France's National Assembly has voted unanimously to repeal the Code Noir, a 17th-century law that classified enslaved people as property. The vote, 254-0, came 178 years after France abolished slavery in 1848.
The Code Noir, signed by King Louis XIV in 1685, codified the treatment of enslaved people in French colonies. It declared enslaved people as 'movable property' and allowed them to be beaten, raped, and killed. The repeal was described by President Emmanuel Macron as a necessary step, stating the code 'should never have survived the abolition of slavery'.
MP Steevy Gustave from Martinique, whose ancestors were enslaved, said: 'No vote alone can repair centuries of shattered lives.' The motion was tabled by MP Max Mathiasin from Guadeloupe, who called the vote 'a way of restoring our ancestors, restoring our humanity'.
France was the third-largest slave trading nation, shipping an estimated 1.4 million Africans to its colonies. The repeal opens the way to possible reparations, a topic Macron has said 'we must not refuse'.
