The condition of the slave, throughout the whole of Europe, was attended
with some circumstances of great similarity.
The slaves were generally of the same nation, tribe, and people, who
formed a constituent portion of the free population of the country where
they were, and always of the same colour and race. Even the Sclavonians,
on the continent, formed no exception in the more northern parts of
Europe. In short, slavery, as it existed in Europe, was only in a very
few instances in the south marked by any radical distinction of race:
consequently, the condition of the slave could never be as permanent and
fixed as it ever must be where strong distinctions of race mark the
boundaries between bondage and freedom—although often far more cruel.
The disgrace of the _free_, from an amalgamation with the _slaves_, did
not proceed from any consideration as to _race_, but merely from the
condition of the slave—more pointed, but somewhat analogous to the
disgrace among the more elevated and wealthy, arising from an
intermarriage with the ignorant, degraded, or poor. Influenced by such a
state of facts, the particulars of his condition were liable to constant
change, as affected by accident, the good or ill conduct of the
individual slave, the sense of justice, partiality, fancy, or the wants
and condition of the master; nor needed it the talent of deep prophecy
to have foretold that such a state of slavery must ultimately eventuate
in freedom from bondage.
A description of the slaves of Britain will give a general view of those
of the continent, for which we refer to Dr. Lingard.
The classes whose manners have been heretofore described constituted the
Anglo-Saxon nation. They alone were possessed of liberty, or power, or
property. But they formed but a small part of the population, of which
not less than two-thirds existed in a state of slavery.
All the first adventurers were freemen; but in the course of their
conquests, made a great number of slaves. The posterity of these men
inherited the lot of their fathers, and their number was continually
increased by freeborn Saxons, who had been reduced to the same condition
by debt, or made captives in war, or deprived of liberty in punishment
of their crimes, or had voluntarily surrendered it to escape the horrors
of want.
The ceremony of the degradation and enslavement of a freeman was
performed before a competent number of witnesses. “The unhappy man laid
on the ground his sword and his lance, the symbols of the free, took up
the bill and the goad, the implements of slavery, and falling on his
knees, placed his head, in token of submission, under the hands of his
master.”
All slaves were not, however, numbered in the same class. In the more
ancient laws we find the _esne_ distinguished from the _theow_; and read
of female slaves of the first, the second, and third rank. In later
enactments we meet with _borders_, _cocksets_, _parddings_, and other
barbarous denominations, of which, were it easy, it would be useless to
investigate the meaning. The most numerous class consisted of those who
lived on the land of their lord, near to his mansion, called in Saxon
his _tune_—in Latin, his _villa_. From the latter word they were by the
Normans denominated _villeins_, while the collection of cottages in
which they dwelt acquired the name of _village_. Their respective
services were originally allotted to them according to the pleasure of
their proprietor. Some tilled his lands, others exercised for him the
trades to which they had been educated. In return, they received certain
portions of land, with other perquisites, for the support of themselves
and their families.
But all were alike deprived of the privileges of freemen. They were
forbidden to carry arms. Their persons, families, and goods of every
description were the property of their lord. He could dispose of them as
he pleased, either by gift or sale: he could annex them to the soil, or
remove them from it: he could transfer them with it to a new proprietor,
or leave them by will to his heirs.
Out of the hundreds of instances preserved by our ancient writers, one
may be sufficient. In the charter by which Harold of Buckenhole gives
his manor of Spaulding to the abbey of Croyland, he enumerates among its
appendages Colgrin, his bailiff, Harding, his smith, Lefstan, his
carpenter, Elstan, his fisherman, Osmund, his miller, and nine others,
who probably were his husbandmen; and these with their wives and
children. Wherever slaves have been numerous, and of the same race as
the master, this variety in their condition has always followed. See the
statement of Muratori concerning the Roman slaves; also the laws of
Charlemagne concerning those of the Lombards and Goths. These records
are proof that slavery, accompanied with such facts, is always in the
act of wearing out.
------------------