For almost 180 years after France abolished slavery, the Code Noir (Black Code) allowing enslaved humans to be treated as property and worked, beaten, sold, raped or killed, remained in place.

On Thursday, the country’s bitterly divided national assembly voted unanimously to repeal it, in a rare show of political unity.

The vote, passed by 254-0, puts an end to a 17th century law, signed by King Louis XIV in 1685, which codified the treatment of enslaved people in France’s colonies.