May 20, 1802

Law of 20 May 1802

French legislature adopts the Law of 20 May 1802 maintaining colonial slavery and the slave trade

The law never used the word "restore." It ordered slavery to be maintained, under rules older than the Revolution — and reopened the legal importation of enslaved people in the same four articles.

30 Floréal, Year X

On 30 Floréal Year X — 20 May 1802 — the Corps législatif adopted a government-proposed decree maintaining slavery under pre-1789 law in the colonies being returned to France under the Treaty of Amiens, among them Martinique, Saint Lucia and Tobago.

Article II extended the same rule to other French colonies beyond the Cape of Good Hope, principally Réunion and Isle de France, where the 1794 abolition had never become effective.

Bonaparte's government proposed the measure; the promulgation text bearing his signature is dated 10 Prairial Year X, 30 May 1802.

Four articles

Article III restored the pre-1789 legal regime for the slave trade and the importation of enslaved people into the covered colonies.

Article IV set aside earlier laws and placed colonial government under regulations to be issued by the executive for ten years.

For people already enslaved in Martinique and the covered Indian Ocean colonies, 20 May brought no change of status; it ensured that emancipation would not arrive.

What the statute did not reach

The law did not itself re-enslave the emancipated populations of Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe or French Guiana. Slavery there was restored through separate consular and local measures backed by coercion — a secret consular order of 16 July 1802 for Guadeloupe, a consular decree of 7 December 1802 for Cayenne.

Nor did the statute expressly name or repeal the abolition decree of 4 February 1794. Its wording said slavery would be "maintained" where abolition had not taken effect, which is why calling the law a simple repeal obscures its reach.

That wording was not benign: it preserved enslavement, revived legal slave importation, and supplied the framework for the wider restoration campaign that followed.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

The date 20 May is secure as the date of the legislative decree. The promulgation language bearing Bonaparte's signature is dated 10 Prairial Year X, or 30 May 1802.
Calling this law a simple repeal of the 1794 abolition obscures its wording and territorial reach: it said slavery would be “maintained” where abolition had not taken effect and did not expressly name or repeal the 1794 decree.