Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-01-06
DAILY COMMERCIAL.
RAT ORE, MD.
ROMAN SLAVERY AS COMPARED vyy'rEs
TEFAT OF RRAZLE. AND OUR OWN

ROMAN SLAVERY AS COMPARED WITH
THAT OF RRAZIL AND OUR own,
We took occasion in our last issue to call
attention to the prospects that await the NAL
content cotton planters in e,nigrating to Brazil,
showing that so far as Equality with the
negro, socially, was in the case, they would |
be far worse off there than in this country |
And we instanced the slavery that exists in |
Brazil as very similar in its characteristics to |
the Roman slavery of the olden time; which |
confined the institution to no particular class |
or color, but made it mere disability to the |
individual instead of stamp of degradation |
upon whole race; made it personal rela- |
ton between the master and slave, mere
chance misfortune to which those subjected to
it endeavored to submit with as good a grace
as possible. Let us hear now from another
reliable writer concerning the slavery that
once existed in Rome:
''If we examine the avocations of slaves.
1--WE shall find that they occupied every con.
'ceivabe station, from the delegate superin-
tending and enjoying the rich mans villa to
''the meanest office of mental labor, or obse-
''quious vice; from the foster mother of the
rich mans child, to the lowest condition of
degradation to which woman can be reduced
'The public slaves handled the car in the
''galleys, or labored on the public works.
!'Some were lictors; some were iailors. Execu-
''tioners were slaves; slaves were watchmen,
''watermen and scayengers. Slaves regulated
"the rich palace in the city; and slaves per
''formed all the drudgery of the farm. Nor
''was it unusual to teach the slaves the arts
''Virgil made one of his poet; and Horace
"himself was the son Of all emancipated
.islave. = :; The physician, the
''surgeon were often slaves. So, too, the
''preceptor and the pedagogue; the reader
land the stage player; the clerk and amanu.
'ensis. You cannot name
San occupation connected with agriculture,
manufacturing industry, Or public amuse
''ments, but it was the patrimony Of slaves
Educated slaves exercised their profession
''for the emolUment of their masters Of
course the value of slaves varied with their
''health, their beauty, or their accomplish
''ments. The common laborer was worth
from seveDty-fve TO one hundred dollars.
''the usual price Of negro in the West In.
''dies when the slave trade was in vogue
g Luculius having once oh.
''tained an immense number of prisoners Of
war, sold them for sixty-live cents head;
''probably Tire lowest price for which lot Of
''able-bodied men were ever offered"
II will bo rn,1;Tr ,,nrna;-o3 +L,L
surrounding nations we're from time to time
made the victims CT Roman rapacity, we're
thus brought to recruit the ranks of the slaves
held by the arstocraey, all colors and nation
alties being thus blended, slavery was not
thus-larima facio--tho badge of degradation
it has been here; and so it is that the same
condition obtains in Brazil, at the present
fundamentally It ia true that blacks were
held in Rome at q high value, because mere
rare; and these were seldom possessed BY any
but the more opulent Romans; but when those
avocations were open 10 slaves which gave
them character influence. wealth, we can
easily imagine that III some asnects of the
case the infiiction was softened to those sub.
iected to it. Of Crassus, ii is said that he
had over five hundred joiners and masoug
and that sometimes, fifteen or twenty Thousand
belonged to single owner.
Returning to the question of emigration to
Brazil, there are some other things for the
planter to consider. The writer we have
quoted, states, that the "mulattoes' of that
country ''have certainly been able to secure
their fair proportion Of influences aud under
tho circumstances. who does not see that in
the general blending of races inevitable from
the very nature of the case, that class will
more aud more bear sway, leaving to the small
band of whites and foreigners such as the
Americans would be who venture to cast in
their lot with them, no position of any laark
at all Lost IN the sea Of dusky faces, their
success-supposing they attained it--vould
excite envy, probably enmity, their failure no
commsseration.
And then SO far as the institution" for
which they emigrate is in the case,-hoy DIFF
terent would be their relationships to it from
that held here. Their near neighbor might be
the Jet black colonel mentioned in a former
quotation, whom they could not well ''snub"
without drawing upon themselves the preu.
dices of an entire community; something so
different from what they have been accustomed
to here. With the negro kept under in this
country by a ceaselsss watchfulness, which
prevented all chances of his being counte.
nanced on the level Of social equality wild,
every statute book i'll the South RECOGNIZING
every shade of ''color'' as shutting out that
class from any participation in the superior
privileges Of the white man, here-if he had
only known in time, the planter had nothing
to desire. But in the land to which he pro.
poses to transfer himself and family, could his
and their condition be at the same time more
irksome, and more forlorn? and would not all
hope of any revolution he might initiate to
benefit himself as against color, be absolutely
hopeless?
No, we say--let the cotton planters gener.
ally, like one of their exemplars-Gen. Wade
Hampton-or like another, Gen. Pillow, re.
consider their purposes Things may be, for
the present, not quite agreeable here; but they
would in the very nature of the case be in
toerable in Brazil. With more than the dis
abilities of either Roman or American slavery,
Brazil can offer nothing for the advantages
they would leave behind.
a New Article, just patented, for Ladies; more
profitable than the hoop skirt. The right for this
State viii! sold in one week from this date to ind