On 5 May 1704, Cayenne’s governing council registered the royal regulation of March 1685, later commonly called the Code Noir. Its application made colonial law explicitly organize enslaved people’s status and the power of slaveholders. The code’s presence in law does not mean it was consistently observed; colonial practice and resistance shaped how it operated.
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Why is 5 May 1704 significant in French Guiana’s history of slavery?
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Explanation
It made a legal framework for slavery operative in the colony; it did not mark abolition or the beginning of all enslavement.
The royal slave code was registered in Cayenne on 5 May 1704.
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Explanation
The date is documented in historical legal chronology; the 1685 code was extended to French Guiana.