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voted on Thursday to repeal the Code Noir, a law that regulated slavery in the French colonies that was never formally repealed even after the abolition of slavery in 1848.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.
The National Assembly voted 254-0 — a rare show of unanimity — to adopt a bill repealing the "Code Noir" or "Black Code", the 1685 decree King Louis XIV signed to govern slaves across France’s colonies.
