In Louisiana, a slave cannot be emancipated, unless he is thirty years old and has behaved well at least four years preceding his freedom; except a slave who has saved the life of his master, his master's wife, or one of his children. It is necessary to make known to the judge the intention of conferring freedom, who may authorize it, after it has been advertised at the door of the court-house forty days, without exciting any opposition.
Stephens, in his history of West India slavery, supposes that the colonial codes of England are the only ones expressly framed to obstruct emancipation. He is mistaken;--the American _republics_ share that distinction with their mother country. There are plenty of better things in England to imitate.
According to the Mosaic law, a Hebrew could not retain his brother, whom he might buy as a servant, more than six years, against his consent, and in the seventh year he went out free for nothing. If he came by himself, he went out by himself; if he were married when he came, his wife went with him. _Exodus_ xxi, _Deut._ xv, _Jeremiah_ xxxiv. Besides this, Hebrew slaves were, without exception, restored to freedom by the _Jubilee_.--"Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land, and unto all the inhabitants thereof." _Leviticus_ xxv, 10.
At Athens, if the slave possessed property enough to buy his freedom, the law compelled the master to grant it, whenever the money was offered.
The severe laws of Rome discouraged manumission; but it was a very common thing for slaves to pay for freedom, out of their _peculium_; and public opinion made it dishonorable to retain them in bondage under such circumstances. "According to Cicero, sober and industrious slaves, who became such by captivity in war, seldom remained in servitude above six years."
"In Turkey, the right of redemption is expressly regulated by the Koran. The master is commanded to give to all his slaves, that behave themselves faithfully, a writing, fixing beforehand the price at which they may be redeemed; and which he is bound to accept, when tendered by them, or on their behalf."
"In Brazil, a slave who can pay the value of his servitude, (the fair price of which may be settled by the magistrate,) has a right to demand his freedom. And the case frequently happens; for the slaves have one day in the week, and in some places two days, exclusively of Sundays and other festivals, which the industrious employ in providing a fund for their redemption."