[Footnote A: The following statute is now in force in the free state of Illinois—“No negro, mulatto, or Indian, shall at any time purchase any servant other than of their own complexion: and if any of the persons aforesaid shall presume to purchase a white servant, such servant shall immediately become free, and shall be so held, deemed and taken.”]
In Connecticut, town paupers are “bought” by individuals, who, for a stipulated sum become responsible to the town for their comfortable support for one year. If these “bought” persons perform any labor for those who “buy” them, it is wholly voluntary. It is hardly necessary to add that they are in no sense the “property” of their purchasers.[A]
[Footnote A: “The select-men” of each town annually give notice, that at such a time and place, they will proceed to sell the poor of said town. The persons thus “sold” are “bought” by such persons, approved by the “select-men,” as engage to furnish them with sufficient wholesome food, adequate clothing, shelter, medicine, &c., for such a sum as the parties may agree upon. The Connecticut papers frequently contain advertisements like the following: “NOTICE—The poor of the town of Chatham will be SOLD on the first Monday in April, 1837, at the house of F. Penfield, Esq., at 9 o’clock in the forenoon,”—[Middletown Sentinel, Feb. 3, 1837.] ]
The transaction between Joseph and the Egyptians gives a clue to the use of “buy” and “bought with money.” Gen. xlvii. 18-26. The Egyptians proposed to Joseph to become servants. When the bargain was closed, Joseph said, “Behold I have bought you this day,” and yet it is plain that neither party regarded the persons bought as articles of property, but merely as bound to labor