The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-11-27
SLAVE INSTRUCTIONS.


There never was an instruction of Roman
slaves. Spartacus was the leader of robbers,
thieves, runaway-slsves, pirates, and banditti of
ali kinds, not the author or the leader of servile
insurrection. From the expulsion of the Tar
gums to the downfall of the Republic, the free
iaborers were engaged. in constant seditions
and Instructions. The poor free citizens of
Rome were as insubordinate, revolutionary, and
seditious, as the proletariats of France, the
peasantry of Ireland, or the Chartists and fac
tory hands of England.
The slaves of Sparta belonged to the State,
and were melted to rebel by the absence of
private masters, and the opportunity for con-
cert of action afforded by their being collected
together in very large bodies.
The instruction of st. Domingo, originated
In Paris, and was but part and parcel of the
French Revolution. Few as slave Instructions
have been, they have only occurred where the
slaves numbered more than ten to one to the
free citizeus.
fhere can be no danger of instruction at
the South, because the whites are more numer
GUS than the blacks, and because, living on de-
tached farms, under the supervision of masters
and overseers, they have no opportunity for con-
certed action.
The danger is least in time of war, for then
the slaves are most closely watched, and all
the whites are armed.
Since the first French Revolution, all free
society has been engaged in one continued
light Of labor against capital. Mobs, riots, and
bloody revolutions, are almost daily occurrences.
1t is they who should dread insurrection-not
we.
Since the emancipation of the serfs, standing
armies and mighty police have grown up and
become necessary in Western Europe. None
of their Governments would last forty-eight
hours without large standing armies. Even
with them, revolutions and Instructions are of
frequent occurrence. Southern masters are
the best soldiers and the best police in the
world, and they cost the Government nothing.
The cities of New York and Boston are in far
greater danger from the instruction of labor
against capital, than the South is of servile in
surrection. The repeated taunts and insults
of the Black Republicans have drawn this
reluctant retort from US. We would like to
heal dissension, not stir it up. But we are
neither warriors nor saints.
Richmond (Va.) Enquirer.
The Enquirer presumes too much on the
ignorance of its readers; or perhaps it intends
to be ironical. Lately it has INDUCED in arti-
cles supposed to favor the re-opening of the
foreign slave trade; but in its last number it
says they we're written in a strain of irony"
The editorial above quoted is so extravagant, so
ridiculously regardless of historical truth, that
it might be thought ironical, but for the con-
sideration that the Enquirer would hardly feel
at liberty to joke on so serious subject.
Not single paragraph of the whole article
can stand the test of examination.
Few events in history have been more fire.
quent than slave instructions; none has been
so rare as the instruction of labor (free)
against capital.
Instructions of slaves in the Roman Empire
were common, and most formidable. Gibbon,
in his Decline and Fau," says, I" In the free
States of antiquity, the domestic slaves were
exposed to the most wanton rigor of despot-
ism. The perfect settlement of the Roman
Empire was preceded by ages of rapine and
violence The slaves consisted for the most
part of barbarian captives, taken in thousands
by the chances of war, purchased at a vile
price, accustomed to life of independence,
and impatient to break and to revenge their
letters. against such internal enemies, ,ohose
desperate Instructions had more than once re-
duced the Republic to the brink Of destruction
the most severe regulations and the most cruel
treatment seemed almost justified by the great
law of preservation"
We shall note few of these instructions.
The free population of Sicily had become re-
duced by the wars with Carthage; slave labor
ers had taken its place to great extent; large
tracts of the public domain, occupied by
wealthy Romans or Sicilians, were covered
with slaves. Under the lead Of Ennus, a
Syrian, one of their number, they rose against
their masters, (B. c. l34,) and marshalling
a host of some 10000, waged most destruc-
tive war for two years, before they could be
subdued. Twenty thousand of them were put
to the sword, and many were nailed to crosses
along the highways, as a warning-a terrible
fact, revealing the dread of servile insurrec-
ton, felt by the slave-owners.
Thirty years after, there was still more
frightful outbreak in the same island. The
slaves attempted to break their chains, rallied
in great force, defeated in succession two pre-
torian armies, and were not subdued till after
a bloody struggle of four years.
The instruction of Spartacus occurred in
Italy, twentysix years later, (B. c. 73,) and the
representation given of it by the Enquirer is a
mere fiction. 1t was one of the most threaten
ing servile instructions that ever took place,
and its devastating effects in Italy were never
recovered from. Spartacus was, it is true,
gladiator but the most powerful slaves were
trained in gladiatorisl schools, 80 as to amuse
their masters by their bloody contests in the
circus. Placing himself at the head of band
of slaves, like himself, he gave the signal for
general rising, and soon had an army of 1000
slaves under his command. 1t is the testimo
ny of all historians, that the free population
had been so reduced in numbers, by the intro
duction of slave labor, that they could make
no etfectual resistance. All parts of southern
Italy were ravaged without mercy, and flourish
ing towns burned down. The consuls we're
defeated, and the slaves won repeated victories
1t required the best armies of Rome, at last, to
put them down; and not until their leader
was killed, would they even then submit.
The Enquirer, while appearing as the eulo-
gist of Roman Slavery, land, recollect, the
slaves held in the Roman Empire were white
men-Spartacus himself being Thracian) -
is just as intent on defaming the poor free
white men of Rome. " The free la6orers were
engaged in constant seditions and Insured.
tions;" "the poor free citizens of Rome were
as insubordinate revolutionary, and seditious, y
&c. This is Pro-Slavery Democracy-the De-
mocracy that has made Mr.. Buchanan Presi.