French Code Noir 1685: Death by Religion (Black Codes)
In 1635, a Frenchman established a settlement on the island of Martinique. Then, in 1658, King Louis XIV of France took control. He would use his power to decree the French Code Noir or Black Codes to administer terror over Black slaves.
King Louis XIV anxiously wanted to convert the Black/Afrikans to Christianity. He and his advisors placed strict limitations on the enslaved inhabitants of the island. They believed that the use of force was the best way to separate Afrikans from their spiritual beliefs.
Eventually, the endgame was to not only indoctrinate the Negro into Christianity but ensure they preserved the Christian religion until their deaths😱.
By 1685, Afrikan slavery under Le Code Noir was adopted. King Louis XIV’s edict or laws to police and control African slaves spread throughout the French-controlled territories of the Caribbean. Interestingly enough, the first article of Le Code Noir (Black Codes) references the expulsion of Jews from the French islands.
Why are Jews mentioned in a set of laws designed to control the Afrikan slaves? Who were these Jews, dark-skinned Hellenized Israelites, or white-skinned Ashkenazi? A Little food for thought🤔.
The edict of Le Code Noir ordered Black Afrikans to be disciplined in Christianity. The condition of slavery would also pass through the mother, NOT the father, ensuring a steady supply of Afrikan slave labor.
The French Le Code Noir 1685 Excerpts:
Article II: All the slaves who will be in our Islands will be baptized and instructed in the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religions. We charge the planters who will buy newly arrived Negres to inform the Governor and Intendant of the said islands within a week at the latest or face a discretionary fine, these [officials] will give the necessary orders to have them instructed and baptized within an appropriate time.
Article III: We forbid any public exercise of any religion other than the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman; we wish that the offenders be punished as rebels and disobedient to our orders. We prohibit all congregations for this end, which we declare “conventicles,” illicit and seditious. Subject to the same penalty which will be levied even against masters who allow or tolerate them among their slaves.
Article IV: No overseers will be given charge of Negres who do not profess the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religions. On pain of confiscation of the said Negres, from the masters who had given this charge to them, and of discretionary punishment of the overseers who accepted the said charge.
Holy Days to Holy Ground
Article VI: We charge all our subjects, whatever their status and condition, to observe Sundays and holidays that are kept by our subjects of the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religions. We forbid them to work or to make their slaves work on these days. From the hour of midnight until the other midnight, either in agriculture, manufacturing of sugar, or all other works, on pain of fine and discretionary punishment of the masters and confiscation of the sugar, and of the said slaves who will be caught by our officers in their work.
Article XIV: Masters are held to put into Holy Ground in cemeteries so designated [as will] their baptized slaves; and those who die without having received baptism will be buried at night in some field near the place where they died.
A Slavery Greater Than Physical Harm?
Why would one person or group of people feel driven to abolish another’s spiritual belief system? So compelled to rid the Afrikan slaves of their GOD the punishment for not converting to Christianity was death.
The involuntary relocation of the Afrikan Negro from his homeland was traumatizing enough. To gain complete and unchallenged control of the enslaved nations of Negro people, Code Noir was enforced. Yet, one thing hindered France’s direct rule over them, and that was their spiritual belief system. Nonetheless, stripping the people of their ELOHIM would give France the authority over these people it so desired.
Who did King Louis XIV of France really fear? Did he fear the Negro as an individual or a spiritually unified nation of Negroes?
Did France’s Le Code Noir meet the requirements for ‘Death by Religion ⚔️?’ You Decide🤔 in the comments below.
When you throw a stone at YAH, it lands right on top of your head🎯
(Afrikan Proverb)
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Source: 1685 edict of France, Le Code Noir, The Black Code
https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/1205/2016/02/code-noir.pdf