Constitution of the State of Illinois, 1818, Page 16

crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; nor shall any male person arrived at the age of twenty one years, nor female person arrived at the age of eighteen years be held to serve any person as a servant under any indenture hereafter made, unless such person shall enter into such indenture while in a state of perfect freedom, and on condition of a bona fide consideration received or to be received for their service. Nor shall any indenture of any negro or mulatto hereafter made and executed out of this state, or if made in this state, where the term of service exceeds one year, be of the least validity except those given in cases of apprenticeship.

No person bound to labor in any other state shall be hired to labour in this state, except within the tract reserved for the salt works near Shawneetown; nor even at that place for a longer period than one year at any one time; nor shall it be allowed there after the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty five: any violation of this article shall effect the emancipation of such person from his obligation to service.

Each and every person who has been bound to service by contract or indenture in virtue of the laws of the Illinois Territory heretofore existing, and in conformity to the provisions of the same, without fraud or collusion, shall be held to a specific performance of their contracts or indentures; and such negros and mulattos as have been registered in conformity with the aforesaid laws, shall serve out the time appointed by said laws: provided however that the children hereafter born of such persons, negros or mulattos, shall become free, the males at the age of twenty one years, the females at the age of eighteen years. Each and every child born of indentured parents shall be entered with the clerk of the county in which they reside by their owners within six months after the birth of said child.