# The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade/Chapter 3

Contents
CHAPTER III.
Slaves of Sparta, Crete, Thessaly, &c. — The Helots.
There seems to be a diversity of opinion among modern writers, as to the condition of the Spartan Helots. The American Encyclopedia, in giving ​briefly the prominent events of their history, states, that the name is generally derived from the town of Helos, the inhabitants of which were carried off and reduced to slavery by the Heraclidæ, about 1000 B. C. They differed from the other Greek slaves in not belonging individually to separate masters; they were the property of the state, which alone had the disposal of their freedom. They formed a separate class of inhabitants, and their condition was, in many respects, similar to that of the boors in some countries of Europe. The state assigned them to certain citizens, by whom they were employed in private labors, though not exclusively, as the state still exacted certain services from them. Agriculture and all mechanical arts at Sparta were in the hands of the Helots, since the laws of Lycurgus prohibited the Spartans from all lucrative occupations. But the Helots were also obliged to bear arms for the state, in case of necessity. The barbarous treatment to which they were exposed often excited them to insurrection. Their dress, by which they were contemptuously distinguished from the free Spartans, consisted of cat's-skin, and a leather cap, of a peculiar shape. They were sometimes liberated for their services, or for a sum of money. If their numbers increased too much, the young Spartans, it is said, were sent out to assassinate them. Their number is uncertain, but Thucydides says that it was greater than that of the slaves in any other Grecian state. It has been variously estimated, at from 320,000 to 800,000. They several times rose against their masters, but were always finally reduced.
Before we proceed with the history of the Spartan Helots, it will be well enough to digress, in order to understand the character of their masters, who were, in many respects, a peculiar people.
Sparta, or Lacedæmion, the capital of Laconia and of the Spartan state, lay on the west bank of the river Eurotas, and embraced a circuit of six miles. The ruins are still seen nearly a league to the east of Misistra, and are known by the name of Palæopolis, or "ancient city." The Spartans were distinguished among the people of Greece by their manners, customs and constitution. Their kings ruled only through the popular will, as they had no other privileges than those of giving their opinion first in the popular assemblies, acting as umpires in disputes, and of commanding the army: their only other advantages were a considerable landed estate, a large share of the spoils, and the chief seat in assemblies and at meals. The Spartans, that is, the descendants of the Dorians, who acquired possession of Laconia under the Heraclidæ, were occupied only with war and the chase, and left the agricultural labors to the Helots; but the Lacedæmonians, or Periœci (the ancient inhabitants of the country), engaged in commerce, navigation and manufactures. Although the Spartan conquerors were superior in refinement and cultivation to the Lacedæmonians, the arts of industry flourished only among the latter. They gradually intermingled with the Spartans, whom they exceeded in number, and formed one people. Both people constituted one state, with a national assembly, to which the towns sent deputies. The military contributions in money and troops formed the principal tribute of the free Lacedæmonians to the ​Spartans (Dorians). The former were sometimes divided by jealousy from the latter, and in the Theban war several towns withdrew their troops from the Spartans, and joined Epaminondas. The distinguishing traits of the Spartans were severity, resolution and perseverance. Defeat and reverse never discouraged them. But they were faithless and crafty, as appears from their conduct in the Messenian wars, in which they not only bribed the Arcadian king, Aristocrates, to the basest treachery towards the Messenians, but also corrupted the Delphic oracle, of which they made use to the prejudice of the Messenians. The age at which marriage might be contracted was fixed by Lycurgus at thirty for men and twenty for women. When a Spartan woman was pregnant, it was required that pictures of the handsomest young men should be hung up in her chamber, for the purpose of producing a favorable effect on the fruit of her womb. The other Greeks washed the new-born infants with water, and afterwards rubbed them over with oil; but the Spartans bathed them in wine, to try the strength of their constitution. They had a notion that a wine bath produced convulsions or even death in weakly children, but confirmed the health of the strong. If the infant proved vigorous and sound/the state received it into the number of citizens; otherwise it was thrown into a cave on mount Taygetus. In the other Grecian states, the exposition of children was a matter of custom; in Sparta it was forbidden by law. The Spartan children were early inured to hardship and accustomed to freedom. Stays, which were in use among the other Grecians, were unknown to the Spartans. To accustom the children to endure hunger, they gave them but little food; and, if they stood in need of more, they were obliged to steal it; and, if discovered, they were severely punished, not for the theft, but for their awkwardness. Every ten days, they were required to present themselves before the ephori, and whoever was found to be too fat, received a flogging. Wine was not generally given to girls in Greece, but was commonly allowed to boys from earliest childhood. In Sparta, the boys were obliged to wear the hair short, until they attained the age of manhood, when it was suffered to grow. They usually ran naked, and were generally dirty, as they did not bathe and anoint themselves, like the other Greeks. They took pride in having the body covered with marks of bruises and wounds. They wore no outer garment, except in bad weather, and no shoes at any time. They were obliged to make their beds of rushes from the Eurotas. Till the seventh year, the child was kept in the gynæceum, under the care of the women; from that age to the eighteenth year, they were called boys, and thence to the age of thirty, youths. In the thirtieth year the Spartan entered the period of manhood, and enjoyed the full rights of a citizen. At the age of seven, the boy was withdrawn from the paternal care, and educated under the public eye, in company with others of the same age, without distinction of rank or fortune. If any person withheld his son from the care of the state, he forfeited his civil rights. The principal object of attention, during the periods of boyhood and youth, was the physical education, which consisted in the practice of various ​gymnastic exercises — running, leaping, throwing the discus, wrestling, boxing, and the chase. These exercises were performed naked, in certain buildings called gymnasia. Besides gymnastics, dancing and the military exercises were practiced. A singular custom was the flogging the boys on the annual festival of Diana Orthia, for the purpose of inuring them to bear pain with firmness: the priestess stood by with a small, light, wooden imago of Diana, and if she observed that any boy was spared, she called out that the image of the goddess was so heavy, that she could not support it, and the blows were then redoubled. The men who were present exhorted their sons to fortitude, while the boys endeavored to surpass each other in firmness. Whoever uttered the least cry during the scourging, which was so severe as sometimes to prove fatal, was considered as disgraced, while he who bore it without shrinking was crowned, and received the praises of the whole city. According to some, this usage was established by Lycurgus; others refer it to the period of the battle of Platææ. To teach the youth cunning, vigilance and activity, they were encouraged, as has been already mentioned, to practice theft in certain cases; but if detected, they were flogged, or obliged to go without food, or compelled to dance round an altar, singing songs in ridicule of themselves. The fear of the shame of being discovered sometimes led to the most extraordinary acts. Thus it is related that a boy who had stolen a young fox, and concealed it under his clothes, suffered it to gnaw out his bowels, rather than reveal the theft, by suffering the fox to escape. Swimming was considered indispensable among them; they had a proverb to intimate that a man was good for nothing, — He cannot swim. Modesty of deportment was particularly attended to; and conciseness of language was much studied. The Spartans were the only people of Greece who despised learning, and excluded it from the education of youth. Their whole instrutions consisted in learning obedience to their superiors, the endurance of hardships, and to conquer or die in war. The youth were, however, carefully instructed in a knowledge of the laws, which, not being reduced to writing, were taught orally. The education of females was entirely different from that of the Athenians. Instead of remaining at home, as in Athens, spinning, &c., they danced in public, wrestled with each other, ran on the course, threw the discus, &c., This was not only done in public, but in a half-naked state. The object of this training of the women, was to give a vigorous constitution to the children.
From a valuable work on the manners and customs of ancient Greece, by a distinguished English author, to whom we have been indebted in our description of the Athenian slavery, we gather some interesting particulars relative to the Spartan Helots, who, he says, were Greeks of the Achaian race, who fell together with the land into the power of the conquerors. He quotes the remark of Ephoros, that "they were, in a certain point of view, ​public slaves; their possessor could neither liberate them, nor sell them beyond the borders." His inference is, that they were the property of individuals, but that the state reserved to itself the right of enfranchising them and preventing their emancipation, lest persons should be found, who would sell or give them their liberty when too old to labor. It is true there was an ancient law prohibiting the exportation of the Helots; but we find that there was a regular trade carried on in females, who were exported into all the neighboring countries for nurses. Thus it seems that the state exercised the power to convert its serfs into merchandize. It is stated that over the Helots, "not the state only, but even private individuals, possessed the power of life and death, as well as the right of beating and maiming them."
As the Spartans possessed estates, which personally they never cultivated, the Helots were stationed throughout the country upon those estates, which it was their business to till for the owners. To live, it was of course necessary that they should eat, and therefore a portion of the produce was set aside for them, — one-half, according to Tyrtæos, — a division not over generous, since their numbers were five times greater than those of the Spartans. The learned historian Herodotus remarks upon this, "as the quantity had been definitively settled at a very early period, to raise the amount being forbidden under very heavy imprecations, the Helots were the persons who profited by a good, and lost by a bad harvest, which must have been to them an encouragement to industry and good husbandry; a motive which would have been wanting, if the profit and loss had merely affected the landlords."
There appear to have been instances of Helots becoming comparatively wealthy in spite of the oppressions they endured; as did the Jews of the middle ages, notwithstanding the terrible robberies, persecutions and cruelties they were subject to. This fact proves that no pressure of hardship or ill-usage can entirely destroy the elasticity of the spirit: and no doubt the Helots, like all slaves, sought to soften their miseries by a gratification which the sense of property procures even in bondage. But of what value is property to a man who is himself the property of another? It appears, however, according to Herodotus, that "by means of the rich produce of the land, and in part by plunder obtained in war, they collected a considerable property."
But very little intercourse took place between the Spartans and Helots, at least in earlier times. Afterwards, when the masters quitted the capital, took to husbandry, and went to reside on their estates, the link must necessarily have been more closely drawn. Intercommunion begot more humane feelings in the master, and more attachment in the slave; for the Spartans felt the influence of intimacy, as is proved by their enfranchising the slave companions of their childhood. A certain number of Helots were retained in the city as personal attendants, and these waited at the public tables, and were lent by one person to another.
In the military service of the state, the Helots fought and bled by the side of their masters. The state was, no doubt, reluctant to admit them among the ​Hoplitæ, or heavy armed, where the discipline was rigorous, and their weapons would have placed them on a level with their oppressors. But even this was sometimes hazarded, as in the reinforcements forwarded to Gyleppus, at Syracuse, when six hundred Neodomades and picked Helots were complimented with this dangerous distinction. As light troops, however, they almost invariably formed the major part of the Lacedæmonian forces. In other countries, where the subject races were treated more humanely, no fear was entertained at entrusting them with arms. Among the Dardanians, for example, where it was not uncommon for a private individual to possess a thousand slaves, they in time of peace cultivated the land, and in war, filled the ranks of the army.
Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Plutarch, and a number of other writers, agree in convicting the Spartans of great barbarity towards their bondmen, differing, however, as to the degree of that barbarity. The following passage occurs in the work of Myron, of Priene, whose testimony, however, is rejected by Midler: "The Helots perform for the Spartans every ignominious service. They are compelled to wear a cap of dog-skin, and a covering of sheep-skin; and are severely beaten every year, without having committed any fault, in order that they might never forget that they are slaves. In addition to this, those amongst them who, either by their stature or their beauty, raise themselves above the ordinary condition of a slave, are condemned to death, and the masters who do not destroy the most manly of them are liable to punishment." Plutarch relates that "the Helots were compelled to intoxicate themselves, and perform indecent dances, as a warning to the Spartan youth." From other authors it appears that it was the constant policy of Sparta to demoralize the Helots. They were commanded to sing obscene songs, and dance indecent jigs, while the Pyrrhic dance, and every warlike lay were forbidden them. It is related, that when the Thebans invaded Laconia and made prisoners a number of Helots, they commanded them to sing some of the songs of Sparta; but the Helots professed their inability, observing that the acquisition of those lays was forbidden them. In short, to adopt the words of Theopompos, they were at all times cruelly and bitterly treated. Critias observes, that, as the freemen of Sparta were of all men the most free, so were the serfs of Sparta of all slaves the most slavish. They were deluded, sometimes, from the protection of sanctuary by perjury, and then assassinated in contempt of oaths and religion. But all this harsh usage was mild, compared with other injuries which the laws of Sparta inflicted on them. We allude to the institution of the Crypteia. Isocrates describes this annual massacre of the Helots, and, with Aristotle, he attributes to the Ephori, magistrates, the direction of this servile war, in which the reins of slaughter were loosed or tightened by their authority. Plutarch says: "According to this ordinance, the Crypteia, the rulers, selecting from among the youths those most distinguished for ability, sent them forth armed with daggers and furnished with the necessary provisions to scour the country, separating and ​concealing themselves by day, in unfrequented places, but issuing out at night and slaughtering all such of the Helots as they found abroad. Sometimes, indeed, they fell upon them while engaged in the labors of the fields, and then cut off the best and bravest of the race." Flowing from the same policy, and designed to effect the same purpose, were those extensive massacres recorded in history, by one of which more than two thousand of those unhappy men, having been insidiously deluded into the assertion of sentiments conformable to the gallant actions they had performed in the service of the state, were removed in a day. Lulled by the gift of freedom, crowned with garlands, smiled upon, they were conducted to the temples, as if to implicate the very gods in the treachery, — and then they disappeared. Their fate was never revealed.
Every year, on taking office, the magistrates formally declared war against their unarmed and unhappy slaves, "that they might be massacred under pretence of law." It seems reasonable to believe that these oppressions kindled those bloody servile wars which Sparta could not quench without foreign aid. The Spartans were, in fact, during many years, prevented from disputing with the Athenians the supremacy in Greece, by contests with their own vassals. On the occasion of the great earthquake, when nearly every house in Sparta was shaken to the ground, the Helots rejoiced at the calamity, and flocked to the environs of the city from the whole country around, in order to put an end to their tyrants as they were escaping in terror from their tottering habitations.
It is known that the Helots were a constant source of terror to their masters, — that whenever occasion offered, they revolted, — whenever an enemy to the state appeared, they joined him, — that they fled whenever flight was possible, — and were so numerous and so bold, that Sparta was compelled, in her treaties with foreign states, to stipulate "for aid against her own subjects."
The Spartans appear to have possessed other slaves besides the oppressed Helots, with whom' they have often been confounded. These were not viewed with equal dread, since they were brought together from various countries, and had no common bond of union. Many of this class were enfranchised, and rose to the rank of citizens. Another class of persons, commonly ranked among the Laconian slaves, were the Mothaces, whose origin, rank and condition it is difficult to determine. Athenæus observes, that, although not Lacedaemonians, they were free. Müller, alluding to this passage, says they are called free in reference to their future, not their past, condition. The words of Philarchos are: "The Mothaces were the brother-like companions of the Lacedæmonians. For every youthful citizen, according to his means, chose one, two, or more of these to be brought up with him; and notwithstanding that they enjoyed not the rank of citizens, they were free, and participated in all the advantages of the national education. Lysander, who defeated the ​Athenians at sea, was one of this class, and was raised for his valor to the rank of citizen." Lycurgus laid much less stress on birth and blood, than on that steadiness and patience of toil, which are the first qualities of a soldier. Whoever from childhood upward gave proof of these, "by submitting without a murmur to the rigorous trial he enjoined on the youth of Sparta, was elevated in the end to the rank of a citizen; while they who shrunk from the severity of his discipline, even though they had descended from royal blood, sunk into a state of degradation, or were even confounded with the Helots.
The Thessalians denominated Penestæ, not those who were born in servitude, but persons who were made captives in war. In Crete, the servile caste was divided into many classes: first, those of the cities, who were "bought with gold," as their name implied, and were doubtless barbarians; second, those of the country, who were bound to the estates of the landed gentry; these were the aboriginal tribes reduced to servitude by their foreign conquerors. In condition they resembled the Helots. Thirdly, there existed in every state in Crete, a class of public bondsmen, who cultivated the public lands, upon what conditions is not exactly known. They were sufficiently numerous and powerful to inspire their masters with dread, as is evident by the regulation which excluded them from the gymnasia, and prohibited the use of arms.
In the city of Cydonia during certain festivals of Hermes, the slaves were left masters of the place, into which no free citizen had permission to enter; and if he infringed this regulation, they had the power to chastise him with whips. In other parts of Crete, customs similar to those of the Roman Saturnalia prevailed; for, while the slaves in the Hermæan festival were carousing and taking their ease, their lords, in the guise of domestics, waited upon them at table, and performed in their stead all other menial offices. Something of the same kind took place during the month Gerœestion, at Trœzen, where the citizens feasted their slaves on one particular day of the great annual festival, and played at dice with them. Among the Babylonians we find a similar custom; for, during the Sacæan festival, which lasted five days, the masters waited on their slaves, one of whom, habited in a royal robe, enacted the part of king.
It is stated that the condition and treatment of the Cretan serfs, were better than in any other Doric state; and that the Periœci of Crete never revolted against their masters.
The serfs of the Syracusans were so exceedingly numerous that their numbers became a proverb. They would seem to have dwelt chiefly in the country. [n process of time their multitude inspired them with courage; they assaulted and drove out their masters, and retained possession of Syracuse.
Respecting the servile classes in other Grecian states, our information is scanty. The corresponding class among the Arcadians is said to have amounted to three hundred thousand in number. Their treatment was probably more lenient than in some other parts of Greece, as at public festivals we find them sitting at the same table, eating the same food, and drinking from the same cup with their masters.
* ↑ See Muller's History and Antiquities of the Doric race.
* ↑ See Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London.
* ↑ Muller — Dorians, ii, 43.