Slavery as an Impediment

The condition of a slave prevents him from rightlyfulfilling the duties of marriage. For a slave has not free controlof his person, and therefore cannot properly transfer that controlto another. Still, if a person knows that the other party is aslave, and marries him none the less, the marriage is valid.

And indeed, since, as St. Paul says (Gal. 3:2, 28),“In Christ Jesus … there is neither bond nor free,” aslave has as much right to marry as a freeman.

A husband who sells himself into slavery does not, bythis fact, break his marriage. For nothing that happens after atrue and valid marriage is contracted can dissolve it.

Various human customs and civil laws prevail about thechildren of a father who is a slave. It seems most reasonable tosay that, on the score of freedom or bondage, the children inheritthe condition of the mother. {-This discussion is nowirrelevant.-}