servants

SERVANTS, (negro or mulatto,) Pennsylvania. By the fourth section of the act 
for the gradual abolition of slavery, passed the first day of March, 1780, 1 
Smith's Laws of Penn. 492, it is "provided that every negro or mulatto 
child, born within this state after the passing of this act, (who would in 
case this act had not been made, have been a servant for years, or life, or 
a slave) shall be by virtue of this act the servant of such person, or his 
assigns who would in such case have been entitled to the service of such 
child, until such child attain unto the age of twenty-eight years, in the 
manner and on the conditions, whereon servants bound by indenture for four 
years are or may be retained or holden; and shall be liable to like 
correction and punishment, and entitled to like relief, in case he be evilly 
treated by his master, and to like freedom dues and privileges, as servants 
bound by indenture for four years are entitled, unless the person to whom 
such services belong shall abandon his claim to the same; in which case the 
overseers of the poor where such child shall be abandoned shall by indenture 
bind out every such child so abandoned as an apprentice for a time not 
exceeding the age hereinbefore limited for the service of such children." 
And by the thirteenth section it is enacted, "that no covenant of personal 
servitude or apprenticeship whatsoever shall be valid or binding on a negro 
or mulatto for a longer time than seven years, unless such servant or 
apprentice were at the commencement of such servitude or apprenticeship, 
under the age of twenty-one years, in which case such negro or mulatto may 
be holden as a servant or apprentice, respectively, according to the 
covenant, as the case shall be, until he shall attain the age of twenty-
eight years, but no longer." See 6 Binn. 204; 1 Browne's R. 369, n. 
     2. The act requires that a register of such children as would have been 
slaves shall be kept by a public officer therein designated. The want of 
registry entitles such child to freedom. 
    

SERVANTS. In Louisiana they are divided into free servants and slaves. See 
Slaves; Slavery. 
     2. Free servants are, in general, all free persons who let, hire, or 
engage their services to another in the state, to be employed therein at any 
work, commerce, or occupation whatever, for the benefit of him who has 
contracted with them, for a certain sum or retribution, or upon certain 
conditions. 
     3. There are three kinds of free servants in the state, to wit: 
     4.-1. Those who only hire out their services by the day, week, month, 
or year, in consideration of certain wages. 
     5.-2. Those who engage to serve for a fixed time for a certain 
consideration, and who are therefore considered not as having hired out, but 
as having sold their services. 
     6.-3. Apprentices that is, those who engage to serve any one, in order 
to learn some art, trade, or profession. Civ. Code of Lo. art. 155, 156, 
157. 
    

SERVANTS, menial. Domestics those who receive wages, and who are lodged and 
fed in the house of another, and who are employed in his services. Such 
servants are not particularly recognized by law. They are called menial 
servants, or domestics, from living infra moenia, within the walls of the 
house. 1 Bl. Com. 324; Wood's Inst. 53; 1 Sw. Syst. 218. The right of the 
master to their services in every respect is grounded on the contract 
between them. 2. Laborers, or persons hired by the day's work, or any longer 
time, are not considered servants. 1 Sw. Syst. 218; 5 Binn. 167; 3 Serg. & 
Rawle, 351. Vide 12 Ves. 114; 2 Vern. 546; 16 Ves. 486; 1 Rop. on Leg. 121; 
3 Deac. & Chit. 332; 1 Mont. & Bligh. 413; 2 Mart. N. S. 652; Poth. Proc. 
Civ. sect. 2, art. 5, Sec. 5; Poth. Ob. n. 710, 828, French ed.; 9 Toull. n. 
314; Domestic; Operative.