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[CHAPTER 16]
[Page 1]
REGULATIONS AND PUNISHMENTS OF SLAVES AND FREE COLORED
The city of New Orleans was laid out in 1718 in a rectangular form and was bounded by the Mississippi River, Canal, Rampart, and Esplanade streets. Within these narrow boundaries the number of African slaves became an important part of the population, and these soon spread out to the nearby plantations and settlements. The Negroes--free and slave--began to make their appearances in criminal cases involving various types of crimes. For instance, a free Negro named Laroze was convicted of theft of goods from the Company’s stores, in 1722, and sentenced to flogging and six years imprisonment.1 Sometime later, in 1723, another Negro was charged with the same offense,2 and a Negro slave belonging to a Frenchman named Cantillon was likewise charged with robbery, though the charges were subsequently ordered dismissed.3 In that same month and year other Negroes were implicated in robberies.4
The planters viewed these manifestations of the slaves’ “viciousness” with alarm and thought them all the more punishable due to the fact that the number of Negroes were increasing in the colony, that “one would not be in safety on the distant plantations.”5 So the plantations took on the aspects of States within a State, where the slaves were also subject to the laws of their masters.
Because of internal bickering and jealousies among those who had been chosen to guide the destiny of the colony, Bienville was called to France in 1724, but before leaving the colony he published the celebrated Black Code in March 1724, which
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