The 1685 Code Noir declared that emancipation was the legal equivalent to “birth in our islands,” and therefore granted the affranchi—the freed individual—the same rights as those born in the kingdom, even if they had been born in “foreign lands.” Still, certain stipulations differentiated the affranchis from other free individuals. They were enjoined to show respect to their former masters, and they could be reenslaved as punishment for certain crimes. These provisions, however, applied only to the individual who had been freed, not to his or her children; they were linked to the person’s legal trajectory from slavery to freedom, and not to their ancestry. There was, in principle, no discrimination solely on the basis of African descent or skin color.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 97