Code Noir
- Title of the Document
- Code Noir
- One Line Summary
- Edict signed by King Louis XIV; but written by “colonial officials[,]” “Catholic missionaries[,]” and “royal officials in Versailles”6.
- Author
- The 1685 “Black Code” was the first time France created a legal code surrounding slavery, but its religious restrictions had large implications for Haitian Vodou.
- Date Created
- 1685
- Location
- Archives nationales d’Outre-Mer ANOM, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Publisher
- N/A
- Transcription
- This document “provided an official legal basis for slavery in the French Caribbean colonies,” and in doing so reshaped Haitian Vodou7. The first eight articles made specific provisions to outlaw all religions besides Catholicism, aimed mainly at Protestants and Jewish folks. However, this led to “a process of Catholicization, which was [also] a process of Kongoization,” as both restrictive religious policies, and the increase in importation of enslaved Catholic Kongolese pushed Haitian vodou to incorporate Catholicism8.
- Provenance
- The original copy of the Code Noir is at the Archives nationales d’Outre-Mer ANOM, Aix-en-Provence, in France.
