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ART. 167.—A master may correct his indented servant or apprentice for negligence or other misbehaviour, provided he does it with moderation, and provided he does not make use of the whip; but he cannot exercise such rights with those who only let their daily services.

ART. 168.-The master may bring an action against any man for beating or maiming his servant, but in such case he must assign as a cause of action, his own damage arising from the loss of his service, and this loss must be proved upon the trial.

ART. 169.-A master may justify an assault in defence of his servant, and a servant in defence of his master, the master because he has an interest in his servant, not to be deprived of his service; the servant, because it is part of his duty for which he receives wages, to stand by and defend his master.

ART. 170.-The master is answerable for the offences and quasi-offences committed by his servants, according to the rules which are explained under the title of quasicontracts and quasi-crimes or offences.

ART. 171.-The master is answerable for the damage caused to individuals or to the community in general by whatever is thrown out of his house into the street or public road, and in as much as the master has the superintendence and police of his house, and is responsible for the faults committed therein.

CHAPTER III.

Of Slaves.

ART. 172.—The rules prescribing the police and conduct to be observed with respect to slaves in this State, and the punishment of their crimes and offences, are fixed by special laws of the Legislature.

ART. 173.—The slave is entirely subject to the will of his master, who may correct and chastise him, though

not with unusual rigor, nor so as to maim or mutilate him, or to expose him to the danger of loss of life, or to cause his death.

ART. 174.-The slave is incapable of making any kind of contract, except those which relate to his own emancipation.

ART. 175.-All that a slave possesses, belongs to his master; he possesses nothing of his own, except his peculium, that is to say, the sum of money, or moveable estate, which his master chooses he should possess.

ART. 176.—They can transmit nothing by succession or otherwise; but the succession of free persons related to them which they would have inherited had they been free, may pass through them to such of their descendants as may have acquired their liberty before the succession is opened.

ART. 177.-The slave is incapable of exercising any public office, or private trust; he cannot be tutor, curator, executor nor attorney; he cannot be a witness in either civil or criminal matters, except in cases provided for by particular laws. He cannot be a party in any civil action, either as plaintiff or defendant, except when he has to claim or prove his freedom.

ART. 178.-When slaves are prosecuted in the name of the State, for offences they have committed, notice must be given to their masters.

ART. 179.-Masters are bound by the acts of their slaves done by their command, as also by their transactions and dealings with respect to the business in which they have entrusted or employed them; but in case they should not have authorised or entrusted them, they shall be answerable only for so much as they have benefitted by the transaction.

ART. 180.-The master shall be answerable for all the damages occasioned by an offence or quasi-offence com

mitted by his slave, independent of the punishment inflicted on the slave.

ART. 181. The master howewer may discharge himself from such responsibility by abandoning his slave to the person injured; in which case such person shall sell such slave at public auction in the usual form, to obtain payment of the damages and costs; and the balance, if any, shall be returned to the master of the slave, who shall be completely discharged, although the price of the slave should not be sufficient to pay the whole amount of the damages and costs; provided that the master shall make the abandonment within three days after the judgment awarding such damages, shall have been rendered; provided also that it shall not be proved that the crime or offence was committed by his order; for in case of such proof the master shall be answerable for all damages resulting therefrom, whatever be the amount, without being admitted to the benefit of the abandonment.

ART. 182.-Slaves cannot marry without the consent of their masters, and their marriages do not produce any of the civil effects which result from such contract.

ART. 183.-Children born of a mother then in a state of slavery, whether married or not, follow the condition of their mother; they are consequently slaves and belong to the master of their mother.

ART. 184.-A master may manumit his slave in this State, either by an act inter vivos or by a disposition made in prospect of death, provided such manumission be made with the forms and under the conditions prescribed by law; but an enfranchisement, when made by a last will, must be express and formal, and shall not be implied by any other circumstances of the testament, such as a legacy, an institution of heir, testamentary executorship or other dispositions of this nature, which, in such case, shall be considered as if they had not been made.

ART. 185.-No one can emancipate his slave, unless the slave has attained the age of thirty years, and has behaved well a least for four years preceding his emancipation.

ART. 186.-The slave who has saved the life of his master, his master's wife, or one of his children, may be emancipated at any age.

ART. 187.-The master who wishes to emancipate his slave, is bound to make a declaration of his intentions to the judge of the parish where he resides; the judge must order notice of it to be published during forty days by advertisement posted at the door of the court house; and if, at the expiration of this delay, no opposition be made, be shall authorise the master to pass the act of emancipation.

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ART. 188. The act of emancipation imports an obligation on the part of the person granting it, to provide for the subsistence of the slave emancipated, if he should be unable to support himself.

ART. 189. An emancipation once perfected, is irrevocable, on the part of the master or his heirs.

ART. 190.-Any enfranchisement made in fraud of creditors, or of the portion reserved by law to forced heirs is null and void; and such fraud shall be considered as proved, when it shall appear that at the moment of executing the enfranchisement, the person granting it had not sufficient property to pay his debts or to leave to his heirs the portion to them reserved by law; the same rule will apply if the slave thus manumitted, was spe-. cially mortgaged; but in this case the enfranchisement shall take effect, provided the slave or any one in his behalf shall pay the debt for which the mortgage was given.

ART. 191.- No master of slaves shall be compelled, either directly or indirectly, to enfranchise any of them, except only in cases where the enfranchisement

shall be made for services rendered to the State, by virtue of an act of the Legislature of the same, and on the State satisfying to the master the appraised value of the manumitted slave.

ᎪᎡᎢ 192. In like manner no master shall be compelled to sell his slave, but in one of two cases, to wit: the first, when being only co-proprietor of the slave, his co-proprietor demands the sale in order to make partition of the property; the second, when the master shall be convicted of cruel treatment of his slave, and the judge shall deem proper to pronounce, besides the penalty established for such cases, that the slave shall be sold at public auction, in order to place him out of the reach of the power which his master has abused.

ART. 193. The slave who has acquired the right of being free at a future time, is from that time, capable of receiving by testament or donation. Property given or devised to him must be preserved for him, in order to be delivered to him in kind, when his emancipation shall take place. In the mean time it must be administered by

a curator.

ART. 194. The slave for years cannot be transported out of the State. He can appear in court to claim the protection of the laws in cases where there are good reasons for believing that it is intended to carry him out of the State.

ART. 195. If the slave for years dies before the time fixed for his enfranchisement, the gifts or legacies made him revert to the donor or to the heirs of the donor.

ART. 196. The child born of a woman after she has acquired the right of being free at a future time, follows the condition of its mother, and becomes free at the time fixed for her enfranchisement, even if the mother should die before that time.

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