French lawmakers on Thursday voted to formally abolish legal texts from the slavery era that defined enslaved people as “movable property” and justified abuse and corporal punishment.
Although slavery has been banned in France for more than 170 years, making Thursday’s motion largely symbolic, the move formally removes an old royal decree that had been replaced but never officially repealed. The vote comes as France continues to confront its colonial legacy.
France was the third-largest European trader of enslaved people during the colonial period, after Britain and Portugal. Experts estimate that ships departing French ports trafficked more than one million men, women, and children from Africa, many of whom were forced to work in Caribbean colonies.
No members of the National Assembly voted against the motion.
The bill also repeals a series of royal decrees known as the “Code Noir,” which regulated slavery in French colonies and treated enslaved people as property. However, it does not include demands from some lawmakers for possible reparations, DW reports.
