The French Have Deprived Themselves of the Right to Enslave Black People

World News
BB.LV
Publiation data: 01.06.2026 17:41

В атмосфере идейного подъема прощался Париж с колониальным прошлым.

The Republic preferred to speak of universal equality among citizens and was not keen on discussing its history.

The National Assembly of France unanimously repealed the "Black Code" — a collection of royal decrees from the 17th and 18th centuries that regulated slavery in French colonies. Slavery itself was abolished as early as 1848, but the texts of the code formally remained part of French legislation.

The "Black Code," prepared under Louis XIV with the active participation of his famous minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, turned slaves into "movable property" that could be bought, sold, and bequeathed. Remarkably, the text remained in the legal archives of the French Republic nearly two centuries after the official abolition of slavery.

The Republic preferred to speak of universal equality among citizens and was not keen on discussing its colonial past. The "Tobira Law" of 2001 recognized the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity, but the matter did not progress beyond symbolic formulations. The initiator of the law was Christiane Taubira — a native of French Guiana, a member of the National Assembly, and later the Minister of Justice in François Hollande's government. In 2001, Parliament recognized the transatlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity. Now, however, the French state has decided that even the retention of such texts in legal archives appears to be an "insult" and a "betrayal of republican principles." This is how Emmanuel Macron expressed himself during a ceremony at the Élysée Palace dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the "Tobira Law."

The new bill was introduced by Guadeloupe deputy Max Mathiasin, and it was supported by all deputies — from the far left to moderate right. Only Marine Le Pen's "National Rally" was not invited to join the initiative. However, even without this, the law was passed unanimously.

During parliamentary debates, deputies from overseas departments again spoke about "formal equality without reality" and the fact that the gap between the metropolis and overseas regions remains vast. At the same time, the deputies do not insist on direct monetary payments but demand a special state policy — additional investments in education, infrastructure, and social programs.

Meanwhile, in France's overseas territories, there are increasingly loud calls to move "from memory to restitution." This is how deputy from Martinique Béatrice Bellot formulated her position. For many in the Caribbean or Réunion, the history of slavery does not seem like a distant past. They remember that after the abolition of slavery, the French state compensated former slave owners, not the freed slaves, who were left landless, without capital, and often without the means to change their situation.

Emmanuel Macron, who hastened the passage of the law, acknowledged that the issue "cannot be ignored," but immediately warned against the futility of "false promises."

"It will never be possible to fully compensate for this crime," he said, attempting to acknowledge the moral issue but not turning it into a concrete obligation.

In French society, the topic of repentance and reparations causes nervousness also because the country is very afraid of the Americanization of political language. There is a cautious attitude towards anything that resembles identity politics, collective guilt, or historical compensation based on ethnicity. The French Republic has become accustomed to considering citizens as equal and officially prohibits dividing them by origin. This is why Paris recently abstained from voting on a UN resolution that called slavery and the trade of Africans "the most heinous crime against humanity." France explained this as a "reluctance to establish a hierarchy of crimes."

In general, this is quite typical for legal history. The law often outlives its era and the logic in which it was created.