The Laws of 18 and 19 July 1845, commonly known as Mackau Law (French: ''Lois Mackau'') are a set of laws which paved the way towards the abolition of slavery in France. They were instigated by Ange de Mackau, then Minister of the Navy and of Colonies. Effective abolition was enacted with the .

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The Mackau laws constituted the last wave of legislation to enhance the status of slaves in France before outright abolition. They mandated a minimal duration for education of slaves, made it illegal to inflict over 15 lashes without a court order, and married slaves belonging to different masters obtained a right to family reunification. In July 1846, Louis Philippe I abolished slavery in the Royal domains of Martinique,

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

, and the newly purchased Mayotte. However,

François Guizot François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (; 4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848. A conservative liberal who opposed the a ...

stalled further progress.

Implementation

Previous dispositions had been implemented with various degrees of good faith in the colonies, a point of recrimination for abolitionists. For instance, the mayors of towns where new schools were opened instituted a student selection procedures obviously intended to exclude slaves.''Abolitionnistes de l'esclavage et réformateurs des colonies: 1820-1851: analyse et documents'', Nelly Schmidt - pp. 330 et 331., p. 223. Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin and Agénor de Gasparin, notably, opposed the new Mackau laws on the ground that further legislation, adding to a pile of laws that were not effectively implemented, were useless.

References

{{reflist Mackau Law 1845 in France Slavery legislation July Monarchy