Slavery appears to be coeval with war; and war is as ancient as the human
race. Plutarch believed that there had been a time, a golden age, when
there were neither masters nor slaves. The human mind, at the time when
Plutarch wrote, was almost controlled by the empire of force. The
selfishness and superstition of society fettered the nobility of nature,
and healthy reason could not assume its rightful sway.
The depth of the philosophical reasoning, the degree of humanity of one of
the brightest periods of antiquity, may be comprehended from the
"Politics" of Aristotle, when he says, "To the Greeks belongs dominion
over the barbarians, because the former have the understanding requisite
to rule, the latter, the body only to obey. For the slave, considered
simply as such, no friendship can be entertained, but it may be felt for
him, as he is a man." Some of the ancient nations, the most enthusiastic
in the dreams of liberty, were the most savage and stern in their laws
concerning their slaves; and they adhered to their brutal doctrines in
defiance of nature with singular tenacity. The right of life and death
over the slave was one of the fundamental principles of the society of the
Athenians, Lacedemonians, Romans, and Carthaginians.
Strange condition of society among men who cultivated the arts and
sciences so successfully! Yet it does not appear that any legislator
attempted to abrogate servitude.
Stranger still that the glorious period of the reign of democracy at
Athens should not have brought with it the universal freedom of men, when
liberty was the divine ideal of its aspirations.