From legal slavery to modern segregation

When injustice becomes law...

Introduction — Violence was not born in the street, but in texts

Slavery has not been a morally wrong tolerated in the past.
It was a legal construct , conceived, drafted, voted on, and signed.

Before the chains, there were articles of law .
Before the whippings, there were decrees .
Before visible segregation, there was a human hierarchy written in black and white .

Understanding the modern history of Black, colonized, and racialized peoples requires a simple truth:
Domination was initially legal .

I. Legal slavery: when the law manufactures inhumanity

From the 17th century onwards, the major colonial powers organized slavery through law.

The principle is simple:

• Some humans are legally inferior.

• This inferiority is hereditary.

• exploitation becomes legitimate

The foundational texts transform the deported African into:

• well furnished

• labor force without rights

• a punishable body without recourse

The law does not regulate slavery in order to limit it.
She makes him feel safe .

II. The Black Code: Rationalized Slavery

In 1685, the French monarchy promulgated the Code Noir.
He did not create slavery, but he gave it a stable administrative framework .

Its principles are clear:

• A slave is not a legal person

• the master has total authority

• Violence is permitted, regulated, normalized.

• religion serves as a tool of control

• Families can be legally separated

The state becomes a co-manager of dehumanization .

This model will not remain isolated. It will set a precedent.

III. After abolition: continuity in disguise

The abolition of slavery does not destroy the mental structure that made it possible.
It removes a word, not a system.

The former colonial powers then sought an alternative:

• retain dominance

• without using the term "slavery"

The solution has been found:
an exceptional right , reserved for colonized people.

IV. The native: free in theory, subjugated in practice

In French colonial territory, the system crystallized with the Indigenous Code .

This system establishes:

• a two-tiered citizenship

• punishments without trial

• forced labor

• traffic restrictions

• arbitrary administrative justice

The native is no longer a slave,
but he is still not a citizen .

It is slavery reclassified legally .

V. The United States: From Slavery to Jim Crow Laws

In the United States, after abolition, the logic is similar.

The Slave Codes gave way to the Jim Crow Laws , which imposed:

• racial segregation

• political exclusion

• tolerated violence

• targeted criminalization

The black body is no longer possessed,
He is watched, separated, punished .

Skin color remains a legal criterion, even without slavery.

VI. Apartheid: The Law as a Racial Wall

In South Africa, the system reached an extreme form with Apartheid.

The state legally organizes:

• the separation of spaces

• the hierarchy of rights

• movement control

• racial economy

Everything is written.
Everything is stamped.
Everything is legal.

The Black Code enters the modern era.

VII. Modern Segregation: When the Law Becomes Discreet

Today, explicit racial texts have disappeared.
But the legal effects persist.

They can be found in:

• prison policies

• targeted police checks

• inequalities in access to housing

• systemic discrimination

• selective migration borders

The law no longer uses the term "race".
She says security , order , exception , emergency .

Language is changing.
The structure remains.

VIII. What this story compels us to understand

1. Oppression is not accidental.

2. It is conceived, written, institutionalized

3. The law can be unjust without being illegal.

4. Abolition is not enough without deconstruction

Conclusion — Memory versus organized forgetting

From legal slavery to modern segregation, a continuous line runs through history:
that of the human hierarchy legitimized by law .

The fight is not only moral.
It is legal, political, and memorial .

As long as the laws of the past are not confronted,
Their ghosts will continue to rule the present.

BlackArtist Transmission

This text is not a return to the past.
This is a key to understanding now.