Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/459

 424

by the English from the Carolines and sold at Quebec, but nearly all deserted on hear ing that slavery was not permitted in the mother country of their masters. To put an end to this the Intendant of Justice issued an ordinance on the thirteenth of April, 1709, declaring that negroes and Panis (Southern Indians), " do not become free on landing on Canadian soil, as they seem to believe, but belong in full property to those who buy them, and that all persons inspiring slaves with an idea of liberty and attempting to allure them from their masters must pay a penalty of fifty livres." The legalizing of slavery in the colonies and its regulation by the Code Noir had a remarkable effect in France, fanning the ashes of slavery into a bright flame. Some of the West Indian colonists thought a profit able trade in negroes could be opened with France; others who had returned home, yearned for the easy and luxurious life of the tropics and to be served by slaves. They had to contend against the deeply rooted principle that every slave who touched French soil was free, but succeeded in over coming the difficulty. The king was asked for permission to bring negroes into France "in order to confirm them in the Catholic religion and teach them trades." These new world excuses for old world barbarism pre vailed. The king gave his consent to the im portation of slaves by edict of October, 17 1 6, renewed in 1738, in virtue of which negroes were introduced into France in large num bers. Paris became a great slave market and they were so numerous and cheap that it is said in an ordinance of the time — probably with some exaggeration of lan guage — that there was "neither bourgeois nor workman who did not have his negro

slave." This condition of affairs was ended by an ordinance of the fifth of April, 1762, promulgated by the Due de Penthievre, Ad miral of France, in connection with the cele brated suit of Louis, Mulatre de l'lsle Saint Domingue vs. Jean Jacques le Febvre, Bour geois of Paris, in which the former claimed his liberty, and also wages for the time he had been compelled to work in France, both of which were granted him; the court affirm ing the old adage of Loisel that " all slaves entering France were and ought to be free." Thirty years later the negroes for whose governance the Code Noir was principally compiled (Hayti) threw off the yoke it im posed, and gained their independence. Napo leon when in the zenith of his power tried vainly to bring them under subjection again. There is no finer record in history than that of the gallant and successful struggle of these poor despised negroes against the trained soldiers of France. Then was the time for the neighboring islands of Cuba and Porto Rico to have thrown off the yoke of Spain; far too pressed at home to have maintained a struggle abroad. But fate ordained that the blow should be struck with more crush ing force a century later. At a time when an example was necessary to some of the colonizers of Africa, the proudest nation of Europe was to be taught the lesson that " the principles of human nature render it impos sible for a permanent fabric of prosperity to be erected on a foundation of injustice and cruelty." The Code Noir has long since taken its place upon the library shelf as a legal curi osity, but apart from its interest as the first slave code, it will always serve to show how easily the social progress of a nation may be arrested.