France Repeals Code Noir After 270 Years

Summary

France’s National Assembly unanimously voted to repeal the Code Noir — a 1685 law that legally sanctioned slavery and treated Black people as property for nearly two centuries after abolition. Though the law lost legal force in 1848, its lingering presence symbolized France’s unresolved colonial trauma. Proposed by Guadeloupean lawmaker Max Mathiasin, who…

Show notes

France’s National Assembly unanimously voted to repeal the Code Noir — a 1685 law that legally sanctioned slavery and treated Black people as property for nearly two centuries after abolition. Though the law lost legal force in 1848, its lingering presence symbolized France’s unresolved colonial trauma. Proposed by Guadeloupean lawmaker Max Mathiasin, who only recently learned the law still existed, the repeal was framed as a moral reckoning — a step toward restoring dignity to enslaved ancestor

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