GENERAL COLLECTION OF Jurisprudence.-Supplement.-VOLUME FIRST.

Slavery.-Slave.

"No. 40. 1st. In 1848, upon the advent of the republic, one of the first acts of the provisional government was to institute a commission, ordered to prepare the act of emancipation of the slaves in the colonies of the French republic. March 4th, 1848.

"2d. A short time afterward, the decree of April 27th, 1848, was rendered, which abolished slavery in all the French colonies and possessions. "3d. Article 8, of this decree, accorded a delay of three years to all French citizens, established in foreign countries, to set free or alienate the slaves belonging to them. A law of February 11th, 1851, fixed the delay at ten years.

"5th. Later, the article 6th of the constitution of November 4th, 1848, proclained that slavery could not exist upon any French soil.'

"6th. At last the terms of article 4th of the Senatus-Consulte of May 3d, 1854, were: 'slavery can never be reëstablished in the French colonies.' 'However, in proclaiming the freedom of slaves, the decree of April 27th, 1848, granted that an indemnity should be accorded to planters, and the 'national assembly' should arrange the quota (article 5th). This was the object of the law of April 30th, 1849.

"Therefore, the provisional government has, by two energetical acts, resolutely decided the question of the emacipation of the slaves.

"The first is the emancipation in the short time of two months; this is article 1st, of the decree of April 27th, 1848.

66

The second is explained in article 8th of the same decree. "This article reads as follows:

666

In future, even in foreign countries, it is forbidden to any Frenchman to possess, purchase, or sell slaves, and to participate directly or indirectly in any traffic or emolument of that kind. Any infraction of these provisions will entail the loss of French citizenship.

"Nevertheless, those Frenchmen who find themselves affected by these prohibitions, at the time of the promulgation of the present decree, will be allowed a delay of three years to conform to it. Those who shall become possessors of slaves in foreign countries by heritage, gift or marriage, inust, under the same penalty, either free or alienate them within the same period, calculating from the day when their possession will have commenced.'

"Law modifying paragraph 2d of article 8th, decree of April 22d, 1848, relative to proprietors of slaves.

“(Bull: Official, No. 5,627.)

"(May 28, 1858), promulgated June 5th. Article 1st, paragraph 2d, of article 8th, of the decree of April 27, 1848, is modified as follows:

"The present article is not applicable to proprietors of slaves, whose possession is anterior to the decree of April 27th, 1848, whether resulting from succession, donation during life, or testamentary, or from matrimonial agreements.'"

It thus appeared, that no French citizen in Louisiana could lawfully own a slave. English law forbade the owning of slaves by British subjects in any part of the world, under heavy penalties. The confiscation act emancipated the slaves of rebels. So that, while the proclamation of January 1st appeared to retain in servitude eighty-seven thousand slaves in Louisiana, General Butler deemed it feasible, by enforcing the laws of France and England, and by the complete execution of the confiscation act, to give freedom to nearly the whole number of these eighty-seven thousand slaves. Probably not more than seven thousand of the eighty-seven thousand were the property of loyal citizens. The rest were free by the laws of France, England, or the United States. While he was considering the best means of bringing those laws to bear in "extending the area of freedom," the coming of his successor was announced by rebel telegraph, straight from the recesses of the French legation at the city of Washington. I should add, that the British consul, Mr. Coppell, who now appeared to be on friendly terms with the commanding general, entered warmly into the halfformed scheme.

I shall take leave of this subject by relating several anecdotes illustrative of the practical working of slavery in Louisiana, and of the manner in which the system presented itself there to the hunker mind. Most of these stories I had the pleasure of hearing General Butler himself relate.

23

CHAPTER XXIX.

REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES.

Specimen of the Provost Court Slave Cases.

JOHN MONTAMAL, a free man of color, married a colored woman, who was a slave. Both were light mulattoes. From the savings of a sinall business, he bought his wife for six hundred dollars, so that he stood to her in the relation of proprietor as well as husband, and his children were his slaves. Their only surviving child, when the Union troops arrived, was an intelligent girl eleven years old, ⚫ who had been sent to school and had been received into the Catholic church. The father falling into misfortune owing to the troubled times, in an evil hour mortgaged his daughter to his creditors, trusting to be able to redeem her in time to prevent her from being sold. The continuance of the war frustrated his plans; the mortgage was foreclosed; the child was sold at auction by the sheriff. In this sad extremity, he came before the provost court, and asked the restoration of his daughter. The case was ably argued by counsel. Colonel Kinsman, who was then filling the place of provost judge, decided that the girl was free, and gave her back to her parents. This decision was manifestly contrary to the laws of Louisiana, which would have doomed the girl to slavery. But Colonel Kinsman agreed with his predecessor, Major Bell, that when Louisiana went out of the Union she took her black laws with her.

This is the mere outline of the story, which, fully related, would furnish the material for an Uncle Tom novel. Readers can understand it who have imagination enough to apply the situation to a favorite child, sister, niece, or ward of their own.

Specimen Letter from a Slave to the Commanding General.

"GENERAL BUTLER-DEAR SIR :

"New Orleans, June 18th, 1862.

I am reputed the natural son of one Thomas Thornhill, an aris

tocratic cotton merchant of this city, an officer in the rebel army, recently killed in one of the battles in Virginia.

"My mother, my sister and myself are claimed as slaves by George Hawthorne, of this city, who has been a soldier 'n the rebe. army from its first organization, and is now in that army near Richmond. Our wages are used for his benefit.

"He has given a power of attorney to one J. A. Banorres, his mistress in this city, to sell, hire, or dispose of us at her pleasure. We were not slaves for life, but to serve his lifetime by the will of his mother.

"Will your honor save us from perpetual slavery?

"Respectfully,

"Your humble servant,

"VIRGINIUS THORNHILL."

Cases of this kind were uniformly investigated. If the slave established his legal right to freedom, he was declared free.

General Butler on the Fugitive Slave Question.

Visitor." General, I wish you would give me an order to search for my negro."

"Have you lost your horse ?"

"No, sir."

"Have you lost your mule ?"

"No, sir."

"Well, sir, if you had lost your horse or your mule, would you come and ask me to neglect my duty to the government, for the purpose of assisting you to catch them ?"

"Of course not."

"Then why should you expect me to employ myself in hunting after any other article of your property?" [Exit Visitor.

Two Masters.

"The first negro met by our soldiers at Baton Rouge was an old house servant. The picket brought down his gun, and stopped old Uncle Ned short in his effort to retreat. Then there followed this conversation, the negro standing, meantime, with his eyes sticking

out of his head, and his face on a broad grin of astonishment and

fear:

"Soldier.-Where's your master ?"

"Uncle Ned.-Dun no, master."

"Soldier.-Tell me where is your master ?"

"Uncle Ned.-'Pon my soul, dun no, master.'

99

"Soldier (affecting great sternness).-Look here, if you don't tell me where your master is, I'll blow your brains out!"

"Uncle Ned-(getting more than ever scared).-By golly, dis nigger is in a bad fix. If he tells whar Massa Charles Cassell is, Massa Charles, if he catch em, will whip dis nigger to def; if he don't tell, den you soger will blow his brains out. Dis nigger is in a bad fix, sartin."*

Convicts' Children.

In the state prison at Baton Rouge were found several children born in prison of female colored convicts. By the laws of Louisiana, these children were the property of the state, doomed to be sold as slaves to the highest bidder. The new superintendent, Moses Bates, applied to the general for orders with regard to them. "I certainly can not sanction," wrote General Butler, "any laws of the state of Louisiana, which enslaved any children of female convicts, born in the state prison. Their place of birth is certainly not their fault. You are, therefore, to take such care of them as would be done with other destitute children. If these children were born of female convict slaves, possibly the master might have some claim, but I do not see how the state can have any."

An Anecdote which the late Rioters and their friends will regard as a Good Joke.

General Butler had a dandy regiment in New Orleans-one a little nicer in uniform and personal habits than any other; and so ably commanded, that it had not lost a man by disease since leaving New England. One day, the colonel of this fine regiment came to head-quarters, wearing the expression of a man who had some

*Correspondence of the New York Times.