The annals of slavery point clearly to war as the principal cause of the
monstrous crime of selling our fellow-creatures like cattle in the
market. One nation having taken from another a greater number of
captives than could be exchanged on equal terms, it is easy to
comprehend how the victors, finding the maintenance of their prisoners
expensive and inconvenient, first compelled them to work for their daily
bread. Emerged from the limited wants of savage life, man next saw
productions of art, which he eagerly coveted; and lacking habits of
industry by which to earn them for himself, he compelled all whom his
superiority enabled him to bring under subjection to pass their lives in
labouring for his advantage.
In Africa especially, where the human passions are unbridled, and man
emulates the ferocity of the beast of prey, war proves a never-drying
spring of misery and bondage, and slavery is the inevitable lot of all
who are not slain on the battlefield, or massacred in the sacking of
towns and villages. The weak and unsuccessful warrior, who sues for
mercy beneath the uplifted spear of his opponent, purchases existence at
the expense of liberty; and in time of famine the freeman often becomes
a voluntary slave, in order to avoid the greater calamity of inevitable
starvation. By the philosophic and reflecting mind death would
doubtless be esteemed the lighter evil of the two, but the untutored
savage, fainting with hunger, thinks with Esau of old, "Behold, I am at
the point to die--what profit shall this birthright do to me?"
Crime, necessity, insolvency, the inhumanity of a harsh creditor, a
spirit of retaliation in petty disputes, and the sordid love of gain,
for which parents will even sell their own children, severally assist in
feeding the demand for slaves--the law of every African state either
tolerating or directly sanctioning the evil; and wherever the Mohammadan
faith prevails, frequent predatory incursions, characterised by the most
atrocious violence, are made into the territories of all neighbouring
infidels, who are systematically hunted down and entrapped as a
religious duty.
Slaves in Africa are thus in proportion to the freemen of about three to
one; but although the number of individuals reduced to a state of
bondage by the operation of the above causes, and the destruction
created, both as regards life and property, is immense, the whole
combined are but as a single grain of dust in the balance, when compared
with the slavery, the destitution, and the desolation, that is daily
entailed by the unceasing bloody struggles betwixt state and state.
Towns and villages are then obliterated from the face of the earth, and
thousands upon thousands of the population, of whatever age or sex, are
hurried into hopeless captivity.
In a country reft into ten thousand petty governments, the majority of
which are independent and jealous one of the other; where every freeman,
inured to arms from the first hour that he is capable of bearing them,
pants for an opportunity of displaying his valour in the field; where
the cherished recollection of hereditary feuds; the love of plunder
inherent in every savage breast, and the bigoted zeal of religious
enthusiasts, all conspire to afford hourly pretexts for war--the sword
of desolation is never suffered to rust within the scabbard. The fact
of one nation being stronger than another is even sufficient; and whilst
hostilities, originating frequently in the most frivolous provocations,
are prosecuted with relentless fury, robbery on a great and national
scale, forming one of the chief features of African character, is almost
universally prevalent. Here it is perpetrated by no concealed or
proscribed ruffian; neither is it limited to those poorer tribes who are
exposed to the temptation of rich caravans skirting their borders in
progress to distant lands. Each needy soldier seeks with his sword to
redress the unequal distribution made by the hand of fortune. The most
distinguished warrior chieftains consider it a glory to place themselves
at the head of an expedition undertaken solely for purposes of plunder;
and the crime of stealing human beings in order to sell them into
foreign markets, which, with all its attendant cruelty, is so widely
practised throughout the benighted continent, is one in which the
greatest of her sovereigns do not hesitate to participate.
The following narrative by a native of the village of Suppa, in Enarea,
detailing the history of his capture and subsequent vicissitudes, may be
taken as a fair specimen of the usual circumstances attending the
transfer of the kidnapped victim from one merciless dealer to another,
in his progress to Abyssinia through the interior provinces which form
the focus of slavery in the north-east.
"When twenty years of age, whilst tending my father's flocks, an armed
band of the Ooma Galla, with whom my tribe had long been in enmity,
swept suddenly down, and took myself with six other youths prisoners,
killing four more who resisted. Having been kept bound hand and foot
during five days, I was sold to the Toomee Galla, one of the nearest
tribes, for thirty _amoles_ (about six shillings and three-pence
sterling). The bargain was concluded in the Toomee market-place, which
is called Sundaffo, where, in consequence of the dearness of salt, two
male slaves are commonly bought for one dollar; and after nightfall, the
Mohammadan rover by whom I had been purchased, came and took me away.
"Having been kept bound in his house another week, I was taken two days'
journey with a large slave Caravan, and sold privately to the Nono Galla
for a few ells of blue calico. My companions in captivity were assorted
according to their age and size, and walked in double file, the stout
and able-bodied only, whereof I was one, having their hands tied behind
them. In Meegra, the market-place of the Nono, I was, after six weeks'
confinement, sold by public auction to the Gumbitchu Galla for forty
pieces of salt (value eight shillings and fourpence). Thence I was
taken to the market-place which is beyond Sequala, on the plain of the
Hawash, and sold for seventy pieces of salt to the Soddo Galla, and
immediately afterwards to Roque, the great slave-mart in the Yerrur
district, where I was sold for one hundred _amoles_" being one pound
sterling.
"From Roque I was driven to Alio Amba, in Shoa, where a Mohammadan
subject of Sahela Selassie purchased me in the market of Abd el Russool
for twelve dollars; but after three months, my master falling into
disgrace, the whole of his property was confiscated, and I became the
slave of the Negoos, which I still am, although permitted to reside with
my family, and only called upon to plough, reap, and carry wood.
Exclusive of halts, the journey from my native village occupied fifteen
days. I was tolerably fed, and not maltreated. All the merchants
through whose hands I passed were Mohammadans; and until within a few
stages of Alio Amba, I was invariably bound at night, and thus found no
opportunity to escape. Prior to my own enslavement, I had been
extensively engaged as a kidnapper, and in this capacity had made party
in three great slave hunts into the country of the Doko negroes beyond
Caffa; in the course of which, four thousand individuals of both sexes
were secured."
From Enarea and Gurague, the two slave-marts principally frequented by
the dealers in human flesh who trade through the Abyssinian states, the
traffic is conducted to the sea-coast _via_ Sennaar, Argobba, Aussa, and
Hurrur--importations into Shoa passing through the kingdom by two great
highways from the interior. The first is by Ankober to the market-place
of Abd el Russool, where purchases are eagerly made by the caravan
traders from Hurrur, Zeyla, and Tajura; the other by Debra Libanos to
the market of Antzochia adjoining Asselleli, the frontier town on the
north, whence they pass through Upper Abyssinia to Massowah and Raheita,
supplying also the Aussa caravans, which come to Dowwe, on the frontier
of Worra Kaloo.
In addition to a tax of one in every ten, Sahela Selassie possesses the
right of pre-emption of all slaves that pass through his dominions, his
governors selecting and submitting for the royal approval those which
appear best worthy of consideration, when a price placed by the holder
on the head of each is modified by His Majesty at pleasure. A transit
duty of four pieces of salt is further levied upon every individual,
male or female, of whatever age, exposed for sale or barter; and the
number annually exported by the roads above named being estimated at
from fifteen to twenty thousand, the revenues derived from the traffic
in his fellow-men by the Christian monarch may be averaged at eight
hundred pounds.
His Majesty's household slaves, male and female, exceed eight thousand.
Of the latter, three hundred are concubines of the royal harem; and of
the former, fifty are eunuchs. The residue of both sexes are employed
in a variety of servile offices, and they each receive a portion of
barley sufficient to compose two small loaves. Beyond this they must
provide their own maintenance: many whose business it is to fetch fuel
from the royal forests, being, however, suffered to dispose of whatever
wood they can carry away in addition to the load imposed; whilst the
whole, after the due performance of their allotted task, are permitted,
according to their respective functions, to hire themselves to private
individuals.
Slavery is hereditary, not only on the side of the mother, but also on
that of the father; and if a free woman weds a slave, her progeny
becomes the property of the owner of her husband. But the bondsmen of
the king, it has been seen, form an exception to this rule, their
offspring being free if born of a free woman--a privilege which may be
traced to the circumstance of the royal slaves having a stated duty to
perform, for which a certain daily allowance of food is granted; whereas
the whole time and labour of the slave of the commoner are at the
exclusive disposal of the master, who supports the wife also. Marriage
between free persons and the slaves of His Majesty are thus by no means
unfrequent; the bondsman, after the performance of his allotted task,
enjoying liberty to return daily to his family, and to appropriate the
residue of his time.
A child born in slavery receives subsistence, in a limited proportion,
from the moment of coming into the world, the liabilities of bondage
being incurred from the cradle. As a check on those who reside with a
free parent in various parts of the kingdom, an annual census of the
whole is taken by the royal scribes, when those who are ascertained to
have acquired a competent age are summoned to their task at one of the
royal establishments; and it too often happens that when incapacitated
by infirmity from further labour, the daily dole is discontinued through
the parsimony of the servants of the crown.
Caravans, consisting of from one hundred to three thousand individuals
of all ages, pass through Shoa during the greater portion of the year.
Three-fourths are young boys and girls, many of them quite children,
whose tender age precludes a sense of their condition. Even adults are
unfettered, and the majority are in good spirits, all being well fed and
taken care of, although many of both sexes arrive in a state of perfect
nudity. Surrounded by the rovers on horseback, they are driven
promiscuously along the road, males and females being separated at the
termination of each march, and made to sit in detached groups comprising
from ten to fifteen souls, who are deterred from wandering by the
exhibition of the whip; but this is rarely used, except for the
chastisement of the unruly, who may seek to effect their escape.
In the eyes of every African, the value of a slave increases in the
ratio of his distance from the land of his nativity, the chance of his
absconding being reduced in the same proportion. The usual prices in
the Shoan market are from ten to twenty German crowns; but females
possessing superior personal attractions often fetch from fifty to
eighty, which outlay is returned three-fold in Arabia. The profits
accruing from the trade are thus obviously large; and notwithstanding
the murders which are annually perpetrated by freebooters on the road to
the sea-coast, the mortality can scarcely be said to exceed that under
the ordinary circumstances of African life.
The hebdomadal sale of human flesh which takes place in the public
market at Abd el Russool, the disgusting parade of victims, and the
sensuality of the savage purchasers, are sufficient to draw forth every
sentiment of indignation, and to elicit every feeling of sympathy; but
it must be confessed that slavery in this portion of Africa, excepting
as regards the powers pertaining to it, is in fact little more than
servitude. The newly-captured become soon reconciled to their lot and
condition, their previous domestic life having too often been one of
actual bondage, although not nominally so. And even in the sultry
plains of the Adaiel, few individuals of the long droves that are daily
to be seen on their weary march to the coast with Danakil caravans,
afford indications of being tortured with regret at the loss of their
freedom, and of their native land, or with recollections of the verdant
plains whence avarice and cruelty have torn them.
From the governor to the humblest peasant, every house in Shoa possesses
slaves of both sexes, in proportion to the wealth of the proprietor; and
in so far as an opinion may be formed upon appearances, their condition,
with occasional, but rare exceptions, is one of comfort and ease. Mild
in its character, their bondage is tinctured with none of the horrors of
West Indian slavery. The servitude imposed is calculated to create
neither suffering nor exhaustion. There is no merciless taskmaster to
goad the victim to excessive exertion--no "white man's scorn" to be
endured; and, although severed from home, from country, and from all the
scenes with which his childhood had been familiar, his lot is not
unfrequently improved. Naturalised in the house of his master, he is
invariably treated with lenity--usually with indulgence--often with
favour; and under a despotic sovereign, to whom servile instruments are
uniformly the most agreeable, the caprices of fortune may prefer the
exile to posts of confidence and emolument, and may even exalt him to
the highest dignities.
Volume 3, Chapter XXXVI.