Extracted From:
 A LAW DICTIONARY ..., SIXTH EDITION, 1856
 by John Bouvier, CHILDS & PETERSON, PHILADELPHIA

SLAVE. A man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the
property of another. 
   A slave has no political rights, and generally has no civil rights. He can
enter into no contract unless specially authorized by law; what he acquires
generally, belongs to his master. The children of female slaves follow the
condition of their mothers, and are themselves slaves. 
   In Maryland, Missouri and Virginia slaves are declared by statute to be
personal estate, or treated as such.... In Kentucky, the rule is different, and
they are considered real estate....
   In general a slave is considered a thing and not a person; but sometimes he
is considered as a person; as when he commits a crime; for example, two white
persons and a slave can commit a riot....
   A slave may acquire his freedom in various ways: 
     1. By manumission, by deed or writing, which must be made according to the
laws of the state where the master then acts.... The deed may be absolute which
gives immediate freedom to the slave, or conditional giving him immediate
freedom, and reserving a right of service for a time to come... or giving him
his freedom as soon as a certain condition shall have been fulfilled.... 
     2. By manumission by will. When there is an express emancipation by will,
the slave will be free, and the testator's real estate shall be charged with the
payment of his debts, if there be not enough personal property without the sale
of the slaves.... The manumission by will may be implied, as, where the master
devises property real or personal to his slave.... 
     3. By the removal of the slave with the consent of the master, animo
morandi, into one of the United States where slavery is forbidden by law... or
when he sojourns there longer than is allowed by the law of the state.... Vide
Stroud on Slavery; Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.; and as to the rights of one who,
being free, is held as a slave, 2 Gilman, 1; 3 Yeates, 240. 

SLAVE TRADE, criminal law. The infamous traffic in human flesh, which though not
prohibited by the law of nations, is now forbidden by the laws and treaties of
most civilized states. 
   By the constitution of the United States, art. 1, s. 9, it is provided, that
the "migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing
(in 1789,) shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the congress,
prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight." Previously to that date
several laws were enacted, which it is not within the plan of this work to cite
at large or to analyze; they are here referred to, namely; act of 1794, ... act
of 1800, ... act of 1803, ... act of 1807, ... these several acts forbid
citizens of the United States, under certain circumstances, to equip or build
vessels for the purpose of carrying on the slave trade, and the last mentioned
act makes it highly penal to import slaves into the United States after the
first day of January, 1808. The act of 1818, ... the act of 1819, ... and the
act of 1820, ... contain further prohibition of the slave trade, and punish the
violation of their several provisions with the highest penalties of the law....

SLAVERY. The state or condition of a slave. 
   Slavery exists in most of the southern states. In Pennsylvania, by the act of
March, 1780, for the gradual abolition of slavery, it has been almost entirely
removed in Massachusetts it was held, soon after the Revolution, that slavery
had been abolished by their constitution.... in Connecticut, slavery has been
totally extinguished by legislative provisions.... the states north of Delaware,
Maryland and the river Ohio, may be considered as free States, where slavery is
not tolerated....

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