Colonial masters rejected the Code Noir’s mutilation penalties to preserve slave property value

Evidence

The Code Noir stipulated that a slave who had been away from the plantation for more than a month was to have one of his ears cut off and a fleur-de-lis branded on his shoulder. A slave who ran away again for a month was to receive a second brand and have a hamstring cut. The punishment for the third offense was death. Rather than follow these prescriptions for mutilation, however, most masters and managers devised other punishments that caused suffering but did not damage their property. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 193