ARTICLE IX
enacts that children born from the marriages of slaves shall
belong to the master of the mother.
ARTICLE X enacts that if the husband be a slave and the
wife a free woman, the children shall be free like their mother.
If the husband be free and the wife a slave, the children
shall be slaves.
ARTICLE XI orders that master shall have baptized slaves
buried in consecrated ground; those who die without being
baptized to be buried at night in a neighboring field.
ARTICLE XII forbids slaves to carry offensive Weapons or
heavy sticks, under penalty of the whip and confiscation of
the weapons in favor of the person seizing them. Slaves that
are sent hunting by their masters, and carry notes or known
marks, are excepted.
ARTICLE XIII forbids slaves belonging to different masters
to assemble in crowds, by day or by night, under pretext of
weddings or other causes, either at one of their masters or
elsewhere, and still less on the highways or secluded places,
under penalty of corporal punishment, which shall not be less
than the whip and the fleur-de-lys; and in case of repetition
of the offense and other aggravating circumstances, capital
punishment may be applied, at the discretion of the Judges.
It also commands all subjects of the King, whether officers
or not, to seize and arrest the offenders and conduct them
to prison, although there be no Judgment against them....
ARTICLE XVII orders seizure of goods that are offered for
sale by slaves without permission or mark.
ARTICLE XVIII orders officers of the Superior Council to
give their advice about the provisions and the food to he
furnished the slaves. It also forbids masters to give any
kind of brandy in lieu of food and clothing.
ARTICLE XIX forbids masters to abstain from feeding and
clothing their slaves, by permitting them to work for their
own account on a certain day of the week.
ARTICLE XX authorizes slaves to give information against
them masters, if not properly fed or clad, or if treated inhumanly.
ARTICLE XXI orders slaves disabled from working by old
age, sickness, or otherwise, to be provided for by their masters,
otherwise they shall be sent to the nearest hospital, to which
the masters shall pay eight cents a day for each slave, and
the hospital shall have a lien on the plantations of the masters.
ARTICLE XXII declares that slaves can have nothing that
does not belong to their masters, in whatever way acquired.
ARTICLE XXIIII orders that masters be held responsible for
what their slaves have done by their command.
ARTICLE XXIV forbids slaves from exercising public functions,
from serving as arbitrators or experts, from giving testimony
except in default of white people, and from ever serving as
witnesses for or against their masters.
ARTICLE XXV forbids slaves from being parties
to civil suits or complainants in criminal cases. Their masters
shall act for them in civil cases and demand reparation or
punishment for outrages and excesses committed against them.
ARTICLE XXVI orders prosecution of slaves in criminal
cases in the same manner as for free persons, with exceptions
hereafter mentioned.
ARTICLE XXVII Any slave who shall have struck his master,
his mistress, or the husband of his mistress, or their children,
so as to produce a bruise or shedding of blood in the face,
shall be put to death.
ARTICLE XXVIII Outrages or acts of violence against free persons
committed by slaves shall be punished with severity, and even
with death if the case require it.