Correction of a Falsified Image
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prejudices o f the present can be traced back to those o f the past and
actually find explanation in the former aristocratic mindset and
perception o f the colony’s indigenous and enslaved people as inferior, if
not savage. To ensure order in a city that was populated by many
different cultures and races, strict regulations were put into place by the
54 articles o f Louisiana’s Code Noir (1724). This document, which
relied on the Code Noir that was originally created under Louis XIV in
1685, regulated all “relations between masters and slaves” and made it
“imperative on masters to impart religious instruction to their slaves”
(Louisiana ’s Code Noir online).
In relation to the practice but also the perception o f Voodoo, two
o f the 57 articles are important. According to Article II o f the Code Noir,
all slaves had to be instructed “dans la religion catholique, apostolique et
romaine et baptises” (in the Catholic faith and baptized) (Le Code Noir
online). According to Article III, “tous exercices d’autre religion que de
la catholique, apostolique et romaine” (the practice o f any other religion
than the Catholic one) was forbidden (Le Code Noir online). The same
article forbids slaves to assemble for any reason, an idea that found a
more detailed outline in Article XIII o f the Code. Here it is stated that all
slaves were restrained “de s ’attrouper le jour ou la nuit, sous pretexte de
noces ou autrement, soit chez Tun de leurs maitres ou ailleurs, et encore
moins dans les grands chemins ou lieux ecartes” (to gather either by day
or by night, under the pretext o f a wedding or for any other reason,
neither at the house o f their masters nor somewhere eise, and much less
on busy streets or in secluded places) (Le Code Noir online).
Whereas secretive gatherings, during which enslaved Africans
practiced their spiritual traditions, provided the oppressed with “a vital
means o f mental and emotional resistances to [their] bitter hardship,” the
same innocent gatherings, when detected, where perceived as a threat to
order and social values by the French and Spanish colonizers (Bultman
148). Hence, they were suppressed. Disrespect o f the articles led to
corporal punishment that, in the case o f reoccurring offences, could lead
to the offenders being branded with the fleur-de-lys or being judged with
Capital punishment.
Even though the French colonizers had an enormous influence
on the modern mi