CARIBBEAN EXAMINATION COUNCIL CARIBBEAN HISTORY YEAR 2015-2016 CANDIDATE NAME: Aurelia Mendez NAME OF SCHOOL: Holy Name Convent Port-of-Spain SCHOOL CODE: 160027 TERRITORY: TEACHER: Ms. Lalloo DATE OF SUBMISSION: SBA QUESTION: To what extent is it true to say that the 18th century French slave laws and practice were more humane than those of the British ? Table of Contents Title Page No. Preface……………………………………………………..1 Introduction……………………………………………… Essay……………………………………………………… Rationale…………………………………………………. …show more content…
They also used torture as a public spectatcle to deter potential offenders. Under these laws, the enslaved could be gibbeted, castrated, branded with hot irons, dismembered and locked in dungeons for unlimited periods as punishment for insubordination. Europeans who murdered their “property” committed no criminal offense as cases such as these were carried out by a justice of peace and the freeholders, who would all be “white” property owners thus putting the slaves at a disadvantage. At these trials, slaves could not speak in their defence. No slave was allowed to give evidence in trial for a freeman, which meant there was no evidence to convict a white who had illtreated a slave. In Nevis, a planter named Edward Huggins was brought to court for cruelty in whipping slaves after he had given three hundred and sixty five lashes to a man and two hundred and ninety two to a a woman. The jury found him not guilty. The woman died a few days later and the coroner’s jury certified that she had died a natural death. This was extremely sorrowful as the woman had no one to defend her claim in court. Under the Code Noir, the types of punishments enslavers could dole out to the enslaved were specified. For example, an attack on Europeans was a crime punishable by death. It also stated that the slaves were not to be tortured which was ironic as Article forty two of the Code Noir allowed owners to chain and whip them. Punishments were limited to whipping and putting in irons. They could also go to the legal official known as procureur-general ( or attorney general ) and complain if a master had maltreated them or did not carry out his obligations. Judging by research, it is notable that little respect to the enslaved as compared to the British as in the Police Laws slaves had no access to legal institutions if they wanted to protest or take