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Real_Uncle_Noticer on scored.co
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XLI, XLII. Are entirely relative to judicial forms and proceedings.XLIII. Husbands and wives shall not be
seized and sold separately when belonging to the same master : and their children, when under fourteen
years of age, shall not be separated from their parents, and such seizures and sales shall be null and void.
The present article shall apply to voluntary sales, and in case such sales should take place in violation of the
law, the seller shall be deprived of the slave he has illegally retained, and said slave shall be adjudged to the
purchaser without any additional price being required.
XLIV. Slaves, fourteen years old, and from this age up to sixty, who are settled on lands and plantations,
and are at present working on them, shall not be liable to seizure for debt, except for what may be due out
of the purchase money agreed to be paid for them, unless said grounds or plantations should also be
distressed, and any seizure and judicial sale of a rea,l estate, without including the slaves of the aforesaid
age, who are part of said estate, shall be deemed null and void.
XLV, XLVI, XLVII, XLVIII, XLIX. Are relative to certain formalities to be observed in judicial
proceedings.
L. Masters, when twenty-five years old, shall have the power to manumit their slaves, cither by
testamentary dispositions, or by acts inter vivos. But, as there may be mercenary masters disposed to set a
price on the liberation of their slaves ; and whereas slaves, with a view to acquire the necessary means to
purchase their freedom, may be tempted to commit theft or deeds of plunder, no person, whatever may he
his rank and condition, shall be permitted to set free his slaves, without obtaining from the Superior
Council a decree of permission to that effect ; which permission shall be granted without costs, when the
motives for the setting free of said slaves, as specified in the petition of the master, shall appear legitimate
to the tribunal. All acts for the emancipation of slaves, which, for the future, shall be made without this
permission, shall be null ; and the slaves, so freed, shall not be entitled to their freedom ; they shall, on the
contrary, continue to be held as slaves; but they shall be taken away from their former masters, and
confiscated for the benefit of the India Company. LI. However, should slaves be appointed by their masters
tutors to their children, said slaves shall be held and regarded as being thereby set free to all intents and
purposes.
LII. We declare that the acts for the enfranchisement of slaves, passed according to the forms above
described, shall be equivalent to an act of naturalization, when said slaves are not born in our colony of
Louisiana, and they shall enjoy all the rights and privileges inherent to our subjects born in our kingdom or
in any land or country under our dominion. We declare, therefore, that all manumitted slaves, and all free-
born negroes, are incapable of receiving donations, either by testamentary dispositions, or by acts inter
vivos from the whites. Said donations shall be null and void, and the objects so donated shall be applied to
the benefit of the nearest hospital.
LIII. We command all manumitted slaves to show the pro foundest respect to their former masters, to their
widows and children, and any injury or insult offered by said manumitted slaves to their former masters,
their widows or children- shall be punished with more severity than if it had been offered to any other
person. We, however, declare them exempt from the discharge Of all duties or services, and from the
payment of all taxes or fees, or any thing else which their former masters might, in their quality of patrons,
claim either in relation to their persons, or to their personal or real estate, either during the life or after the
death of said manumitted slaves.
LIV. We grant to manumitted slaves the same rights, privileges, and immunities which are enjoyed by free-
born persons. It is our pleasure that their merit in having acquired their freedom, shall produce in their
favor, not only with regard to their persons, but also to their property, the same effects which our other
subjects derive from the happy circumstance of their having been born free.
In the name of the King,
Bienville, De la Chaise.
Fazende, Bruslé, Perry, March, 1724.
Source: B. F. French, Historical Collections of Louisiana: Embracing Translations of Many Rare and
Valuable Documents Relating to the Natural, Civil, and Political History of that State (New York: D.
Appleton, 1851)
XLI, XLII. Are entirely relative to judicial forms and proceedings.XLIII. Husbands and wives shall not be
seized and sold separately when belonging to the same master : and their children, when under fourteen
years of age, shall not be separated from their parents, and such seizures and sales shall be null and void.
The present article shall apply to voluntary sales, and in case such sales should take place in violation of the
law, the seller shall be deprived of the slave he has illegally retained, and said slave shall be adjudged to the
purchaser without any additional price being required.
XLIV. Slaves, fourteen years old, and from this age up to sixty, who are settled on lands and plantations,
and are at present working on them, shall not be liable to seizure for debt, except for what may be due out
of the purchase money agreed to be paid for them, unless said grounds or plantations should also be
distressed, and any seizure and judicial sale of a rea,l estate, without including the slaves of the aforesaid
age, who are part of said estate, shall be deemed null and void.
XLV, XLVI, XLVII, XLVIII, XLIX. Are relative to certain formalities to be observed in judicial
proceedings.
L. Masters, when twenty-five years old, shall have the power to manumit their slaves, cither by
testamentary dispositions, or by acts inter vivos. But, as there may be mercenary masters disposed to set a
price on the liberation of their slaves ; and whereas slaves, with a view to acquire the necessary means to
purchase their freedom, may be tempted to commit theft or deeds of plunder, no person, whatever may he
his rank and condition, shall be permitted to set free his slaves, without obtaining from the Superior
Council a decree of permission to that effect ; which permission shall be granted without costs, when the
motives for the setting free of said slaves, as specified in the petition of the master, shall appear legitimate
to the tribunal. All acts for the emancipation of slaves, which, for the future, shall be made without this
permission, shall be null ; and the slaves, so freed, shall not be entitled to their freedom ; they shall, on the
contrary, continue to be held as slaves; but they shall be taken away from their former masters, and
confiscated for the benefit of the India Company. LI. However, should slaves be appointed by their masters
tutors to their children, said slaves shall be held and regarded as being thereby set free to all intents and
purposes.
LII. We declare that the acts for the enfranchisement of slaves, passed according to the forms above
described, shall be equivalent to an act of naturalization, when said slaves are not born in our colony of
Louisiana, and they shall enjoy all the rights and privileges inherent to our subjects born in our kingdom or
in any land or country under our dominion. We declare, therefore, that all manumitted slaves, and all free-
born negroes, are incapable of receiving donations, either by testamentary dispositions, or by acts inter
vivos from the whites. Said donations shall be null and void, and the objects so donated shall be applied to
the benefit of the nearest hospital.
LIII. We command all manumitted slaves to show the pro foundest respect to their former masters, to their
widows and children, and any injury or insult offered by said manumitted slaves to their former masters,
their widows or children- shall be punished with more severity than if it had been offered to any other
person. We, however, declare them exempt from the discharge Of all duties or services, and from the
payment of all taxes or fees, or any thing else which their former masters might, in their quality of patrons,
claim either in relation to their persons, or to their personal or real estate, either during the life or after the
death of said manumitted slaves.
LIV. We grant to manumitted slaves the same rights, privileges, and immunities which are enjoyed by free-
born persons. It is our pleasure that their merit in having acquired their freedom, shall produce in their
favor, not only with regard to their persons, but also to their property, the same effects which our other
subjects derive from the happy circumstance of their having been born free.
In the name of the King,
Bienville, De la Chaise.
Fazende, Bruslé, Perry, March, 1724.
Source: B. F. French, Historical Collections of Louisiana: Embracing Translations of Many Rare and
Valuable Documents Relating to the Natural, Civil, and Political History of that State (New York: D.
Appleton, 1851)