For the next century slave masters brazenly, openly, and consistently broke almost every provision of this code. As one planter activist, Tanguy de la Boissière, wrote in 1793, the Code Noir was always "judged absurd" and its implementation "never attempted." Indeed, over the course of the eighteenth century, local legislation as well as new royal legislation reversed many of its key provisions, particularly those relating to the status of emancipated slaves.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 63