statutes.

11 But the laws of nature, which are observed by all nations
alike, are established, as it were, by divine providence, and
remain ever fixed and immutable: but the municipal laws of
each individual state are subject to frequent change, either by
the tacit consent of the people, or by the subsequent enactment
of another statute.

12 The whole of the law which we observe relates either to
persons, or to things, or to actions. And first let us speak of
persons: for it is useless to know the law without knowing the
persons for whose sake it was established.

TITLE III
OF THE LAW OF PERSONS

In the law of persons, then, the first division is into free men and
slaves. 1 Freedom, from which men are called free, is a man's
natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not
prevented by force or law: 2 slavery is an institution of the law
of nations, against nature subjecting one man to the dominion
of another. 3 The name `slave' is derived from the practice of
generals to order the preservation and sale of captives, instead
of killing them; hence they are also called mancipia, because
they are taken from the enemy by the strong hand. 4 Slaves are
either born so, their mothers being slaves themselves; or they
become so, and this either by the law of nations, that is to say
by capture in war, or by the civil law, as when a free man, over
twenty years of age, collusively allows himself to be sold in order