The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-11-23
SHERWOOD FOREST,
WAGER BY BATTL E.
Tale of Saxon Slavery in the Twelfth Century


BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT.
CHAP. VII
..Y not nav. but that all day,
l. i both VIII and SAID.
That ,,onan's faith Is a. who sayeth,
All utterly decayed;
But nov rlhelcsSe. right good wiiilrsso
In this might he laid,
Ti,rt they love and continue
Recorde the Noi-broVTne msydei
" hich. when her love came nor 10 prove
TO her 60 make his none.
Woldo have him part-;or Ia her hart
I..e Not Bsolca, Maybe.
How true a thing is it of the human heart,
and alas, how pititu a thing, that use has such
vondrous power over it, whether for good or for
evil; but mostly perhaps, that such is its ma
,,r,.. unto evil Custom will harden the softest
.oir; to the icebrook's temper, and blind the
c,arrs, philosophic eve to all discrimination,
that things the most horrible to behold shall be
b.beld with pleasure, and things the most I'M
INST REGARDED as simple justice, OF, at least, as
ibe inevitable course and pervading law of ma
lure. True as this is, in all respects, in none
+. :. more clearly OF fatally discoverable than in
everything connected with what may be called
.,,yrrv. in the largest sense, including the sub
iggation. by whatever means, not only of man
Il, man. but even OF animals to the human race.
In all such cases, it would appear that the hard
.uiag and detcrioratihg influence of habit, and
the perhaps unavoidable tendency to believe
everything subordinate as in itself Inferior soon
brings the mind to regard the power to enforce
and the capacity to perform as the rule of just
lee letween the worker and the master.
The generally good and kind-hearted man,
who has all his life been used to see his beasts
Of burthen dragging few pounds weight above
their proper and merciful load, soon comes to
LII. Il H.
burthcn. and to look upon the hapless brute,
which Is pining away by inches, in impercepti-
bic and insensible decay, as merely performing
the work. and filling the station, to perform and
III which it was created. And SO, and yet more
fatally, as regards the subjugation of man, or a
class Of men, TO man. We commence by de-
grading. and end by thinking of him as of one
naturally degraded. We reduce him to the
Standard and condition of a brute, then assume
mat he is but brute, in feelings, intellect, ca.
Iaciiy to acquire, and thence argue-in the
narrowest of circles-that being but brute, il
j. but right and natural to deal with him AS
what he is. Nor is this tendency of the human
mind limited in its operation to actual slavery
lt prevails, more or less in relation to all ser
'itude and inferiority, voluntary or involuntary
So that many of the best all, indeed but the
very best among us, come III the end to look
upon all, placed by circumstances and society
IN inferior positions, as interiors in very deed,
and naturally unequal to themselves in every
capacity even that of enjoyments, and to regard
them, IN fact a subordinate class of animals
aud beings of IA lower class of creation.
This again, still working in a circle, tends
really to lower the inferior person; and by the
tendencr of association, the inferior class; until
degcnerating still, as must occur, from sire to
Il L
cal, sinks into Natural. degradation.
This had already occurred in very great
degree in the Saxon serfs of England, who had
been slaves Of Saxons, for many centuries
before the arrival of the Norman conquerors
bat these made but small distinctioA, in gene
raj, between the free-born and the slave, Of the
conquered race, but reduced them all to one
coinmon state of misery and real or quasi servi
tnde-i0r many, who had once been landhold
ers and masters, sunk into a state of want and
suffering 50 pitiable and so abject that, genera
ton succeeding generation with neither the
means nor the ambition to rise, they became
almost undiStinguishable, and in many instan
ces either sold themselves into slavery to avoid
actual starvation, or were seized and enslaved
IN defiance of all law. in the dark and troublous
lime which followed the Norman conquest.
Ot the two classes of serfs existing on Brit
sh soil, though not recognised as different by
law OF in any wise differing in condition, Ken
ne, himself descended in the third degree from
freeman and landholder, exhibited fair
specimen of the first; although it by no means
followed of course that men in his relative posi-
non were actually superior to the progeny oil
those who could designate no point before
NAlch their ancestors were free. And thi:
became evident, at once. to those who looked
al the characters of kenric the Dark, and Fad
|ult the Red, of whom the former was in al
respects a man, of sterling qualities, frank, bolc
deneanor, and all the finer characteristics o.
independent, hardy, English manhood while
me second was rude, sulen, thankless, spirit
less obstinate churl, with nothing of the man
except his sordid, sensual appetites, and every
;,'IS o. The beast except his tameless pride ant
mdonitablc freedom.
II "aS,'thereiore, even with one of the better
''aSs OF these unfortunate men, matter of per
s,nai character and temper. whether he retain
81 something OF the relative superiority he bore
To- ms Yet more unfortunate companions in sla
very, or whether he sank selflowered to their
h'el. Nothing, II is true, had either, to which
ne miSht aspire; no hope of lettering his con
"'ioh no chanoe of rising in the scale OF
humanity. Acts ot emancipation, as rewards
" personal service, had been rare even among
,''r NaNohs, since, the utmost personal service
heihg due by the thrall to his lord. no act OF
personal service. unless in most extreme cases
'"uld he esteemed merit; and such serfs a.
o"'u 'heir freedom to the voluntary commiser
"uoh OF their owners, owed it. in the great
majority OF cases, to their superstition rather
man 10 their mercy. and were liberated on the
ne'lhbed, when they could serve their masters
J" no otherwise than in becoming an atone
.I''" Tor their sins, and smoothing their patti
"'',nEh purgatory to paradise.
VIM The Normans, the chance of liberation
vas diminished an hundred fold; for the degra
race, held IN utter adherence and contempt
"Gked upon as scarce superior to the
Jew. was excluded from all personal con
'"C' win their naughty lords, who rarely sc
; NUN a. knew them by sight or by name; wa'
'o"iaoie OF serving them, directly, in the mos
4, capacity: and, therefore, could hardly
- n' widest good fortune, hope for chanc,
o. attracting even observation. much less sucl
Of liberty. "' '''0 ''o
'Sain' on the deathbed, the Norman knigh
,a.r roo'e' scarce condescending to think of hi.
,. as d human being, could never have enter
'u so preposterous an idea, as that the bet
~ worse usage, nay! even the life or death
hundreds OF these despised wretches, coulC
,L' either Tor him or against him, before
'' urone OF grace. So that the deathbeC
'nancipations, which had been so freonen
'eiore the conquest, and which were recon
Mfnded and inculcated by abbots and prelates.
While abbots and prelates were of Saxon Hood
as acts acceptable on high, now that the bipl
Clergy, ike the high barons of the realm. wer
strangers to the children of the soil, had fale,
INTO almost absolute disuse.
In fact, in the twelfth century, the Saxo
Seri-born man had little more chance of as
curing his freedom, than an English peasan
Oh the present day has of becoming tempors
Spiritual peer of the realm; and, lacking a
ODect for emulation or eyertion these mon tn