The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-05-08
CANTON CORRESPONDENCE.
Social Condition of China-Slayery
CANTON, CHINA, Fe5yuarv IL. Is

10 trace the history of Slavery in the Chinese
Empire, where it has existed from a very early
period, would be tedious and improbable
undertaking, and it will be sufficient to state a
few facts which are CLEANED from the few sources
to which we may look for information on this
subject.
The word nu (slave) is traced back twelve
centuries B. G. The first slaves were prisoners
taken in war, and next persons sold by their
parents who had been reduced to poverty by
wasting wars. About two hundred years be-
fore Christ, Slavery was legalized. Under the
Han Dynasty, rebels and criminals were made
slaves to the State, aud the Emperor Kingti
| (l6s b. c. condemned the inhabitants of seven
revolted provinces to this condition. Under
the Tang Dynasty, "a. d. 620,) rebels and their
| families were sentenced to be slaves of the
State. Under the Sung Ca. d. lOOO) and fol-
lowing Dynasties, prisoners were transported to
| Tartary, and the Government ceased to maintain
slaves within its borders.
AT various times, great numbers have been
set free by Imperial DEGREES, and distributed
to thinly-inhabited provinces.
| L q,
or eminently pure Dynasty, rebels are beheaded,
and their families given to officers for slaves.
Although Slavery is not named in the existing
laws as punishment, yet those transported to
Tartary are condemned to hard labor in iron
and salt mines, which is worse than ancient
Slavery.
The great majority of persons now in servi-
tude is composed of those who have sold them
selves, or have been sold by their parents on
account of poverty and want. All the causes
which in peace or war can bring persons to
restitution are constantly operating on multi
tudes of this densely crowded population, and
children are sold daily, although the law forbids
free persons to be sold, even with their own
consent.
The laws of the present Dynasty on Slavery
are rigid, as an abstract of them will show:
"Every slave who purposely strikes his mas
ter shall be heheaded, without distinction in
this crime of principal or accomplces. All
slaves designedy killing or striking with a de-
sign to kill their masters, shall suffer death by
a slow and painful execution. All slaves who
accidentally kill their masters shall be strangled,
after having been imprisoned the usual time.
Every slave who shall accidentally wound his
master, shall suffer one hundred blows, and per-
petual Punishment to the distance of three
thousand Ii, 1000 miles, and they cannot re-
deem themselves from punishment by the pay
ment of fine, as the law allows in ordinary
cases." Sec. 3l4.*
ga slave striking freeman SHALL proper
tonally to the consequences, be punished one
degree more severely than is by law provided
in similar cases between equals. If the blow
IT, l.
ity, the offender shall be strangled. If death
ensues, the offender shall be beheaded" Sec
3l3*
"a slave soliciting and obtaining the daugh-
ter of a freeman in marriage, shall be punished
with eighty blows, and, if the master of the
slave consents thereto, be shall suffer punish
ment less by two degrees. The
marriage shall be null and void, and the parties
replaced in the ranks they had respectively held
in the community" Sec. ll5.*
"a slave guilty of addressing abusive Ian
guage to his master shall suffer death, by being
strangled at the usual period" Sec. 327.*
"The slaves of any family, accusing, whether
truly or falsely, the master thereof or any of
his relations within four degrees, shall be pun
ished with one hundred blows, and three years
Punishment, if the accusation is true, and shall
be strangled if false" Sec. 337.*
The above laws are sufficiently severe to
make part of any "back code," but it is to
be remarked that in the matter of justice they
contain full as much as the majority Of the
laws which apply to the whole population of the
Empire.
There are few clauses which are designed
to protect the slave:
aft, in the case of slave having been guilty
of theft, adultery, or any other similar crime,
his master or some of his nearest relations pri-
| lv haot 10 dao c1a ofo
planning to a magistrate, the person who so
ofends shall be punished with one hundred
blows" Sec. 3l4.*
The same section provides, that if slave, not
guilty of crime, is beat to death, "the wife or
husband, as we'll as the children of such de-
ceased slave, shall be thereupon entitled to their
freedom"
Notwithstanding the severity of these laws,
they are perhaps seldom executed, and those
who are in servitude enjoy as much immunity
from oppression as others in the lower ranks.
In ordinary times, it is those from whom money
can be extorted that suffer from the zeal of
officers to execute the laws.
Since master and slave are both of the same
race, there is no line of separation, as in the
case of African Slavery, and the slave is re-
ceived into the family, faring as other members.
The price of labor is reduced so much by
competition, that it is in most cases unprotita-
BILE to keep slaves and it is doubtless true,
that comparatively few persons are kept in
servitude for the sake of their labor. The
buying and selling of persons is a very COM
mon transaction, but for other purposes than
reducing them to slavery. Parents sell their
children generally to get rid of the expense and
burden of raising them.
Boys are bought by persons who have no
male offspring, and become in reality adopted
sons; for it is exceedingly important that every
man shall have a con to worship at bis tomb.
Female children are bought to be educated
for concubines, and sold as such when they
arrive at suitable age. Young and attractive
girls often bring several hundred dollars and
it is likely that this species of barter in human
beings is the most common. 1t is not always
the case that the girl is sold against her will !;
for the man, having no choice about his first
or principal wife, often chooses a second wife,
or concubine, for whom he has real affection ;
and although she is subordinate and subject to
the first wife, yet the children of both are equal
in the eye of the law.
The condition of persons held to labor" in
China, differs in some important respects from
that of the same unfortunate class in America.
The horrors of the public auction are never
known or dreaded here. The forcible separa-
ton OF families is, too, very rare occurrence,
owing to the patriarchal system, held in such
high esteem by the whole empire.
Another very important difference arises
from the fact that labor is not degraded, or de-
| grading. The necessity of their condition re-
| quires the vast majority of men to engage in
some vocation for subsistence; and the Empe-
ror annually plows a furrow, and sows it with
his own hands, and on the same day the heads
of the Provincial Governments, projects, &C.,