The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-04-07


function of which the services and Offices
business and pleasure are capable. Fourier II
not more methodical or minute in the group
ings of his scientific organization OF the phn
lanstery. have not given the full list and
have spared tho English reader the classic
nomenclature of the system, offering this only
as a specimen and proof Of the order of which
Slavery was made the subject and the large
provision for its pernanency, by people who
subsequently lost their own liberties by the in
evitabe rebound Of the blow with which they
struck down those of their victims.
The aggregate of the Roman slaves cannot
find or their proportion to the entire popula.
ton, with reliable certainty but they were SC
numerous that they were at last forbidden to
wear a-distinctive dress, lest, becoming aware
of their strength, they might be tempted to in.
surrection. Nevertheless, a revolt, headed by
the Thracian Spartacus, in B. c. II, was near,
ly successful another, by no less than 100000
Sarmatians, took place in the reign OF Con-
stantine, after the establishment OF Christianity
as the religion of the Empire, A. D. 1884,
Besides the supply of the slave market by
conquest, one of the laws Of the XII tables,
brought from Greece by the Dccemyiri, b. c.
45l, allowed creditors to seize their insolvent
debtors, and keep them in their houses until
by their services they had discharged the debt.
This was during the period of the Republic.
10 eli ID bn Pom nj a WI In
most of the ancient nations, formed an import
ant part of commerce and business. "They
traded in slaves and the souls Of men," Slave
merchants were regularly attached to the Ro-
man armies, and importers often came from
Greece and Asia to Rome in the pursuit Of that
branch of trade, which must have been in
those barbarian times, as Lord Chatham de-
scribed it in his letter to Lord North, only
about eighty years ago. the right arm of the
British commerce."
Milford History of Greece says cattle and
slaves constituted the principal riches of the
early ages of Greece. The Byzantines supplied
them, from the Pontus, with honey wax, sailed
meats, leather, and great numbers Of uery SER
vieeable Slaves. Ezekiel (chap. xvii, 49, notices
the trade of the Tyrians with the Caucasian
provinces: "Javan, Tubal, and Mesheck, ira
ded the persons Of men and vessels of brass in
their market" So the Carthagenians ex-
changed black slaves from the interior of
Africa, in their commerce with the cities of
Italy and Greece.
Slaves were exposed for sale OF Rome, upon
scafolds erected in the public market, and,
usually, small tablets were suspended from
their necks, stating their age, country, charac-
ter, and qualities. The price varied greatly ;
it was sometimes above thousand dendrii
(about 10 cents of our coin) each, or Sl6O.
Such as possessed intellectual cultivation, and
could be employed as teachers, readers, &C.
countants, musicians, and the like, were of still
greater value For fuller view of this sub
ject see Blair's State of Slavery among the
Romans, Edinburgh edition, 1885, and Ameri-
can Quart. Req, Vol. XIV, IL.
1t is apparent, and only too much SO, that
the keenest appreciation of their own personal
liberty in the Greek and Roman democrats
failed to inspire them with justice and humani-
ty to the laboring classes on whose industry
they lived Republicanism in the ancient world
was, in fact, as remarkable for its domestic
tyranny as were the most absolute monarchies
In the middle ages, chattel slavery prevailed
all over civilized Europe. Its vestiges remained
in England and France, sufficiently distinct
and unequivocal, till towards the close of the
fourteenth century. The laws Of Alfred, AID.
S72, regulated the sale of slaves The English
peasantry were so regularly sold, in the Saxon
and Norman times, that children in the Bristol
market, exposed to sale for expectation, were
as common as cattle. These were probably the
conquered Britons and their descendants.
In England, before the conquest, the labor
ing poor and the inferior classes generally were
divided into villeins and churls, Tor, in old
Saxon, ceorls,) between whom there was, how
ever, considerable difference of condition and
rights The churl had some protection from
the civil law, and some secure privileges under
it. The fine for his murder was 200 shillings J;
for that of thane, or land owner, 600. This
fine, the ,ceregild imam. money! as twas termed
in law language, was paid to the relations OF
the party slain. The churl was not bound to
the land which he cultivated; he bore arms
and was protected against injuries to his person
and property. 1t was not probably, till after
the conquest that the laboring populace were
generally reduced to villeinage--a condition
which left them no civil rights against their
lords The historical point is not perfectly clear,
nor is the status of the villein and churl exactly
ascertaned in oil stages of the system; but it is
clear that under tho feudal system, introduced
by the Normans, British-born subjects were
held Us chattels, real and personal. These were
thereafter divided into vileins in gross and vii
leins regarddat The former class attached
to the person, and capable of being sold in
market and transported from the domain Of
one master to that Of another, like the slaves
in our Southern States-the latter class, vllens
rcgardant, were attached to the soil, and could
not be separated from it. like the serfs of
Russia in our own times.
From the time of Henry II, IA. d. 1852 it
is certain that the vlein, strictly so called, was
absolutely dependent upon his lords will he
was compelled to unlimited services; he was
destitute Of property, either in the land which
he cultivated, or in his own acquisitions. He
had no right of action at law against his mas
ter, and his children followed the condition Of
the iather-under the Roman law, as in our
Southern States, the child followed the condi-
ton of the mother THE Legitimate issue of
female yillens were therefore born frce-the
law humanely presuming the freedom Of the
father OF, more strictly, as bastard at COM
mon law is regarded as the son Of nobody, 6iius