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1681-05-05

DECREE of the Conseil d’Etat, forbidding the Seizure of nègres of the Fields

Caribbean

THE KING, being informed that the nègres, who make up the principal wealth of the settlers of the French Islands of America because they employ them in Agriculture and other labors to bring abundance to the said countries, are being seized for debts along with other property, and that these seizures leave the said settlers unable to satisfy their Creditors, whereas if the said nègres were exempt from seizure they could pay their debts from the profit they draw from them daily; wishing to provide for this, His Majesty, being in his Conseil, has made and does make the most express prohibitions and bans to all Creditors of the settlers of the French Islands of America, and to all Huissiers and Sergeants, against seizing for debts, whether of Communities or of Individuals, the nègres belonging to the said settlers. This is without prejudice, however, to the privilege of the Creditors who sold them or who paid the price of them, who shall be free to proceed by seizure upon the said nègres, notwithstanding the bans contained in the present Decree.

Source  ·  p. act 00:264 Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions des colonies françoises de l'Amérique sous le Vent (Vol. 1) (1784-1790), p. act 00:264