Azernews.Az

Ulviyya Poladova

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France’s lower house of parliament has unanimously voted to abolish the "Code Noir," a historic legal document that once regulated slavery across the country’s colonies, AzerNEWS reports.

The so-called "Black Code," introduced in 1685, legally defined the framework for slavery within French colonial territories. It permitted the buying and selling of enslaved people and forced them into hard physical labor. The code also outlined harsh punishments for escape attempts, including mutilation and even capital punishment.

Lawmakers voted to repeal the centuries-old document, which is widely regarded as a dark symbol of France’s colonial past and its involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

Acoording to France 24, the code’s reach was total. Article 44 declared the enslaved "movable property." Other sections ordered mutilation for those who fled, and dictated that the word of an enslaved person counted for nothing.

Code Noir’s 60 articles "should never have survived the abolition of slavery" in the 19th century, President Emmanuel Macron said last week.

The first of the series of royal edicts was signed by King Louis XIV at Versailles Palace in 1685. It set the rules for slavery across France's colonial empire.