LThe title "black code" was given to the royal ordinance or royal edict of March 1685 concerning the police of the islands of French America from its Saugrain edition of 1718, then to the similar edicts of 1723 on the Mascarenes and 1724 on Louisiana and finally, from the middle of the 18th century, to the collections of legal texts relating to the French slave colonies.
Article 1er
Let us wish that the edict of the late king of glorious memory, our very honored lord and father, of April 23, 1615, be executed in our islands; in doing so, we enjoin all our officers to expel from our said islands all the Jews who have established their residence there, whom, like the declared enemies of the Christian name, we order to leave them in three months from the day of the publication of the present, under penalty of confiscation of body and property.
Article 2
All the slaves who will be in our islands will be baptized and educated in the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion. We enjoin the inhabitants who buy newly arrived negroes to notify the governor and intendant of the said islands within a week at the latest, on pain of an arbitrary fine, who will give the necessary orders to have them educated and baptized in due time.
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