Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/63

. They had, however, a right of action against the slave's master for damages, and if the master would not pay the damages, he must give up the slave. The slave was protected against injury from other persons. If the slave was killed, the master might either prosecute the killer for a capital offense, or sue for damages. The master had an action against those who corrupted his slave, and led him into bad practices, and could recover twice the amount of the estimated damage. The female slaves were protected by the master's right of action.

A fugitive slave could not lawfully be received or harbored; to conceal him was theft. The master was entitled to pursue him wherever he pleased; and it was the duty of all authorities to give him aid in recovering his slave. It was the object of various laws to check the running away of slaves in every way, and, accordingly, a runaway slave could not legally be an object of sale. A class of persons made it a business to capture fugitive slaves. The rights of the master over the slave were in no way affected by his running away.

A person was born a slave whose mother was a slave at the time of his birth. At a later period the rule of law was established, that though a woman at the time of the birth might be a slave, still her child was free, if the mother had been free at any time within the nine months preceding the birth. In the cases of children who were the offspring of a free parent and a slave, positive law provided whether the children should be free or slaves.

A person became a slave by capture in war, (also jure gentium.) Captives were sold, as belonging to the public treasury, or distributed among the soldiers by lot. A free person might become a slave in various ways, in consequence of positive law, (jure civili). This was the case with those who refused or neglected to be registered in the census, and those who evaded military service. In certain cases a man became a slave, if he allowed himself to be sold as such in order to defraud the purchaser.

Under the empire the rule was established, that persons condemned to death, to the mines, and to fight with wild beasts, lost their freedom, and their property was confiscated. But this was not the earlier law. A freedman who misconducted himself towards his patron, was reduced to his former state of slavery.

The state of slavery was terminated by manumission. It was also terminated by various positive enactments, either by way of reward to the slave or punishment to the master. Freedom was given to slaves who discovered the perpetrators of certain crimes. After the establishment of Christianity, liberty might be acquired, subject to certain limitations, by becoming a monk or a spiritual person; but if the person left his monastery for a secular life, or rambled about in the towns or the country, he might be reduced to his former servile condition.

In times of revolution under the republic, it was not unusual to proclaim the liberty of slaves to induce them to join in revolt; but these were irregular proceedings, and neither justifiable nor examples for imitation. Lord