CHAPTER 47. GENERAL PROVISIONS RESPECTING SLAVES AND NEGROES. SECTION 1. Who are and shall be slaves. offensive weapon. liquors. 4. Condemned slaves, &c., to be valued and paid for. SECTION valued or paid for. and when not. 7. Negro not entitled to vote or hold office. 8. Slaves to be personal property. 9. Who shall be deemed negroes. SECTION 1. All slaves now within this District, or hereafter brought therein in accordance with the provisions of law, and the future descendants of female slaves, shall be slaves during their natural lives, unless manumitted and set free according to law. Sec. 2. No slave shall be permitted, within this District, to carry any gun or other offensive weapon off his master's land, without a license from such master; if any slave offend against the provisions of this section, he may be carried before any justice of the peace, and by him ordered to be whipped, not exceeding thirty-nine stripes. Such gun or other offensive weapon shall be forfeited to him who shall seize the same and carry such slave before such justice. Sec. 3. Any slave selling intoxicating liquor, or keeping entertainment at any muster ground, or other public place, without the order or permission of his owner in writing, shall be liable to be apprehended and punished, in the discretion of any justice of the peace, twenty stripes. Sec. 4. The value of a slave condemned and executed, or reprieved for sale and transportation, shall be paid to the owner out of the treasury; such value shall be the cash price for which he would sell at public sale, with a knowledge of the crime for which he was condemned. It shall be fixed by the criminal court and entered of record, and paid by the marshal to the owner. If such slave be a slave only for a term of years, or for the life of another person, he shall be valued accordingly. Sec. 5. A slave brought into this District contrary to law, or who, in passing through it, or temporarily sojourning in it, committed the offence for which he is condemned, shall not be valued by the criminal court, or paid for out of the treasury; nor shall a slave be so paid for who may be condemned for an offence, in the commission of which his owner was either principal or accessory, and convicted thereof. Sec. 6. A negro shall be a competent witness for or against a negro in any criminal proceeding, and shall be a competent witness in any civil case to which only negroes are parties, but not in any other case. Sec. 7. No negro shall be entitled to the privilege of voting at elections, or of being elected or appointed to any office of profit or trust. Sec. 8. Slaves shall be deemed personal estate. Sec. 9. Every person who has any negro blood, shall be deemed to be a negro within the meaning of any section of this Code, unless otherwise specially provided. PART II. OF THE ACQUISITION, THE ENJOYMENT, AND TRANSMISSION OF PROPERTY, REAL AND PERSONAL; THE DOMESTIC WITH PRIVATE RIGHTS. TITLE I. Of real and personal property, and the alienation thereof. CHAPTER 48. Of alienation by deed, and of the legal formalities, the construction, and the operation of deeds for the conveyance of property, and general provisions concerning real estate. CHAPTER 49. Of estates in dower and by the curtesy. CHAPTER 50. Estates at will, and for years; and the rights and duties of landlords and tenants, and also respecting easements. CHAPTER 49. OF ALIENATION BY DEED, AND OF THE LEGAL FORMALITIES, THE CON- SECTION competent party, or his attorney duly authorized. SECTION exceeding three years) created without year to year. 8. No estate in land for above three years to be assigned, &c., unless by deed. 9. Trusts in land to be manifested and proved by writing. convey lands. DEEDS, HOW ACKNOWLEDGED AND CERTIFIED. 3. How a married woman may convey her estate or bar dower. 4. She may join in a power of attorney to convey same. 5. Estates tail may be created as hereto fore ; effect of conveyances by tenant in tail. 6. Party claiming title may convey though land in adverse possession. 10. Deed may be acknowledged by party or his attorney 11. Power of attorney; how acknowledged and recorded. SECTION 12. Power of attorney ; when deemed re voked. 13. Attorney to sign, &c., deed as attorney of party. 14. Deeds acknowledged within this District; before whom. 15. Deeds acknowledged out of the District, but within any State or Territory of the United States ; before whom. 16. Deeds, before whom acknowledged in foreign countries. 17. Acknowledgments before such officer to be made at some place to which the jurisdiction of said officer or of the court to which he belongs extends. 18. How official character of officer certi fied, when acknowledgment is taken out of the District. 19. How the acknowledgment of a deed shall be certified by officer taking it. 20. Form of same. 21. When a married woman is a party, how to be examined, &c. 22. Form of certificate of acknowledgment of a married woman. DEEDS, HOW RECORDED, AND EFFECT OF. 23. Recorder to admit to record all deeds acknowledged and certified as herein provided. 24. Effect of recording. 25. Contracts, &c., relative to land may be acknowledged and recorded as deeds ; effect of same. 26. Trusts not effectual against purchaser without notice; recording constructive notice. SECTION 33. Modification of rule in Shelly's case. 34. Particular estate not necessary to a con tingent remainder. 35. Sections thirty-two and thirty-four not to prevent the barring of estates tail, &c. 36. A fee-simple, &c., may be limited after a fee, by deed, as by will 37. A freehold estate may be made to com mence in futuro, by deed, as by will. 38. Conveyances of land to two or more, shall create estates in common, and not in joint tenancy. 39. Vendor's licn. 40. Vendor's lien preferred to claim for dower by wife of purchaser. 41. Mortgage, &c., given to secure purchase money, preferred to previous judg. ments against purchaser, and also to dower. 42. When mortgagee entitled to possession of real estate. 43. What covenants an attorney, under an ordinary power to convey, may be re quired to enter into. 44. By what tenure lands are held. 45. Expressions dying without heirs, &c., how construed, in deed or will. OF COVENANTS, AND SHORT FORMS THEREOF. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION AND GENERAL PROVISIONS. 27. Freehold of real estate to lie in grant as well as livery. 28. Possession, how annexed to use, under deeds of bargain and sale, &c. 29. Every oonveyance of real estate by deed or devise shall pass all the estate of the grantor, unless a contrary intention appear. 30. Same to pass buildings and privileges on land, unless an exception be made. 31. Title of grantor acquired subsequent to a conveyance in fee, to inure to grantee. 32. A conveyance by a grantor of a larger estate than he could lawfully convey, shall not work a forfeiture. 46. No covenants implied in conveyance of real estate. 47. Lineal and collatcral warranties abol. ished. 48. The words "the said covenants," how construed. 49. Short form of covenant of general war ranty. 50. Short form of covenant of special war ranty. 51. Effect of the words “ with general war ranty," or with “special warranty," in the granting part of a deed. 52. Short form of covenant of seizin on the part of grantor. 53. Short form of covenant by grantor, that he has a right to convey. 54. Short form of special covenant, that the grantee shall quietly enjoy. 55. Short form of general covenant for same. 56. Short form of covenant that grantor has done no act to encumber, &c. 57. Short form of covenant that premises are free and clear of all encumbrances. |