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1783-03-28

LETTER from the Minister to the Administrators, on the nègres brought to France

Haitian

Every day, gentlemen, domestic nègres and négresses are landed in France, who are stopped on their arrival in the Port and placed in the depots, in conformity with the Declaration of 9 August 1777; but the enslavers usually claim not to have known of this Law, nor of the prohibition on bringing them to France. This assertion is all the more surprising because, to embark Black people, you must have granted the permission prescribed by the Declaration of 9 August 1777 and the Ordinance of 23 February 1778, which were sent to you to make them public in the Colony; which I do not doubt you did as soon as you received them. To remove in the future every pretext from those who embark Black people for their service during the crossing, the intention of the King is that you have the Declaration of 9 August 1777 and the Ordinance of 23 February 1778, of which I enclose copies here, reprinted in placard form, and that you have them posted in abundance and published at the parish services of the Colony; His Majesty having ordered that these laws be executed with rigor.

Source  ·  p. act 06:277 Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions des colonies françoises de l'Amérique sous le Vent (Vol. 6) (1784-1790), p. act 06:277