Code Noir
![The Code Noir, 1742 edition.](/Images/godic/202501/05/Le_Code_Noir_1742_edition4138.jpg")
![Code Noir of 1742, Nantes history museum](/Images/godic/202501/05/Code_noir_-_Nantes_museum4138.jpg")
The Code noir (French pronunciation: [kɔd nwaʁ], Black Code) was a decree originally passed by France's King Louis XIV in 1685. The Code Noir defined the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire, restricted the activities of free Negroes, forbade the exercise of any religion other than Roman Catholicism, and ordered all Jews out of France's colonies.