 In the north of the island, slaves were able to retain many ties to African cultures, religion and language; these ties were continually being renewed by newly imported Africans.Some West African slaves held on to their traditional Vodou beliefs by secretly syncretizing it with Catholicism.The French enacted the "Code Noir" ("Black Code"), prepared by Jean-Baptiste Colbert and ratified by Louis XIV, which established rules on slave treatment and permissible freedoms.