Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 22353 — A slave woman who claims she is free

Al-Sha'bi (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about a slave-woman who ran away from one city to another, came to a people and presented herself as free. A man desired her, and, liking her, he married her and she bore him several children. Then it became known that she was a slave, and her master also came. Could he take the slave-woman away? He (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The master will take his slave-woman, and the father will ransom his children, a ghurrah (a male or female slave) for each child.