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1687-08-22

DECREE of the Conseil d’Etat, on the execution of the forty-fourth Article of the Declaration of March 1685, concerning the Enslaved of the Islands of America, which declares nègres movable property

Caribbean

ON what has been represented to the King, in his Conseil, that the execution of the forty-fourth Article of the Declaration made by His Majesty, concerning the Enslaved of the Islands of America, in March 1685, providing that the said Enslaved are declared movable property and as such enter the community of property, would have very troublesome consequences if this Declaration had retroactive effect, in that the said nègres having been regarded as immovable property, and divisions having been made on that footing, all families would be obliged to come to new divisions, which would bring discord among them and ruin a great number; His Majesty wishing to provide for this and to explain his intentions on the subject, His Majesty, in his Conseil, has ordered and orders that the said Declaration of March 1685 shall take effect in the said Islands only from the day of its Registration; and consequently that all divisions made up to that day, although contrary to the provision of the said Declaration, shall be executed in their entirety.

Source  ·  p. act 00:346 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 00:346