D. 1828_ (Baton Rouge, 1828), pp. 8-11.
For a copy of this pamphlet I am indebted to Professor W.L. Fleming of
Louisiana State University.]
[Footnote 15: D.B. Sanford, _Police Jury Code of the Parish of East
Feliciana, Louisiana_ (Clinton, La., 1859), pp. 98-101.]
In general, the letter of the law in slaveholding states at the middle of
the nineteenth century presumed all persons with a palpable strain of negro
blood to be slaves unless they could prove the contrary, and regarded the
possession of them by masters as presumptive evidence of legal ownership.
Property in slaves, though by some of the statutes assimilated to real
estate for certain technical purposes, was usually considered as of chattel
character. Its use and control, however, were hedged about with various
restraints and obligations. In some states masters were forbidden to
hire slaves to themselves or to leave them in any unusual way to their
self-direction; and everywhere they were required to maintain their slaves
in full sustenance whether young or old, able-bodied or incapacitated.
The manumission of the disabled was on grounds of public thrift nowhere
permitted unless accompanied with provision for their maintenance, and that
of slaves of all sorts was restricted in a great variety of ways.
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