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Apparently, history has not yet recorded the exact date when the first Negro slave was brought to Louisiana, although many believe Bienville brought a few West Indies slaves with him about 1708.
A few more came during Crozat’s charter period and many were imported by the Company of the Indies with slave ships arriving every year.
Crozat imported Negro slaves from the West Indies, but most slaves would later come from Africa.
In 1724, Bienville felt it necessary to enact a series of slave regulations called the “Black Code” or Code Noir, which codified relations between blacks and whites.
It should also be noted that when Bienville had this special legislation passed, Article 3 of the code allowed “the exercise of the Roman Catholic creed only.”
This text is © copyright material by Marilyn Richoux, Joan Becnel and Suzanne Friloux, from St. Charles Parish, Louisiana: A Pictorial History, 2010.
