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Code Noir

The Code Noir was a decree passed by Louis XIV of France in 1685, affecting all the French colonies, such as Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and other French colonies in the Indian Ocean that were involved in the sugar trade.  It essentially codified slavery, eliminating slaves’ rights and defining them as property, eradicating all traces of African cultures by banning African drums and chants which the Mauritian slaves replaced with the Ravanne and the "Sega" was born.
Although there was some humanitarian intent, any benefit to slaves’ lives was minimal.  The decree remained in force until 1789 and the French Revolution.  The slaves of Haiti rebelled in 1791, gaining their freedom in 1804.

Alexandre Dumas père (1802-1870), author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, is connected to Haiti.  His father, a famous general, was born there in 1762 (to a French soldier and a Haitian slave woman).  Despite his success, Dumas was the victim of racism throughout his life.  He tackled the subject of colonialism only once, in a short novel Georges (1843), which he set in Mauritius. The cartoon below is titled: "The Quadroon Chef: Dumas concocting his bouillabaisse of romance."

The United States eventually created its own Code Noir: the One Drop Rule, which meant that anyone with "one drop" of African blood had to be considered Black. This unofficial rule was invented in the "free" northern states of the U.S. between 1830 and 1840, before spreading south. It had to be invented since inter-marriage had by this point eroded perceptible differences between White and Black.

However if we look at the "code noir" , in order of importance, some of these rules  includes the  following:
– All slaves to have Catholic religious instruction, a fine to be paid by the owner who defaults.
– Slaves can only be married with the consent of the owners.
– Children born to slaves belong to the owner of the mother.
– Slaves are considered as “movable property” and are included in any list of possessions to be bequeathed or shared.
– Slaves are forbidden to gather in any numbers—the punishment being either lashes with the whip or branding with the iron (known as the “fleur de lys”).
– The owner must continue to look after his elderly, infirm or sick slaves.
– Corporal punishment or even execution are the penalty for theft.
– No slave shall sell sugar cane, for any reason whatsoever, under penalty of a lashing.

It should not be forgotten that slavery was a worldwide economic system. Unesco has created its educational programme “The slave route” in order to shed light on this tragic phenomenon. The Sugar Adventure was determined to collaborate in this programme in order to bring our contribution of remembrance.

One Drop Rule

"My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where your's ends."  French writer Alexandre Dumas pere, in response to a racial insult.

The One Drop Rule, also known as hypodescent, says that in American society if you are even part black African and look it you are considered to be all black African. One drop of African blood is enough to make you black.
The actress Halle Berry, for example, is half white. In Brazil she would be considered mixed, in South Africa, Coloured. But in America everyone regards her as black, the same as Naomi Campbell. The divisions of race are more extreme.
For hundreds of years America has been divided into black people and white people. To be white you have to look like a pure white European. If you look even partly African, you will be considered black.
Most white Americans see blacks, anyone who is visibly African, as inferior. In the past they used this to justify owning slaves. Today it justifies the inequality between the races.
Blacks make a distinction between light-skinned and dark-skinned – colourism – but whites for the most part do not. To whites black is black. That is what the One Drop Rule is all about.
It is not based on your family tree but on how you look.
How much black African blood can you have and still “look white”? If you are one-eighth African or less then you have a chance of looking white enough.
If you “look white” then you can “pass for white”. That would mean moving far away to some place where no one knows your family. Not everyone is willing to do that.
The rule means American blacks are not really a race in the common sense of the word: it includes not just people who are mostly African, but even those who are mostly European by blood!
And even many American whites themselves are hardly pure: more than a tenth are at least one-tenth African by blood according to the latest studies.
So while race is important in America, there are no pure races left!
To Americans, black and white, the One Drop Rule seems like common sense, but it is not applied to any other race. And it is not seen in other countries.
In most places where Europeans and Africans have mixed, the colour line is not so sharp. Those who are mixed are often recognized as being neither black nor white, but something in between – like the Coloureds in South Africa. What makes America so different?
White women.

In British India the colour line between the English and Indians did not harden till white women started coming from England.

The same happened in America. When the English came to America they brought their wives and daughters with them. Other Europeans, by and large, left them at home to keep them safe.

This meant that white men in America had a real chance to marry white and have white children. They had the luxury of disowning any mixed children they had because they would not be their only children. And if they did not disown them, their white wives would see to it that they did.