The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-05-19
NATURAL HISTORY OF sLAvzRY-Ho 8.

system was most rlSiu. ne SUBJECTS "eiO'N
the most capable Of all the benefits OF emanci
/, patton and enfranchisement and were mos
, likely to win the boon from their owners who's
respect and affection they might secure
! Where the master and slave are eminently anc
equally enlightened and refined, the legal do
mnion of the one over the other IS merely
nominal and. in effect, null Actual equality
, between parent and child, husband and wife
abrogates the authority of position and eStab-
fishes the law of liberty in its stead. Mind
and heart, in their higher styles, by their own
proper force override all conventional differ
ences of rank and Office, just as strength bal
auce, strength on the level of lower life. Be-
sides the inherent resistance and repulsion
that a nobly-endowed nature offers to injustice,
its attractions also have free play and iull Ell
feet and all its claims are yindicated by law
stronger than the accidents of life.
Manumissons. it is well known, were very
common among the Romans. lt could not be
otherwise. where the slaves were so often, in all
points. the equals Of their masters But as
they were granted upon consideration Of fit
ness for freedom in the fortunate beneficiary,
or from motives Of affection and favor, founded
upon special excellences of character, the
practice did little OF nothing to advance the
principle Of equal rights to all men General
emancipation is not even logical consequence
of principle which grounds itself upon such
specially of qualification. 1t must result from
motives and causes wholly different.
A brief notice of the historical facts and
dates, and associated changes in the condition
of the enslaved classes, will help us to under
stand them.
In the twelfth century, the slaves in Italy
began sensibly to decrease They were fire.
quently employed in war, and were rewarded
by enfranchisement In some of the States of
Germany, the greater part Of the peasants had
acquired their liberty before the end Of the
thirteenth century, In 1885, Philip Nv, of
France emancipatcd the villeins in the royal
domains throughout Languedoc, retaining only
an annual rent for their lands Louis X,
after many particular manumissions had taken
place, by general edict, in 1875 reciting that
his kingdom is called the kingdom of the
Franks, and he would have the fact to CORES
pond with the NAME emancpates all persons
in the royal domains, upon paying a Just COM
position, as an example for other lords possess
ing villeins to follow. Philip Y renewed the
same edict three years afterwards. 1t is to be
carefully noted here, that Louis Y several
times directed his officers to tax these subjects
as high as their fortunes could we'll bear. in
consideration of the benefits conferred upon
them. The point to be regarded here, is that
the vilcns were in condition to pay the COM
position for their liberation, and had property
which could be made productive subject of
royal taxation
Ii is to~be observed in like manner, that
the charter of Henry III, of England, about
l25O,) grants to all persons born or to be
born within his village of Continshall, that
they shall be free from oil villanage in body
and blood, paying an aid of twenty shillings to
knight the Kings eldest son, and six shillings
year as quit rent SO in the 10th of Ed
ward iii, 1929 certain of the Kings villeins
are cnfranchised on payment Of a fine. This
word, fine, in tho feudal sense, means the
amount paid by the vas,al to the lord as the
condition Of grant Of land, or other franchise.)
Deeds Of manumission occur, also, in the reigns
Of both Mary and Elizabeth One of these
q commission OF Elizabeth, dated l574-directs
the enfranchisement Of her bondmcn and bond
women, 10 certain manors, upon Payment Of
fine This royal charter, besides the evidence
it affords Of the pecuniary composition required,
and the indication of the bondsman's ability to
pay it, is remarkable for being the last paper
of the kind upon the English records.
In strictness of law, fine for enfranchse-
ment was nugatory since the vllen's posses
sons were all at the disposal of the lord. Lc-
gally, the serf could hold and possess nothing
against his master: and as he had nothing
which he could withhold as his own, he GER
tainly had nothing which, in any proper sense
of the word, he could pay as the purchase
price of his liberty. 1t is plain, that virtual
freedom of the legal bondman must have sub.
sisted before he could thus exchange the lords
own money for the legal right of ownership to
it. and to the misconceptions Of its temporary
trustee Substantial emancipation began back
of the contract and rests on causes and con-
sideratons independent of it. These causes
are tho objects of our inquiry; but wo will,
just now, present only the explanations gencr-
ally given by the current authorities
The movement of q general emancipation is
commonly credited to an advanced sentiment
of Justice, to the incipient reformation Of re-
lgious doctrine, and to that revolution in cccle-
siastical polity, which soon after gave us the
Protestant Church establishment-or, as it
may be stated, that the democracy of religion
engendered the democracy of civil rights, and
that tho claim and concession of personal lib
erty arose out of the sentiment of human
equality, for which the religious idea Of human
fraternity is the readest and most command.
ing authority among men. 80 far as moral
and religious sentiments can have the force
here ascribed to them, they must be admitted
among the influences ut work in the matter to
be explained; but this philosophy is at fault
in that it wholly overlooks conditions essential
to the issue and to our right understanding
of it.
Those who look for the causes among the
facts of the process, governed, as they suppose
those facts must be- by the institutions of the
times, are inextricably embarrassed by the OBJ
vious conflict between the system of villanage
and the required conditions of its subjects.
The difficulties seem insuperable How could
the peasantry of England emerge from their
state of chattel slavery by means of property
which they could not acquire in their own
right; and how could they really purchase u