f slaves and sold as such.

The slaves were socially ostracized. Marriage of whites with slaves was
forbidden, as was also the concubinage of whites and manumitted or
free-born blacks with slaves. The consent of the parents of a slave to his
marriage was not required. That of the master was sufficient, but a slave
could not be forced to marry against his will.

There were, however, somewhat favorable provisions which made this code
seem a little less rigorous. The slaves had to be well fed and the masters
could not force them to provide for themselves by working for their own
account certain days of the week and slaves could give information against
their owners, if not properly fed or clothed. Disabled slaves had to be
sent to the hospital. Husbands, wives, and their children under the age of
puberty could not be seized and sold separately when belonging to the same
master. The code forbade the application of the rack to slaves, under any
pretext, on private authority, or mutilation of a limb, under penalty of
confiscation of the slave and criminal prosecution of the master. The
master was allowed, however, to have his slave put in irons and whipped
with rods or ropes. The code commanded officers or justices to prosecute
masters and overseers who should kill or mutilate slaves, and to punish the
murder according to the atrocity of the circumstance.

Other provisions were still more favorable. The slaves had to be instructed
in the Catholic religion. Slaves appointed by their masters as tutors to
their children were held set free. Moreover, manumitted slaves enjoyed the
same rights, privileges and immunities that were enjoyed by those born
free. "It is our pleasure," reads the document, "that their merit in having
acquired their freedom shall produce in their favor, not only with regard
to their persons, but also to their property, the same effects that our
other subjects derive from the happy circumstance of their having been born
free."[13]

From the first appearance of the _gens de couleur_ in the colony of
Louisiana dates the class, the _gens de couleur libres_. The record of
the legal tangles which resulted from the attempts to define this race in
Louisiana is most interesting. Up to 1671, all Creoles, Mulattoes, free
Negroes, etc., paid a capitation tax. In February 12 of that year, M. de
Baas, Governor-General of Martinique, issued an order exempting the
Creoles. Those Mulattoes who were also designated as Creo