The Code Noir, pg. 49

This chapter was a list of laws created by the French Kingdom on how to govern French American Islands. The rules were all about slaves and race, which shows how much emphasis the French put on these matters. I was surprised by the first rule (kick all the Jews off French Islands) because I was not aware that there was a substantial Jewish population in the Caribbean at that time. I also thought that some of the laws were vague. For example, law LVIII says that manumitted slaves must retain a certain degree of respect for their masters. However it is very unspecific, and therefore would be difficult to actually enforce because there would be debate if the law had in fact been broken. These rules show just how little control the slave masters had over their slaves. Rule XV forbid the gathering of slaves at any time for any reason. This clearly shows that the masters were frightened of a slave uprising and were taking drastic measures to not let them even get a chance to organize. However, I imagine that it is because of oppressive rules such as this rule that the slaves wanted to rebel, so this rule really is counterproductive to what it is trying to achieve.