Sharon Turner, in his interesting "History of the Anglo-Saxons," says,
"It was then (during the reign of Pope Gregory I.) the practice of
Europe to make use of slaves, and to buy and sell them; and this traffic
was carried on, even in the western capital of the Christian Church.
Passing through the market at Rome, the white skins, the flowing locks,
and beautiful countenances of some youths who were standing there for
sale, interested Gregory's sensibility. To his inquiries from what
country they had been brought, the answer was, from Britain, whose
inhabitants were all of that fair complexion. Were they Pagans or
Christians? was his next question: a proof not only of his ignorance of
the state of England, but also, that up to that time it had occupied no
part of his attention; but thus brought as it were to a personal
knowledge of it by these few representatives of its inhabitants, he
exclaimed, on hearing that they were still idolaters, with a deep sigh,
'What a pity that such a beauteous frontispiece should possess a mind so
void of internal grace.' The name of their nation being mentioned to be
Angles, his ear caught the verbal coincidence--the benevolent wish for
their improvement darted into his mind, and he expressed his own
feelings, and excited those of his auditors, by remarking--'It suits
them well: they have angel faces, and ought to be the co-heirs of the
angels in heaven.'
"The different classes of society among the Anglo-Saxons were such as
belonged to birth, office, or property, and such as were occupied by
a freeman, a freedman, or one of the servile description. It is to be
lamented in the review of these different classes, that a large proportion
of the Anglo-Saxon population was in a state of abject slavery: they
were bought and sold with land, and were conveyed in the grants of it
promiscuously with the cattle and other property upon it; and in the
Anglo-Saxon wills, these wretched beings were given away precisely as
we now dispose of our plate, our furniture, or our money. At length the
custom of manumission, and the diffusion of Christianity, ameliorated
the condition of the Anglo-Saxon slaves. Sometimes individuals, from
benevolence, gave their slaves their freedom--sometimes piety procured
a manumission. But the most interesting kind of emancipation appears in
those writings which announce to us, that the slaves had purchased their
own liberty, or that of their family. The Anglo-Saxon laws recognised
the liberation of slaves, and placed them under legal protection. The
liberal feelings of our ancestors to their enslaved domestics are not
only evidenced in the frequent manumissions, but also in the generous
gifts which they appear to have made them. The grants of lands from
masters to their servants were very common; gilds, or social
confederations, were established. The tradesmen of the Anglo-Saxons
were, for the most part, men in a servile state; but, by degrees, the
manumission of slaves increased the number of the independent part of
the lower orders."
When the statute 1st. Edward VI. c. 3. was made, which ordained, that
all idle vagabonds should be made _slaves_, and fed upon bread,
water or small drink, and refuse of meat; should wear a ring round their
necks, arms, or legs; and should be compelled, by beating, chaining, or
otherwise, to perform the work assigned them, were it ever so vile;--the
spirit of the nation could not brook this condition, even in the most
abandoned rogues; and therefore this statute was repealed in two years
afterwards, 3rd and 4th of Edward VI. c. 16.