When our historians date the beginning of Modern Times from the
discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, they are fully justified,
as no other event has caused so many radical changes in the thoughts of
men as well as in all commercial and social conditions. The earlier
views about our terrestrial globe and its relation to the universe gave
place to new and far greater conceptions. Almost every day brought new
and astonishing disclosures in natural history, physics and other
spheres of science.
The end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th Century was also the
time of the Renaissance as well as of the Reformation, of a revival of
the wisdom of the classic past and of the rise and establishment of new
sublime ideas about God and the destiny of man.
It could not fail that in this period of spiritual fermentation and
inspiration the views about women, matrimony and woman’s rights likewise
underwent considerable changes. But before these new conceptions found
general acceptance many mediæval traditions, prejudices and customs had
to be overcome and cleared away.
While the discovery of America brought incredible riches to various
European nations, it caused nothing but misery and disaster to the
aborigines of the New World. And to many million Africans as well.
It must not be forgotten that the conquest of Mexico, Peru and other
rich parts of America inflamed the greed of inumerable adventurers, and
that these men, in order to wring gold and other treasures from the
natives, resorted to the most heartless cruelties. We also must call to
mind, that in company with these conquerors went hosts of monks and
priests of all orders, eager to convert the “heathen” to the “only true
creed.” Ruthlessly invading the temples of the “infidels,” they turned
the banner of the Cross, this beacon light of promise, into an awful
oriflame of war, spreading destruction and disaster. The well known
accounts, given by the Spanish bishop Las Casas, disclose among other
horrible events the fact—heretofore unheard of in human history—that
whole bands and tribes of American Indians, to evade the tyranny of
their European oppressors, slaughtered their own children, and then
committed suicide.
These Indians had been compelled not only to work in the gold mines and
in the pearl fisheries, but to perform all other labor that white men
were unable or unwilling to do. As under the cruel treatment of their
oppressors the natives rapidly dwindled away and whole islands became
depopulated the Portuguese as well as the Spaniards resorted to the
importation of negro slaves, whom they captured in Africa and brought to
America.
It was not long before the profits, derived from this trade, attracted
the eyes of English adventurers. The first to become engaged in that new
branch of business, was William Hawkins. It was he who undertook the
first regular slave hunts to the coast of Guinea and opened that
shameful traffic in which England was engaged for nearly three
centuries. His son, John Hawkins, sailing under a charter of Queen
Elizabeth, continued the lucrative business and grew rich.
That this men-hunter imagined himself under the special protection of
the heavenly father appears from several entries in his log-book. When,
invading a negro village near Sierra Leone, he almost fell into
captivity himself and would have been exposed to the same fate that he
inflicted, without compunction, upon thousands of other unfortunate men
and women, he wrote: “God, who worketh all things for the best, would
not have it so, and by Him all escaped without danger; His name be
praised for it.” At another time, when his vessels were becalmed for a
long time in midocean and great suffering ensued: “But Almighty God, who
never suffereth His elect to perish, sent us the ordinarie Breeze, which
is the northwest wind.”
To what extent the name of Christianity was abused, we see from the fact
that Hawkins, when entering upon his greatest expedition with five ships
in 1567 sacrilegiously named his flagship “Jesus Christ.”
Because of the riches Hawkins brought to England, Queen Elizabeth
knighted him and granted him a coat of arms, showing, on a black shield,
a golden lion rampant over blue waves. Three golden doubloons above the
lions represented the riches Hawkins had secured for England. To give
due credit to the piety of this “nobleman,” there was in the upper
quartering of the shield a pilgrim’s scallop-shell, flanked by two
pilgrim’s staffs, indicating that Hawkins’ slave-hunts were genuine
crusades, undertaken in the name of Christianity. For a crest this
coat-of-arms shows the half-length figure of a negro, with golden
armlets on his arms, but bound and captive.
In an article entitled “The American Slave,” published in “Pearson’s
Magazine” for 1900, James S. Metcalf states that the slave trade quickly
developed to tremendous extent and that from 1680 to 1786 there were
carried from Africa to the British colonies in America 2,130,000 slaves,
men as well as women. This does not include the number, vastly larger,
taken to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies before, during and after
the same period.
The same author states, that the traffic in human flesh was a recognized
commerce at the London Exchange, and that, in 1771, the English alone
sent to Africa 192 ships equipped for the trade and with a carrying
capacity of 47,146 slaves per trip.
It was the tribal warfare among the aborigines of Africa that furnished
the slave dealers with the greater part of their human merchandise.
Small and unprotected villages were constantly in danger of being
attacked by powerful roving bands. When in 1872 the famous explorer
Nachtigal traveled through Central Africa, he witnessed a tragedy that
happened at the shores of Chad Lake. Strong forces of Bagirmis made an
assault on a negro village, to capture the inhabitants and carry them
off for slaves. Alarmed by their guards, the negroes, terror-stricken,
fled to some tree-huts, prepared for such emergency in a nearby forest.
Here they considered themselves safe. But unfortunately the enemies were
in possession of a few guns, with which they picked a number of the
fugitives from the trees like birds. Falling from the dizzy heights, the
wounded were hacked to pieces. After a while the cruel enemies succeeded
in constructing some rough ladders, by which the trees were scaled.
Unable to escape, many of the assaulted, preferring death to slavery,
threw themselves upon the ground below, where they perished.
[Illustration:
A RAID OF SLAVE-DEALERS IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
]
[Illustration:
A SLAVE TRANSPORT IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
]
The most desperate fight ensued for the tree-house of the chief. It took
several hours, before the enemies succeeded in reaching the lower
platform, where within a rude enclosure food, water, and even a few
goats had been hidden. Unable to hold this place, the chief with his two
wives and four children withdrew to the highest branches. From there he
defended his family with such ability, that the foes, after having
exhausted their supply in powder, were compelled to abandon the siege.—
The stronger portion of the captives made during such raids, were
shackled hand and foot to prevent escape. The remainder often were
killed and the flesh distributed among the victors, who, as a rule,
after such a raid formed a small encampment, lighted their fires and
gorged upon the human flesh. They then marched over to one of the
numerous slave-markets on the rivers or the coasts, where they exchanged
the captives with the slave-traders for beads, cloth, brass wire and
other trinkets.
Woe to those who became sick or exhausted during the long march to the
markets! If unable to stagger on any longer they were, to set an example
for the others, either butchered on the spot, or left behind to perish
by hunger and thirst, or to be torn by wild beasts.
In the further transportation of such kidnapped men and women no regard
was paid to their comfort. In the best of slave-ships the height between
decks in the quarters set aside for the living cargo was five feet and
eight inches. Even in these not all the slaves had so much head room.
Around the sides of the vessel, halfway up, ran a shelf, giving room for
a double row of slaves, one above and one below. This was stowed with
undersized negroes, including women, boys, and children. In the worst
class of slavers the space between decks was no more than three feet,
compelling the wretched occupants to make the entire journey in a
sitting or crouching position, as they were oftentimes, in fact most of
the times, so crowded together that lying down was an impossibility. In
fact, the more ingenious traders often so figured out the available
space that the slaves were packed in with their feet and legs across one
another’s laps. To prevent revolt, the men were manacled in couples with
leg irons and stowed below. The irons were fastened to the ceiling. As a
rule the women were not handcuffed but crowded into compartments under
grated hatches and locked doors. At sea there might be a faint
possibility of a breath of air’s penetrating into those quarters, but
under all circumstances the mortality among the slaves was frightful.
“In the literature of the slave trade,” says Metcalff, “the horrors of
the path of commerce stand out as prominently as the persecutions of the
Roman emperors in the history of Christianity. When the sea gives up its
dead there will come from this highway of cruelty a prodigious army of
martyrs to man’s inhumanity to man. The best authorities agree in
estimating that of all the slaves taken from Africa at least
one-eighth—some authorities say more than a quarter—died or were killed
in transit. It staggers the imagination to think of how thickly the
traffic in these helpless savages, continued through almost four
centuries, must have strewn with corpses the lower depths of the
Atlantic.
“Of course it was necessary, if any part of the cargo was to be
delivered alive, that the negroes should occasionally be brought on deck
and exercised. This was done with a few at a time, although their
masters never went so far as to free even these from their irons. Often
it was found when a couple was to be brought up that one of them had
died and that his mate had spent hours, days even, in the stifling
atmosphere of between-decks, manacled to and in constant contact with a
corpse. It is small wonder that, as often happened, when the slaves were
brought on deck they began jumping overboard in couples, sooner than
return to the heat, thirst, stench, and filth of the hold, where the
scalding perspiration of one ran to the body of another and where men
were constantly dying in their full view. Sooner than endure these
tortures even the savage Africans sought refuge in death by starvation.
This was a contingency provided for in advance by the experienced
trader, and if the gentle persuasion of the thumb-screw failed to cure
the would-be suicide, the ships were always provided with a clever
device to compel the human animal to take the nourishment which kept in
him the life without which he ceased to possess any pecuniary value.
This instrument consisted of a pair of iron compasses, the legs of which
were driven into the mouth when closed and then forced open and held
open by the action of a screw. Even the African negro, stoic to the
pains incident to a life of savagery, would renounce the privilege of
death by starvation to escape the immediate agony of forcibly distended
jaws, especially when at the same time his thumbs were under the
pressure of the screw with blood exuding from their ends.”
Branded like cattle, the negroes, after their arrival in the American
harbor, were sold by auction. And now the slave was, as the Civil Code
of Louisiana said, “subject to the power of his master in such a manner
that the master may sell him, dispose of his person, and of his labor.
He can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything but that may
belong to his master.”
Of course this master had also the right to punish the slave for any
neglect or wrong. To be sure, there were laws against excessive
punishment, but as most of the plantations were far from the cities,
such laws were practically ineffective against those who wished to
violate them.
We quote once more J. S. Metcalff: “Almost every plantation had its
whipping post, consisting of an upright set in the ground with a short
crosspiece near the top. The thumbs or wrists of the negro to be whipped
were securely tied together, and placed around the upright above the
crosspiece, so that the toes barely touched the ground. Sometimes the
offending slaves were sent to the nearest jail to be whipped by the
jailor, who was an expert in his line of work, and provided with the
right kind of whips as well as a strong arm and an accurate eye to make
his blows inflict the most pain. In other cases, this official paid
regular visits to the plantation, and inflicted the punishments
accumulated since his preceding visit. Thus the terror of anticipation
was often added to the agony of realization. These events were occasions
on the plantations, and the other slaves were compelled to witness the
punishments and sufferings of their fellows as a deterrent to wrongdoing
on their own part. In the case of some offenders which seemed cardinal
against the foundation principles of slavery, such as striking a master,
engaging in a conspiracy with other slaves, or aiding a fugitive, the
punishments were made extraordinarily severe, and slaves from
surrounding plantations were obliged by their masters to gather to
witness them.
“A case of this latter sort was the one of a negro and his wife, who had
given their owner a severe beating. In spite of the fact that the first
cause of the trouble was the rejection by the woman of the master’s
advances, the offence was so flagrant that neighboring slave-owners
feared to let it go by without severe and public punishment. At the time
set the slaves from neighboring plantations were gathered, and the man
and woman fastened to posts near each other. The man was to receive a
hundred and fifty lashes and the woman a hundred. As the first strokes
fell on the man’s back and loins he gave no sound, but the agony
betrayed itself in the ashening of his dark skin, and in the involuntary
contortion of his features. Meanwhile the woman encouraged him with
crude expressions of pity and love. As the blows increased in number the
torture became unbearable, and the sound of the regularly landing lash
was punctuated with the shrieks of its agonized victim. Finally a
blessed unconsciousness came to his relief, and he hung from the post a
limp, unfeeling mass of bruised and bleeding flesh. While his back was
being washed, the whipping of the woman began. The first blows brought
shrieks of anguish from her lips, but as the whipping went on these
subsided into a murmur of sobs, prayers, and appeals for mercy. With the
exception of an occasional rest for the tired arm of the man wielding
the whip, her punishment was carried to its end without her losing
consciousness, although it was apparent that there had come some numbing
influence to her faculties closely akin to insensibility. The man had
now been restored to his senses and his punishment was resumed. When it
was finished the wounds of both were washed with salt water, to
intensify the effect of the blows, to prevent blood-poisoning and to
heal the wounds more quickly, so that the slaves could resume their
accustomed labor. This matter of the slave’s ability to work was always
taken into account, and we have one instance of two economical lady
slave-owners in Georgia who always inflicted their punishments Sunday
mornings, so that by Monday the slaves would be able to go into the
fields.”
As the slave-holders were absolute masters over the negroes, they made
their dusky female slaves only too often the objects of their passions.
The effects of this intermingling were soon seen in all slave-holding
countries of America in the mixed character of the population, which,
gradually extending itself as time wore on, resulted in the race of the
mulattoes. From the intercourse of these again with the whites or among
themselves, innumerable shades of color sprang up, giving rise to the
distinctions of octoroons, quadroons, terceroons, quinteroons, etc. To
all these people, regular or irregular in birth, light or dark in color,
were given the various names of “people of color,” “sang melée,” or
“mulattoes.” Notwithstanding the fact, that some of these quadroons and
octoroons could hardly be distinguished from white people in appearance,
their condition followed always that of their mothers, and they were
therefore chattels to be bought or sold.
“On the plantations where negro children were brought up to be sold, it
was,” as Metcalff states, “not an unheard-of thing for a master to sell
his own son or daughter. In the break-up of family estates it sometimes
happened that the heir was compelled to sell his own half-brother or
half-sister. These relationships were seldom or never recognized.”
In the slave-markets of New Orleans and the other large cities the
personal appearance of the younger women was a decided element in fixing
their value. The languorous beauty of the Southern quadroon and octoroon
is famous the world over, and on the auction block and at private sale
they brought the highest prices.
The glory of having written the first formal protest against slavery and
its countless cruelties, belongs to a small band of Mennonites from
Germany, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1683, in the neighborhood of
which city they started a settlement called Germantown.
Becoming aware that in the colonies slaves were sold without the
disapproval of the Puritans and Quakers, who claimed to be defenders of
human rights, the Mennonites drew up a protest against slavery on
February 18th, 1688. It was the first written in any language. This
remarkable document, still preserved in the archives of the “Society of
Friends” in Philadelphia, was directed to the Quakers and reads as
follows:
“This is to ye Monthly Meeting at Richard Warrel’s. These are the
reasons why we are against the traffic of men Body, as followeth: Is
there any that would be done or handled at this manner? to be sold or
made a slave for all time of his life? How fearfull and fainthearted are
many on sea when they see a strange vessel, being afraid it should be a
Turk, and they should be taken and sold for slaves into Turkey. Now what
is this better done as Turks do? Yea rather it is worse for them, which
say they are Christians; for we hear that ye most part of such Negers
are brought hither against their will and consent; and that many of them
are stollen. Now, tho’ they are black, we cannot conceive there is more
liberty to have them slaves, as it is to have other white ones. There is
a saying, that we shall doe to all men, like as we will be done our
selves; making no difference of what generation, descent or colour they
are. And those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or purchase
them, are they not alike? Here is liberty of conscience, which is right
and reasonable; here ought to be likewise liberty of ye body, except of
evil-doers, which is another case. But to bring men hither or to robb
and sell them against their will, we stand against. In Europe there are
many oppressed for conscience sake; and here there are those oppressed
which are of a black colour. And we, who know that men must not commit
adultery, some doe commit adultery in others, separating wifes from
their husbands and giving them to others; and some sell the children of
those poor creatures to other men. Oh! doe consider well this things,
you who doe it, if you would be done at this manner, and if it is done
according Christianity? You surpass Holland and Germany in this thing.
This makes an ill report in all those countries of Europe, where they
hear off, that ye Quakers doe here handel men like they handel there ye
cattel. And for that reason some have no mind or inclination to come
hither, and who shall maintain this your cause or plaid for it? Truly we
can not do so, except you shall inform us better hereof, that Christians
have liberty to practice this things. Pray! What thing on this world can
be done worse towards us, then if men should robb or steal us away, and
sell us for slaves to strange countries, separating husbands from their
wifes and children. Being now this is not done at that manner, we will
be done at, therefore we contradict and are against this traffick of
menbody. And we who profess that it is not lawful to steal, must
likewise avoid to purchase such things as are stollen, but rather help
to stop this robbing and stealing if possible; and such men ought to be
delivered out of ye hands of ye Robbers and sett free as well as in
Europe. Then is Pennsylvania to have a good report, instead it hath now
a bad one for this sake in other countries. Especially whereas ye
Europeans are desirous to know in what manner ye Quackers doe rule in
their Province; and most of them doe look upon us with an envious eye.
But if this is done, well, what shall we say is done evil?
“If once these slaves (which they say are so wicked and stubborn men)
should joint themselves, fight for their freedom and handel their
masters and mastrisses as they did handel them before, will these
masters and mastrisses tacke the sword at hand and warr against these
poor slaves, like we are able to believe, some will not refuse to doe?
Or have these Negers not as much right to fight for their freedom, as
you have to keep them slaves?
“Now consider well this thing, if it is good or bad? and in case you
find it to be good to handel these blacks at that manner, we desire and
require you hereby lovingly, that you may inform us here in, which at
this time never was done, that Christians have such a liberty to do so,
to the end we shall be satisfied in this point, and satisfie likewise
our good friends and acquaintances in our natif country, to whom it is a
terrour or fairfull thing that men should be handeld so in Pennsylvania.
“This is from our Meeting at Germantown held ye 18. of the 2. month
1688. to be delivered to the monthly meeting at Richard Warrel’s.
“gerret hendericks
derick op de graeff
Francis Daniell Pastorius
Abraham op Den graeff.”
This document, set up by the humble inhabitants of Germantown, compelled
the Quakers to think. Becoming aware that the traffic in human beings
did not harmonize with the Christian religion, they introduced in 1711
an act to prevent the importation of negroes and Indians into
Pennsylvania. Later on they also declared themselves against the slave
trade. But as the Government found such laws inadmissible, the question
dragged along, until 150 years later, by Lincoln’s Emancipation
Proclamation, this black spot on the escutcheon of the United States was
wiped out.
* * * * *
The Germans of Pennsylvania were also compelled to protest against other
gross abuses, of which white men and women had become the victims. To
review early immigration into America means to open one of the blackest
pages of Colonial history. The constant wars, prevailing in Europe, the
horrible persecutions to which the followers of certain religious sects
were exposed, the frequent times of famine and pestilence led many
thousands of unhappy beings to sail for the New World, where such
sufferings would not be encountered. But the means of travel, then
existing, did not meet the demands. Vessels, fit for the transportation
of large numbers, were few and their accommodations extremely poor.
Authorities took no interest in the proper treatment of the emigrants.
Everything was left to the owners of the ships, who were responsible to
nobody.
What sort of people were these shippers? Many were smugglers and
pirates, always on the lookout for prey. Others were slave-dealers,
making fortunes in trading negro-slaves. No doubt, the moral standard of
these gentlemen was very low. Do we wonder that many of these
unscrupulous men established also a regular trade in =white= slaves, for
which the increasing exodus from Europe to America opened most alluring
inducements. If smart enough, they would amass great wealth and would no
longer have to make the perilous voyage to Guinea, to kidnap black
people at the risk of their own lives. For the white slaves could be
seduced by a bait that had a flavor of high-spirited benevolence.
Pretending willingness to help all persons without means, the
ship-owners offered to give such persons credit for their passage across
the ocean, on condition that they would work for it after their arrival
in America, by hiring out as servants for a certain length of time to
colonists, who would advance their wages by paying the passage money to
the ship-owners. As the persons were redeeming themselves by performing
this service, they were therefore called “Redemptioners.”
With this harmless-looking decoy many thousands of men and women were
lured on to sign contracts, only to find out later that they had become
victims of villainous knaves and had to pay for their inexperience with
the best years of their lives.
The voyage across the ocean took as many weeks as it takes days at
present. The ship-holds were in such horrible condition that words fail
to describe them. And these dirty rooms were always packed beyond
capacity. The food was poor and insufficient. Some captains kept their
passengers on half rations from the day of the start, pretending that it
was necessary to prevent famine. In consequence of the poor nourishment
and the overcrowded quarters, all sorts of sickness prevailed and the
mortality was terrific. For medical help and all other services
excessive prices were charged. So it came that at the end of the journey
almost all the passengers were deeply in debt. According to their amount
and the physical condition of each immigrant the length of time was
fixed for which he or she should serve any person, willing to pay the
captain the amount of the immigrant’s debt. This servitude extended
always from four to eight years, and sometimes to more. The captains had
no difficulty in turning the bonds, signed by redemptioners, into cash.
Cheaper labor could be obtained nowhere, and for this reason the
colonists were always eager to secure the services of redemptioners. The
offers were made through the newspapers or at the “Vendu,” the place
where negroes were bought and sold. When applicants came, the
redemptioner was not allowed to choose a master or to express wishes
about the kind of work that would suit him. Members of the same family
must not object to separation. So it happened frequently that a husband
became parted from his wife or children, or children from their parents
for many years or for life. As soon as the applicant paid the debt of a
redemptioner, the latter was obliged to follow him. In case this master
did not need his servant any longer, he could hire, transfer or sell him
like chattel to someone else.
As in such a case the redemptioner received no duplicate of his
contract, the poor creature depended entirely upon the good will of his
new master, who had it in his power to keep him or her in servitude far
beyond the expiration of the true contract time. If any dispute arose, a
redemptioner enjoyed no greater protection than a negro, like whom he
was treated in many respects. If found ten miles away from home without
the written consent of his master, he would be regarded as a run-away
and submitted to heavy physical punishment. Persons guilty of hiding or
assisting such fugitives were fined 500 pounds of tobacco for each
twenty-four hours such fugitive had remained under their roof. Who
captured a run-away was entitled to a reward of 200 pounds of tobacco or
50 dollars. And to the run-away’s servitude ten days were added for
every twenty-four hours absent, to say nothing of the severe whipping he
was liable to get.
The redemptioners went through all sorts of experiences, according to
the different tempers of their masters. Some were lucky enough to find
good homes, where they were well treated. But many fell into the hands
of heartless, selfish people, who in their eagerness to get as much as
possible out of the redemptioners, literally worked them to death, to
say nothing of providing insufficient food, scanty clothing and poor
lodging. Many owners made use of the right to punish redemptioners so
frequently and so cruelly, that a law became necessary whereby it was
forbidden to apply to a servant more than ten lashes for each “fault.”
Female redemptioners were quite often exposed to lives of shame, which
some of the laws seemed to invite. For instance in Maryland a law was
passed in 1663 providing that any freeborn white woman, who married a
colored slave, should together with her offspring become the property of
the owner of that slave.
Originally this abominable law was intended to deter white women from
intermarriage with colored men. But many depraved colonists misused this
law purposely and compelled their white female servants by threat or
deceit to marry colored slaves, as the master then would legally secure
permanent possession of the white freeborn woman as well as the children
she might bear. Though everybody knew that such devilish tricks were
practiced extensively, this law remained in force until 1721, when a
peculiar incident led to its repeal. When Lord Baltimore, the founder of
Maryland, visited his province in 1681, he brought over an Irish girl,
Nellie, who had agreed to redeem the cost of passage to America by doing
service. Before her time ended, Lord Baltimore returned to England.
Prior to his departure he sold the unexpired term of Nellie’s service to
a resident of Maryland, who some weeks thereafter gave Nellie to one of
his negroes, making her thereby, together with two children that were
born, forever his slave. When Lord Baltimore heard of this, he caused
the abolishment of the law of 1663. But all efforts to release his
former servant and her children were in vain. The case dragged along for
years, until the courts decided, that Nellie and her children must
remain slaves, as the latter were born before the annulment of the law.
Incidents of similar character stirred the German citizens of
Philadelphia to revolt against the unjust treatment to which their
immigrant countrymen and women were subjected. At a meeting on Christmas
Day of 1764, they formed “=The German Society of Pennsylvania=,” with
the purpose of securing laws for the abolishment of all abuses which had
grown out of the treatment of immigrants. Such a law was secured on May
18th of the following year.
The “German Society of Pennsylvania” became the model for many similar
institutions in all parts of America. By uncovering evils and by
vigorous persecutions of guilty persons, by continuously framing and
recommending effective laws, these societies secured at last a better
treatment of the immigrants on the ocean as well as after landing. With
full justice these societies may be called the true originators of our
modern immigration laws.—
They also established the “Legal Aid Societies,” to assist poor people
in need of legal advice and help. As these institutions spread over
hundreds of cities of America as well as of Europe, we see that since
the Christmas meeting in Philadelphia in 1764 untold millions of people
have profited by the earnest work, begun by that small band of Germans,
who had the welfare of their poor countrymen at heart, and showed what
genuine Christmas spirit can do for humanity, if it is only put to a
proper purpose.
* * * * *
There existed yet another form of female slavery, the worst of all. With
the development of the feudal system in mediæval Europe, which made the
poor man, especially the peasant, dependent on the lord or owner of the
land he cultivated, the lords appropriated in time unlimited sway over
their vassals. Among other rights they claimed not only that to marry
him or her to whomsoever the lord might chose, but also absolute control
of the vassal’s newly wedded bride for the first three days and nights.
This custom, known by a variety of names, as “jus primæ noctis, droit de
cuissage,” “marchetta” or “marquette,” had the sanction of the state as
well as of the church and compelled newly married women to the most
dishonorable servitude. If the female serf pleased the lord he enjoyed
her, and it was from this custom, that the eldest son of the serf was
always held as the son of the lord, “as perchance it was he, who begot
him.”
If it should happen that the young bride did not meet the fancy of the
lord, he let her alone, but in such case the husband had to redeem her
by paying the lord a certain amount of money, the name of which betrayed
its nature.
Matilde Joslyn Gage in her able book “Woman, Church and State” has
devoted a whole chapter to the history of marquette and says:
“The seigneural tenure of the feudal period was a law of Christian
Europe more dishonorable than the worship of Astarte at Babylon. In
order to fully comprehend the vileness of marquette we must remember
that it did not originate in the pagan country many thousand years
since; that it was not a heathen custom transplanted to Europe with many
others adopted by the church, but that it arose in Christian countries a
thousand years after the origin of that religion, continuing in
existence until within the last century.”
She further states that in France even the Bishops of Amiens and the
canons of the cathedral of Lyons possessed the right over the women of
their vassals, and that in several counties of the Piccardy the curés
imitated the bishops and took the right of cuissage, when the bishop had
become too old to take his right. She also states, that “marquette began
to be abolished in France toward the end of the 16th Century, but still
existed in the 19th Century in the County of Auvergne, and that the
lower orders of the clergy were very unwilling to relinquish this usage,
vigorously protesting to their archbishops against the deprivation of
this right, declaring they could not be dispossessed.
“But finally the reproach and infamy connected with the ‘droit de
cuissage’ became so great, and the peasants became so recalcitrant over
this nefarious exaction, that ultimately both lords spiritual and lords
temporal, fearing for their own safety, commenced to lessen their
demands.”
From a letter, reproduced in the same book, it appears that instances of
the survival of the feudal idea as to the right of the lord to the
persons of his vassal woman occurred within the last decenniums of the
Nineteenth Century. This letter, written by Mr. D. R. Locke, and dated
December, 1891, reads: “One of the Landlords was shot a few years ago
and a great ado was made about it. In this case as in most of the others
it was not a question of rent. My Lord had visited his estates to see
how much more money could be taken out of his tenants, and his lecherous
eyes happened to rest upon a very beautiful girl, the eldest daughter of
a widow with seven children. Now this girl was betrothed to a nice sort
of boy, who, having been in America, knew a thing or two. My Lord,
through his agent, who is always a pimp as well as a brigand, ordered
Kitty to come to the castle. Kitty, knowing very well what that means,
refused. “Very well,” says the agent, “yer mother is in arrear for rent,
and you had better see My Lord, or I shall be compelled to evict
her.”—Kitty knew what that meant also. It meant that her gray-haired
mother, her six helpless brothers and sisters would be pitched out by
the roadside to die of starvation and exposure, and so Kitty, without
saying a word to her mother or anyone else, went to the castle and was
kept there three days, till My Lord was tired of her, when she was
permitted to go. She went to her lover, like an honest girl as she was,
and told him she would not marry him, but refused to give any reason.
Finally the truth was wrenched out of her, and Mike went and found a
shot-gun that had escaped the eye of the royal constabulary, and he got
powder and shot and old nails, and he lay behind a hedge under a tree
for several days. Finally one day My Lord came riding by all so gay, and
that gun went off. There was a hole, a blessed hole, clear through him,
and he never was so good a man as before because there was less of him.
Then Mike went out and told Kitty to be of good cheer and not to be cast
down, that the little difference between him and My Lord had been
settled, and that they would be married as soon as possible. And they
were married, and I had the pleasure of taking in my hand the very hand
that fired the blessed shot, and of seeing the wife, to avenge whose
cruel wrongs the shot was fired.”
In the same work we read that another of these British lords in Ireland,
Leitram, was noted for his attempts to dishonor the wives and daughters
of the peasantry upon his vast estate. His character was equal to that
of the worst feudal barons, and like these he used his power as
magistrate and noble, in addition to that of landlord, to accomplish his
purpose. After an assault upon a beautiful and intelligent girl, by a
brutal retainer of his lordship, his tenantry finally declared it
necessary to resort to the last means in their power to preserve the
honor of their wives and daughters. Six men were chosen as the
instruments of their crude justice. They took an oath to be true to the
end, in life or death, purchased arms, and seeking a convenient
opportunity shot the tyrant to death. Nor were those firing the fatal
shots ever discovered.
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