The French parliament today formally abolished an old slavery law after almost 350 years. The so-called Code Noir was introduced by Louis XIV in 1685 with the aim of “regulating” slavery in the French colonies. Under the law, some people were considered property, allowing them to be sold, abused, and killed.

When slavery was abolished in France in the 19th century, the Code Noir became a dead letter – but never officially declared invalid. French MP Max Mathiasin recently introduced a bill to abolish Code Noir. He himself is descended from enslaved people and comes from Guadeloupe, French territory in the Caribbean Sea.

Mathiasin calls the vote a way “to honor our ancestors, restore our humanity.” He believes that permanently withdrawing the law is a “powerful symbolic and political gesture”. Today, parliament voted unanimously in favor of the bill, officially abolishing Code Noir.

French President Macron said last week that the sixty articles of the Code Noir should never have survived the abolition of slavery. “The silence, even the indifference, that we have observed for almost two centuries towards this Code Noir can no longer be called a mistake,” Macron said. “It has become a form of insult.”

Some of the articles of the law required slave owners to ensure that ‘their’ enslaved people became Christians. Other articles prescribed the death penalty for those who fled multiple times, ganged up on other owners’ enslaved people, or beat their owners.

In 2001, France introduced the Taubira Law, labeling the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity. France was the first country in the world to name slavery that way. There were no apologies for the country’s role in this, and the country did not want to hear about reparations, for example.

Last week the 25th anniversary of the Taubira law was celebrated. Then President Macron hinted at possible reparations.

France shipped about 1.4 million people from West Africa to French Guiana and the Caribbean islands, among others. This made France the largest slave trade after the United Kingdom and Portugal.