Origins
According to his analysis of the Code Noir's significance in 1787, Louis Sala-Molins claimed that its two primary objectives were to assert French sovereignty in her colonies and to secure the future of the cane sugar plantation economy. Central to these goals was control of the slave trade. The Code aimed to provide a legal framework for slavery, to establish protocol governing the conditions of colonial inhabitants, and to end illegal slave trade. Religious morals also governed the crafting of the Code Noir - this was in part a result of the influence of the influx of Catholic leaders arriving in Martinique between 1673 and 1685.
The Code Noir was one of the many laws inspired by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who began to prepare the first (1685) version. After Colberts 1683 death, his son, the Marquis de Seignelay, completed the document. It was ratified by Louis XIV and adopted by the Saint-Domingue sovereign council in 1687 after it was rejected by the parliament. The second version of the code was passed by Louis XV at age 13 in 1724. It then was applied in the West Indies in 1687, Guyana in 1704, Réunion in 1723, and Louisiana in 1724. Code Noir existed in Canadian New France, and received legal foundation from the King from 1689-1709.
Read more about this topic: Code Noir
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