Sec. 3. That all children born of slave mothers within said District, on
or after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord eighteen
hundred and fifty, shall be free; but shall be reasonably supported and
educated by the respective owners of their mothers, or by their heirs or
representatives, and shall owe reasonable service as apprentices to such
owners, heirs, or representatives, until they respectively arrive at the
age of __ years, when they shall be entirely free; and the municipal
authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within their respective
jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and required to make all
suitable and necessary provision for enforcing obedience to this section,
on the part of both masters and apprentices.
Sec. 4. That all persons now within this District, lawfully held as
slaves, or now owned by any person or persons now resident within said
District, shall remain such at the will of their respective owners, their
heirs, and legal representatives: Provided, That such owner, or his legal
representative, may at any time receive from the Treasury of the United
States the full value of his or her slave, of the class in this section
mentioned, upon which such slave shall be forthwith and forever free: And
provided further, That the President of the United States, the Secretary
of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall be a board for
determining the value of such slaves as their owners may desire to
emancipate under this section, and whose duty it shall be to hold a
session for the purpose on the first Monday of each calendar month, to
receive all applications, and, on satisfactory evidence in each case that
the person presented for valuation is a slave, and of the class in this
section mentioned, and is owned by the applicant, shall value such slave
at his or her full cash value, and give to the applicant an order on the
Treasury for the amount, and also to such slave a certificate of freedom.
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