In
assimilation to Anglo-American practice, however, such recognition as had
been given to slave _peculium_ was now withdrawn, though on the other hand
slaves were granted by implication a legal power to enter contracts for
self-purchase. Slave marriages, furthermore, were declared void of all
civil effect; and jurisdiction over slave crimes was transferred to courts
of inferior grade and informal procedure. By way of reciprocation the state
of Alabama when framing a new slave code in 1852 borrowed in a weakened
form the Louisiana prohibition of the separate sale of mothers and their
children below ten years of age. This provision met the praise of citizens
elsewhere when mention of it chanced to be published; but no other
commonwealth appears to have adopted it.[6]
[Footnote 6: _E. g_., Atlanta _Intelligencer_, Feb. 27, 1856.]
The severity of the slave laws in the commonwealths of English origin, as
compared with the mildness of the Louisiana code, was largely due to
the historic possession by their citizens of the power of local
self-government. A distant autocrat might calmly decree such regulations as
his ministers deemed proper, undisturbed by the wishes and apprehensions of
the colonial whites; but assemblymen locally elected and responsive to the
fears as well as the hopes of their constituents necessarily reflected more
fully the desire of social control, and preferred to err on the side of
safety.
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