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1761-02-03

DECREE of the Conseil du Cap, concerning the Bearing of arms, and expressly forbidding it to free nègres and mulâtres

Haitian

Having seen by the Conseil the Remonstrance made to it by the Procureur Général, stating that, in contempt of the King’s Ordinance of 23 July 1720 concerning the bearing of arms in the Towns and Cities of the Colonies, all the persons to whom it is forbidden continued to wear the sword; that the non-execution of this Ordinance frequently caused the very disorders it had been meant to remedy; that the rage for single combat multiplied from day to day and had even spread among the common People; that, despite the severity of the Laws, there was no year in which it did not carry off several Citizens from this Colony; that very recently the Remonstrant had again been informed of a duel fought in broad daylight in this City; that the fatal source of these combats came in part from the habitual bearing of arms; that it appeared indispensable, to prevent as far as possible such deadly crimes, to recall this Ordinance, which people might be ignorant of or pretend not to know.

Source  ·  p. act 04:308 Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions des colonies françoises de l'Amérique sous le Vent (Vol. 4) (1784-1790), p. act 04:308