'We Are Descendants of Human Beings': Tears in Parliament as France Repeals 1685 Slavery Law

France's lower house of parliament has voted unanimously to repeal the 1685 Code Noir, the colonial-era decree that once defined enslaved Africans as property.

The National Assembly decision, 254-0, formally removes a law that had long lost legal force but remained symbolically present in French statute books.

The Code Noir, signed under King Louis XIV, regulated slavery across France's colonies, authorising brutal punishments, forced labour, and the total legal dehumanisation of enslaved people. Although slavery was abolished in 1848, the text itself was never formally erased.

For many lawmakers, the vote was not just administrative, it was emotional. In a chamber marked by rare unanimity, history seemed to weigh heavily on the present.

What Was the Code Noir?

The Code Noir was a 1685 royal decree that laid out how slavery was governed in France's colonies. Under Article 44, it classified enslaved Africans as 'movable property', regulated their lives and labour, and imposed extreme punishments for resistance or escape.

According to historical context explained by AP News the law shaped colonial systems across the French Empire and entrenched slavery as an institution backed by state authority.

'Descendants of Human Beings'

During the debate, Steevy Gustave, a lawmaker from Martinique and descendant of enslaved people, delivered a speech that moved colleagues to silence.

'We are not descendants of slaves', he said, breaking down in tears. 'We are descendants of human beings born free, then reduced to the worst – reduced to slavery.'

His words captured the emotional undertone of the session as legislators confronted the fact that a law defining human beings as property had remained officially unrepealed for nearly two centuries after abolition.

Macron Confronts France's Colonial Silence

French President Emmanuel Macron had recently acknowledged the symbolic weight of the Code Noir, saying its continued presence reflected 'a form of offence through decades of institutional silence.

'The silence, even the indifference, that we have maintained for nearly two centuries toward this Black Code is no longer an oversight' he added.

However, he stopped short of issuing a formal apology.

The repeal adds to France's ongoing reckoning with its colonial past, including its role in the transatlantic slave trade, which forcibly transported an estimated 1.4 million Africans.

Calls for France to Face Its Colonial Legacy

The bill was introduced by lawmaker Max Mathiasin, himself a descendant of enslaved people from Guadeloupe. He admitted he had never fully read the law until recently discovering it still existed.

'As the great-great-grandson of people who were enslaved, I had never been able to read it in full. This was made by human beings – against human beings', he said.

He said the vote was historical as he described it as 'a way of restoring our ancestors, restoring our humanity,' he said, linking the repeal to France's ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

Critics, however, argue that symbolic repeal does not address structural inequality still visible in France's overseas territories, where unemployment and poverty remain significantly higher than in mainland regions.

'A Law That Treated Humans as Property'

Historians and activists argue that the repeal highlights how colonial systems can persist long after formal abolition. Scholars such as Pierre-Yves Bocquet describe the Code Noir as foundational to France's 'colonial exception', where rights were historically applied unevenly across the empire.