Promulgation of the Code Noir

Timeline

1. 1681–1683Versailles · FranceLouis XIV and Colbert required Antilles governors and intendants to report local customs of slave management, so that colonial regulations distinct from metropolitan customary law could be drafted. Colbert incorporated this work into his codification of naval and colonial law; after his death in 1683 the Marquis de Seignelay oversaw its completion.
2. 1685Palace of Versailles · Île-de-FranceLouis XIV issued at Versailles the March Ordinance of some sixty articles, applicable to the American islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Christopher, and others. Its provisions forced slaves to be baptized into the Catholic Church, banned Jewish residents from the colonies, and stipulated that slaves lacked capacity to hold property, along with grades of punishment and limited conditions for manumission. Signed by the king, countersigned "Colbert" (Seignelay).
3. 1685–1687Martinique · MartiniqueThe ordinance was sent to the superior councils of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and elsewhere to be read and registered, becoming an everyday source of law for plantation society; in 1687 it was extended by ordinance to French Saint-Domingue. The Parlement of Paris did not recognize its validity in the metropole, and colonial law and the principle "soil of France makes free" thereby clearly diverged.