REGULATORY DECREE of the Conseil of the Cap, concerning the policing of the enslaved

HAVING SEEN by the Conseil the Remonstrance made to it by the Procureur Général du Roi, stating that the policing of the enslaved was one of the most important matters of the Colonies, and that at all times it has held the attention of Kings, of Généraux and Intendants, and of the Conseils Supérieurs; that the provisions it has occasioned, which foresee almost every case, seemed by their number and their wisdom to ensure good order and prevent abuses, but that the almost total failure to carry out these provisions has let the disorders persist, and that, by a necessary progression, they have reached their height; that the scant knowledge of the Laws concerning the enslaved was the chief cause of their non-observance, and that until now, for lack of a Printing press, most of them are hidden and scattered in the registers of the Greffes; that it appeared fitting and even indispensable to recall these Laws and bring them together in a single body, above all those relating to the present circumstances, and to rule on the cases that prudence had not been able to foresee.