Slave codes

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The slave codes were laws relating to slavery and enslaved people, specifically regarding the Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery in the Americas.

Most slave codes were concerned with the rights and duties of free people in regards to enslaved people. Slave codes left a great deal unsaid, with much of the actual practice of slavery being a matter of traditions rather than formal law.

The primary colonial powers all had slightly different slave codes. French colonies, after 1685, had the Code Noir specifically for this purpose.^[1] The Spanish had some laws regarding slavery in Las Siete Partidas, a far older law that was not designed for the slave societies of the Americas.^[2] English colonies largely had their own local slave codes, mostly based on the codes of either the colonies of Barbados or Virginia.^[3]

In addition to these national and state- or colony-level slave codes, there were city ordinances and other local restrictions regarding enslaved people.