Colonial bank law is promulgated in French Guiana

On 10 August 1848, abolition took legal effect in French Guiana. In the following years, many formerly enslaved people left plantations. Historical research records some establishing small...

Article 6 of the Constitution of the Second Republic states that slavery cannot exist on any French territory. The constitutional guarantee followed emancipation in French Guiana and made abolition...

A law provides indemnities to colonial owners after abolition. The state compensated former enslavers for the loss of people it had treated as property; formerly enslaved people received no equivalent...

A decree fixes the modalities for paying indemnities to owners in former slave colonies, including French Guiana. The compensation system directed state resources to property claimants rather than...

A national law provides for colonial banks, including a bank in French Guiana. The scheme was tied to the post-emancipation economy and was discussed as a possible source of credit for freedpeople...

A decree governs immigration, work contracts, rural policing, and the punishment of “vagrancy” in the colonies. In the post-emancipation setting, rules tying legal status and mobility to work made...

A second decree organizes recruitment, transport, arrival, and repatriation for workers sent to French colonies. On paper it required informed consent and set rules for voyages and contracts. In...

Local order no. 398 establishes prisons and disciplinary workshops for workers sanctioned under the 13 February decree. It allowed those sentenced to perform labor and, in specified circumstances,...

Order no. 419 defines worker booklets and their delivery in French Guiana. The booklet recorded work engagements and enabled officials to monitor workers’ movements. It was a tool of post-emancipation...

Order no. 464 organizes work engagements and booklet inspections. It required people aged 14 to 60 without sufficient resources to show regular work, and imposed repeated administrative checks. For...