French lawmakers voted on Thursday to repeal the Code Noir, a law that regulated slavery in the French colonies that was never formally repealed even after the abolition of slavery in 1848. The vote reopened a debate around reparations in a country that has yet to fully come to terms with its history of colonialism.
For nearly two centuries after France abolished slavery, the colonial-era law that classified humans as property remained quietly in place. On Thursday, lawmakers finally moved to eliminate it.
