ANCIENT AND MODERN SLAVERY.
"Slavery is as ancient as War, and War as human nature."
_Voltaire_.
"That execrable sum of all villainies, commonly called the slave trade."
_John Wesley_, 1792.
The earliest records of the human race begin with accounts of slavery.
The first slave was probably a war captive whose life had been spared,
and slavery probably originated when the nations emerging from the
savagery of early times discovered that the prisoner captured in war
could render to the conqueror more service alive than dead; and it
became a very early custom that all persons captured in war and not
ransomed by their fellows should remain the property of the conqueror to
be used by him at will or sold to others. It is seen that slavery in its
inception was in some degree an innocent and humane institution, because
it saved many lives and resulted in much development in building,
agriculture and the crude manufacturing of early times.
It is convenient to divide the history of slavery into two epochs,
ancient and modern, although there are times in the history of several
nations when ancient slavery assumed the modern form. The ancient slaves
were the prisoners captured in war, the hereditary slaves, and persons
who, by the laws of their country, became slaves by the commission of
crime or inability to meet their debts. Modern slavery assumed a more
brutal aspect. Here the slave was not the result of wars, but the direct
object of them, and we find nations engaged in the shameful traffic of
deliberately declaring war upon a foreign and inoffensive people for the
purpose of obtaining possession of their bodies to carry them away for
sale in foreign countries. The modern slave for four centuries was a
distinct article of commerce, quoted and bargained for in the markets
and reckoned on as a medium of exchange.
For the history of ancient slavery we turn first to Egypt, and find
abundant evidence of the use of slaves from the very earliest times.
Egypt thrived, and its native population was overflowing; but
notwithstanding this, thousands of slaves were brought into the country
by the early Wars of Conquest. Most of these slaves, for lack of other
work, were put to labor on vast monuments, buildings, shrines and
temples. The great Pyramid of Gizeh, near Memphis, the smaller pyramids
near it and the ruins near Thebes, and the Karnak, still remain as
mysterious and wonderful records of the skill of the Egyptian builders,
and as mute evidence of the use of vast numbers of slaves.
In the quaint diction of early biblical history is told the manner of
the Egyptian use of slaves. We learn how Joseph was treacherously sold
by his brethren into Egyptian captivity, but gaining favor, was placed
in the house of his master, and how, in later years, when famine waxed
sore in the land of Canaan, Joseph's father, Jacob, and his brethren and
their flocks went into Egypt and prayed to Pharaoh for permission to
dwell there, and partly through the influence of Joseph were given
permission to live in the country of Goshen. The Israelites grew and
multiplied until the land was filled with them, but new Kings ruled in
Egypt, hostile to them, and their lives were made bitter with hard
bondage and compulsory work in mortar and brick, "and they built for
Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses."
When the Hebrews, under the guidance of Moses, left Egypt, they took
slaves with them, and in their subsequent history we find a record of
the use of two classes of slaves, the Hebrew born and those of alien
blood. The Hebrew slave usually became such by selling himself on
account of his poverty, or because it was imposed upon him as a
punishment for crime. He could claim his liberty at the end of six
years, but not so with the alien, who was in bondage for life. Jerusalem
was built, and after many years captured by Nebuchadnezzar, King of
Babylon, who razed the city and carried the upper classes of the Hebrews
captive to Babylon, where they remained in a condition of servitude
until the destruction of Babylon by Cyrus the Great, King of Persia,
who, as a political measure, permitted the Hebrews to return to their
homes and rebuild Jerusalem. Egypt went down to rise no more before the
new power of the Persians, who, in turn, gave way to the Greeks, and
they to the Romans. Throughout the history of the ancient people, the
Egyptians, the Syrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Medes and Persians,
slavery developed in the same general way; the prisoner of war was held
in slavery and reduced to the lowest caste, and this we find true in
China, Ancient India and in the history of the Aztecs.
Slaves were used in Greece, especially so at Athens, where, at the
height of the city's power, there were four times as many slaves as
citizens. The slaves took a prominent part in the domestic and public
economy, being used as agricultural laborers, and as artificers and
servants, and by the State as policemen and soldiers. Sparta possessed
very few slaves, probably only enough to supply the demand for domestic
servants. With the rapid progress of the Greeks came an increased use of
slaves, and the wars not being sufficient to supply the demand, an open
slave trade was soon established. In Greece arose to its height that
peculiar form of slavery practiced by the early Hebrews, wherein
foreigners violating laws, and Greeks themselves, if unable to meet
their debts, were sold with their families into slavery. This brought
about such a threatening state of affairs that by the wise laws of Solon
this form of slavery was abolished. This peculiar slavery also existed
in the early days of Rome, but in the third century before Christ it was
also abolished.
In the Roman Empire slavery existed from the earliest times, and was
carried to an excess not known before or since in the history of
slavery. The wonderful and rapid rise of the Romans in power, domain and
wealth led to a moral and political degeneracy which demanded the
increased use of slaves in all branches of domestic and public life.
Here, as in Greece, the Wars of Conquest bringing in, as they did, vast
numbers of slaves, failed to supply the demand, and here again, as in
Greece, the slave trade, with its acts of piracy, was established to
obtain a supply, and the occupation of the professional slave hunter and
slave dealer became fully recognized and were the forerunners of similar
acts in the history of Negro slavery many centuries later. The abuses
brought on by the Roman system of slavery led to such decay and
corruption in the Empire that it became an easy prize for the Teutonic
tribes, and Rome of the West fell to rise no more, about the middle of
the fifth century.
Then probably began the Feudal system, which practically abolished the
ancient form of slavery, and in its place the lower classes of the
population were put in the semi-servile condition of serfs and villeins
to their Feudal Lords. This system spread in Germany, France, England
and Russia, but by the time of the capture of Constantinople in 1453 by
the Turks, Feudalism, the last relic of slavery in Western Europe, was
almost extinct, and was gradually assuming a very mild form in the other
countries, when suddenly and unexpectedly slavery was revived and
perpetuated in a new, its modern form, by a singular and interesting
series of events which brought about the ruthless bondage of an entire
people to nations whom they had never offended.
Portugal, Spain and England were mainly responsible for fastening the
evils of Negro Slavery on the New World. The Portuguese first began the
modern traffic in negro slaves; the Spaniards introduced them into
America, and the English engaged in and encouraged, more than any other
nation, the infamous slave trade, to supply the New World demand.
In a strange way Christianity was indirectly responsible for the
beginning of negro slavery in its modern form. For many centuries prior
to the discovery of America the Mohammedans and Christians had been
arrayed against each other in western Europe, and the struggles for the
mastery had aroused the most implacable hatred between the foes, and the
almost inevitable fate of the captives, whether taken by Christian or
Mohammedan, was slavery for life. Fifty-one years before the discovery
of America some Portuguese sailors, coasting along the shores of
Morocco, took captive a few Moors and brought them to Portugal. This
event led to the beginning of modern slavery, for in the following year,
1442, these captive Moors, at their own request, were exchanged for
negroes, which they procured from Africa. It appears that Prince Henry
of Portugal had made many ineffectual attempts to convert these Moors,
and their obstinate refusal made acceptable an exchange for negroes,
"for whatever number he should get he would gain souls, because they
might be converted to the Faith, which could not be done with the
Moors," said the Prince. With what sincerity this argument was advanced
cannot be known, but it is certain that the beginning of modern slavery
was justified by this crafty philanthropy, not only in Portugal but
later in the Spanish Colonies, where the same argument was advanced by
Columbus and accepted by the Spanish Monarchs to ease their minds while
it filled their treasuries. It is also certain that in a very short
time, whether to be Christianized or not, shipload after shipload of the
unfortunate Africans were brought to Portugal and a regular slave trade,
with all its sickening horrors, was established, the Crown receiving
one-fifth of the proceeds as its royal share. Soon Spain engaged in the
traffic, and then the event happened, the discovery of America, which
startled Europe, and opened up a vast new country to whatever good or
evil its conquerors might choose to plant.
Strangely enough the very events which led to the discovery of the New
World operated to firmly establish the beginning of what was to be its
greatest curse. With the capture of Constantinople in 1453 by the Turks
and the cutting off of that way to the Indies, increased efforts were
made to discover a new route, and the first attempts were down the west
coast of Africa. The Portuguese were the most active mariners at that
time and took the most prominent part in these new voyages, and while
they did not meet with complete success, they discovered a country
thronged with the people, who, by the circumstances already related,
were practically doomed to slavery. So promising was this base of
supplies that about the year 1485 the Portuguese established a Colony at
Benin, on the west coast of Africa, for the purpose of more actively
carrying on the slave trade, and this was the first of those permanent
fortified places established in Africa by the Christian countries of the
world as stations where, by the blackest of cruelties and crimes, they
might obtain large and immediate supplies of this new article of
commerce. From the time of the establishment of this first Colony to the
year 1807, when Great Britain and the United States prohibited the slave
trade (a period of 322 years), Africa was desolated and her people
abducted, sold and murdered by the Christian people of the earth; and
indeed for many years after its prohibition the slave trade was carried
on, notwithstanding that it became piracy to do so, punishable by death,
so profitable had the business become and so rapacious and insensate
those who engaged in it.
Thus was the slave monster, a gigantic and hideous Frankenstein, created
by the Christian nations, and long after, when it obtained its full
growth, it was to fright them, retard their progress and result in
dreadful retribution. The slave district began with the River Senegal on
the west coast of Africa and continued a distance of fully 3000 miles to
Cape Negro. The enormous sum of cruelty and wickedness which attended
the slave trade throughout this vast territory can never be known, but
may be partially imagined when we know that at its height fully 80,000
persons were torn from their homes annually, with all the attendant
horrors of rapine, murder and the worst crimes of mankind.
The evil thus begun and fostered in Europe needed only a new impetus
to make it grow beyond all bounds; owing to economical conditions, it
would probably have died out in western Europe had it not been for the
discovery of America, which almost immediately opened up a new and
enormous market for slaves. The first Spanish settlement in the West
Indies was called Hispaniola, now the Island of Haiti, and this Colony
became the scene of the first use of negro slaves in the New World. A
cruel fate seemed to be working out the enslavement of the African, for
it is almost certain that Columbus in his first voyages did not take
with him any slaves, and there seemed to be no thought of using them in
this new Colony during the first few years after the discovery. The
first negroes were brought to Hispaniola about eight years after
Columbus landed, but they were few in number, and it was probably not
contemplated to use them in the fields and mines, for the Spaniards had
an immense and almost inexhaustible supply of free labor at hand in the
native population, who, by the avarice of the Spaniards, were almost
immediately enslaved and compelled to work in the mines and on the
farms. So greedy were the Spaniards to acquire sudden wealth, and so
numerous the natives, that their lives were reckoned of no value, and so
heartlessly cruel and inhuman was their treatment that the population of
the island, which is given as about 800,000 in 1492, had decreased, it
is estimated, one-third four years later, and twenty years later the
native population is given as only 14,000. These figures are probably
greatly exaggerated, but making all allowances they tell a frightful
story.
The benevolent Las Casas, aroused by the frightful cruelties to the
natives and their rapid destruction, began his successful opposition to
Indian slavery; but, without knowing or intending it, his success was at
the fearful cost of the Africans, who now began to be imported in large
numbers to take the place of Indian slaves, and it was shortly
discovered that one negro could do the work of four or five natives.
Thus a new and growing market opened for slaves, and the slave trade of
the New World became so profitable that Charles V. of Spain, desiring to
reap the greatest benefit from it, granted, for a consideration, an
exclusive right for eight years of supplying four thousand slaves per
year to the Spanish Colonies. This seems to have been the first monopoly
on the slave trade, but soon other nations were attracted by the ease
and profit of the business, and the Dutch and English began early to
engage their energies in the trade, and the latter, with their superior
methods, greatly increased its profit and popularity. William Hawkins
was the first Englishman to begin the slave trade, and made a trip to
Guinea in 1530. In 1562 his son, John Hawkins, who was knighted later
for his services by Queen Elizabeth, followed in his father's steps and
carried away three hundred slaves to San Domingo. This voyage was
repeated in 1564 and 1567 with great profit, and soon England had
entered and was committed fully to the business. One hundred and fifty
years later the traffic in negro slaves was considered the most
profitable branch of British commerce.
Thus it is seen that prior to the discovery of America negro slavery had
begun in western Europe, and, like some dread scourge, lay in wait for
new fields in which to operate; and we have seen how it was permitted to
enter so early into the history of the New World. From the islands of
the West Indies the Spaniards went to the mainland, and with them went
slavery; and as more territory was discovered the use of slaves was more
in demand and they were brought over in almost incredible numbers. This
history is not further concerned with the development of slavery in
other countries, or with the horrifying details of the slave trade which
grew up to supply the enormous demand of the New World, except as it
affected this country.
How slavery became established in the United States, how it dominated
the first attempts of the Colonies to organize a strong Federal
Government, and how, after a series of compromises, seeking to settle a
question which could only be settled by its abolition, it resulted in
the organization of a great opposition political party, the first
success of which was followed by the bloodiest civil war in all history,
will now be the direct subject of our inquiry.