None the less, The Code Noir and English Laws were both cruel to the enslaved people but the British were crueler. Although the slaves were entitled to restricted rights, the Code Noir was designed to give minimum protection to the enslaved. They were given rights in respect to life. Under its provisions the enslaved could legally make complaints to the Crown if they felt that their masters had maltreated them. It also specified the kinds of punishments enslavers could dole out to the enslaved, for example, an attack on Europeans was a crime punishable by death. However, The Code Noir could in no way be compared to the inhumane and terrible treatment of the slaves by the British. These laws recognized “a state of war between Blacks and Whites”4.