sugar knew they were outnumbered by slaves by a factor of more than ten; they lived in fear of slave rebellion. White masters extensively used the threat of physical violence to maintain control and limit this possibility for slave rebellion. When slaves left the plantations or disobeyed their masters, they were subject to whipping, or to more extreme torture such as castration or burning, the punishment being both a personal lesson and a warning for other slaves. Louis XIV, the French King, passed the Code Noir in 1685 in an attempt to regulate such violence and the treatment of slaves in general in the colony, but masters openly and consistently broke the code, and local legislation reversed parts of it throughout the 18th century.
The Code Noir (The Black Code)
The Code noir initially took shape in Louis XIV’s edict of 1685. Although subsequent decrees modified a few of the code’s provisions, this first document established the main lines for the policing of slavery right up to 1789. The very first article expels all Jews from the colonies; Jews played a significant but hardly dominant role in the Dutch colonies of the Caribbean region but were not allowed to own property or slaves in the French colonies. The edict also insisted that all slaves be instructed as Catholics and not as Protestants. For the most part, the code concentrated on defining the condition of slavery (passing the condition through the mother not the father) and establishing harsh controls over the conduct of those enslaved. Slaves had virtually no rights, though the code did enjoin masters to take care of the sick and old.but masters of slaves openly and consistently broke the code, and local legislation reversed parts of it throughout the 18th century.
Edict of the King:
On the subject of the Policy regarding the Islands of French
America
March 1685
Recorded at the sovereign Council of Saint Domingue, 6 May 1687.
Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre: to all
those here present and to those to come, GREETINGS. In that we must also care
for all people that Divine Providence has put under our tutelage, we have
agreed to have the reports of the officers we have sent to our American islands
studied in our presence. These reports inform us of their need for our
authority and our justice in order to maintain the discipline of the Roman,
Catholic, and Apostolic Faith in the islands. Our authority is also required to
settle issues dealing with the condition and quality of the slaves in said
islands. We desire to settle these issues and inform them that, even though
they reside infinitely far from our normal abode, we are always present for
them, not only through the reach of our power but also by the promptness of our
help toward their needs. For these reasons, and on the advice of our council
and of our certain knowledge, absolute power and royal authority, we have
declared, ruled, and ordered, and declare, rule, and order, that the following
pleases us:
Article I. We desire and we expect that the Edict of 23 April 1615
of the late King, our most honored lord and father who remains glorious in our
memory, be executed in our islands. This accomplished, we enjoin all of our
officers to chase from our islands all the Jews who have established residence
there. As with all declared enemies of Christianity, we command them to be gone
within three months of the day of issuance of the present [order], at the risk
of confiscation of their persons and their goods.
Article II. All slaves that shall be in our islands shall be
baptized and instructed in the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith. We enjoin
the inhabitants who shall purchase newly-arrived Negroes to inform the Governor
and Intendant of said islands of this fact within no more that eight days, or
risk being fined an arbitrary amount. They shall give the necessary orders to
have them instructed and baptized within a suitable amount of time.
Article III. We forbid any religion other than the Roman,
Catholic, and Apostolic Faith from being practiced in public. We desire that
offenders be punished as rebels disobedient of our orders. We forbid any
gathering to that end, which we declare to be conventicle, illegal, and
seditious, and subject to the same punishment as would be applicable to the
masters who permit it or accept it from their slaves.
Article IV. No persons assigned to positions of authority over
Negroes shall be other than a member of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic
Faith, and the master who assigned these persons shall risk having said Negroes
confiscated, and arbitrary punishment levied against the persons who accepted
said position of authority.
Article V. We forbid our subjects who belong to the so-called
"reformed" religion from causing any trouble or unforeseen
difficulties for our other subjects or even for their own slaves in the free
exercise of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith, at the risk of exemplary
punishment.
Article VI. We enjoin all our subjects, of whatever religion and
social status they may be, to observe Sundays and the holidays that are
observed by our subjects of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith. We forbid
them to work, nor make their slaves work, on said days, from midnight until the
following midnight. They shall neither cultivate the earth, manufacture sugar,
nor perform any other work, at the risk of a fine and an arbitrary punishment
against the masters, and of confiscation by our officers of as much sugar
worked by said slaves before being caught.
Article VII. We forbid them also to hold slave markets or any
other market on said days at the risk of similar punishments and of
confiscation of the merchandise that shall be discovered at the market, and an
arbitrary fine against the sellers.
Article VIII. We declare that our subjects who are not of the
Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith, are incapable of contracting a valid
marriage in the future. We declare any child born from such unions to be
bastards, and we desire that said marriages be held and reputed, and to hold
and repute, as actual concubinage.
Article IX. Free men who shall have one or more children during
concubinage with their slaves, together with their masters who accepted it,
shall each be fined two thousand pounds of sugar. If they are the masters of
the slave who produced said children, we desire, in addition to the fine, that
the slave and the children be removed and that she and they be sent to work at
the hospital, never to gain their freedom. We do not expect however for the
present article to be applied when the man was not married to another person
during his concubinage with this slave, who he should then marry according to
the accepted rites of the Church. In this way she shall then be freed, the
children becoming free and legitimate. . . .
Article XI. We forbid priests from conducting weddings between
slaves if it appears that they do not have their masters' permission. We also
forbid masters from using any constraints on their slaves to marry them without
their wishes.
Article XII. Children born from marriages between slaves shall be
slaves, and if the husband and wife have different masters, they shall belong
to the masters of the female slave, not to the master of her husband.
Article XIII. We desire that if a male slave has married a free
woman, their children, either male or female, shall be free as is their mother,
regardless of their father's condition of slavery. And if the father is free
and the mother a slave, the children shall also be slaves. . . .
Article XV. We forbid slaves from carrying any offensive weapons
or large sticks, at the risk of being whipped and having the weapons
confiscated. The weapons shall then belong to he who confiscated them. The sole
exception shall be made for those who have been sent by their masters to hunt
and who are carrying either a letter from their masters or his known mark.
Article XVI. We also forbid slaves who belong to different masters
from gathering, either during the day or at night, under the pretext of a
wedding or other excuse, either at one of the master's houses or elsewhere, and
especially not in major roads or isolated locations. They shall risk corporal
punishment that shall not be less than the whip and the fleur de lys, and for
frequent recidivists and in other aggravating circumstances, they may be
punished with death, a decision we leave to their judge. We enjoin all our
subjects, even if they are not officers, to rush to the offenders, arrest them,
and take them to prison, and that there be no decree against them. . . .
Article XVIII. We forbid slaves from selling sugar cane, for
whatever reason or occasion, even with the permission of their master, at the
risk of a whipping for the slaves and a fine of ten pounds for the masters who
gave them permission, and an equal fine for the buyer.
Article XIX. We also forbid slaves from selling any type of
commodities, even fruit, vegetables, firewood, herbs for cooking and animals
either at the market, or at individual houses, without a letter or a known mark
from their masters granting express permission. Slaves shall risk the
confiscation of goods sold in this way, without their masters receiving
restitution for the loss, and a fine of six pounds shall be levied against the
buyers. . . .
Article XXVII. Slaves who are infirm due to age, sickness or other
reason, whether the sickness is curable or not, shall be nourished and cared
for by their masters. In the case that they be abandoned, said slaves shall be
awarded to the hospital, to which their master shall be required to pay six
sols per day for the care and feeding of each slave. . . .
Article XXXI. Slaves shall not be a party, either in court or in a
civil matter, either as a litigant or as a defendant, or as a civil party in a
criminal matter. And compensation shall be pursued in criminal matters for
insults and excesses that have been committed against slaves. . . .
Article XXXIII. The slave who has struck his master in the face or
has drawn blood, or has similarly struck the wife of his master, his mistress,
or their children, shall be punished by death. . . .
Article XXXVIII. The fugitive slave who has been on the run for
one month from the day his master reported him to the police, shall have his
ears cut off and shall be branded with a fleur de lys on one shoulder. If he
commits the same infraction for another month, again counting from the day he
is reported, he shall have his hamstring cut and be branded with a fleur de lys
on the other shoulder. The third time, he shall be put to death.
Article XXXIX. The masters of freed slaves who have given refuge
to fugitive slaves in their homes shall be punished by a fine of three hundred
pounds of sugar for each day of refuge.
Article XL. The slave who has been punished with death based on
denunciation by his master, and who is not a party to the crime for which he
was condemned, shall be assessed prior to his execution by two of the principal
citizens of the island named by a judge. The assessment price shall be paid by
the master, and in order to satisfy this requirement, the Intendant shall
impose said sum on the head of each Negro. The amount levied in the estimation
shall be paid for each of the said Negroes and levied by the [Tax] Farmer of
the Royal Western lands to avoid costs. . . .
Article XLII. The masters may also, when they believe that their
slaves so deserve, chain them and have them beaten with rods or straps. They
shall be forbidden however from torturing them or mutilating any limb, at the
risk of having the slaves confiscated and having extraordinary charges brought
against them.
Article XLIII. We enjoin our officers to criminally prosecute the
masters, or their foremen, who have killed a slave under their auspices or
control, and to punish the master according to the circumstances of the
atrocity. In the case where there is absolution, we allow our officers to
return the absolved master or foreman, without them needing our pardon.
Article XLIV. We declare slaves to be charges, and as such enter
into community property. They are not to be mortgaged, and shall be shared
equally between the co-inheritors without benefit to the wife or one particular
inheritor, nor subject to the right of primogeniture, the usual customs duties,
feudal or lineage charges, or feudal or seigneurial taxes. They shall not be
affected by the details of decrees, nor from the imposition of the four-fifths,
in case of disposal by death or bequeathing. . . .
Article XLVII. Husband, wife and prepubescent children, if they
are all under the same master, may not be taken and sold separately. We declare
the seizing and sales that shall be done as such to be void. For slaves who have
been separated, we desire that the seller shall risk their loss, and that the
slaves he kept shall be awarded to the buyer, without him having to pay any
supplement. . . .
Article LV. Masters twenty years of age may free their slaves by
any act toward the living or due to death, without their having to give just
cause for their actions, nor do they require parental advice as long as they
are minors of 25 years of age.
Article LVI. The children who are declared to be sole legatees by
their masters, or named as executors of their wills, or tutors of their
children, shall be held and considered as freed slaves. . . .
Article LVIII. We declare their freedom is granted in our islands
if their place of birth was in our islands. We declare also that freed slaves
shall not require our letters of naturalization to enjoy the advantages of our
natural subjects in our kingdom, lands or country of obedience, even when they
are born in foreign countries.
Article LIX. We grant to freed slaves the same rights, privileges
and immunities that are enjoyed by freeborn persons. We desire that they are
deserving of this acquired freedom, and that this freedom gives them, as much
for their person as for their property, the same happiness that natural liberty
has on our other subjects.
Versailles, March 1685, the forty second year of our reign.
Signed LOUIS,
and below the King.
Colbert, visa, Le Tellier.
Read, posted and recorded at the sovereign council of the coast of
Saint Domingue, kept at Petit Goave, 6 May 1687, Signed Moriceau.
Source: Édit du Roi, Touchant la Police des Isles de l'Amérique
Française (Paris, 1687), 28–58.
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