highly prized among barbarous nations, and they consequently filled the highest offices in the households of the nobles.1

The power of the master over the slave, among the Persians, was almost unlimited. Herodotus says, it was not allowed a Persian to punish one of his slaves cruelly for a single fault, but if, after due consideration, his faults were found to outnumber and outweigh his virtues, the master might then follow the dictates of his anger.' Sometimes the slaves revolted, as at Tyre, where they massacred the freemen, and took possession of the city.3

Frequently the nobles armed their slaves, and led them in battle. The Parthians are said to pursue the same course. At Babylon there was a custom, at a certain fête, for the masters to obey their slaves for five days. One was selected to rule as king. At the expiration of the fête he was killed.5

What has been said of Persia is true of all the surrounding countries. In fact, in the countries of the East, slavery is universally an element of the social organization. A celebrated French writer upon this subject, in summing up, says, "Comme on vient de le voir par ce rapide aperçu pour l'orient, cet antique berceau du genre humain et de la civilisation du monde, l'organisation sociale se résume en deux mots qui sont, pour ainsi dire, les deux termes d'un même rapport: despotisme, esclavage." China, with her wonderful self-existing and self-perpetuating civilization, forms no exception to this remark. At least twelve hundred years before the Christian era, captivity and other sources furnished slaves to the Chinese. The most fruitful source, was

number of domestics, he enumerates "legions of cooks, musicians, dancers, valets de table, porters, and keepers of baths." Cyrus, we recollect, among the Medes, acted as a wine-bearer. Xen. Cyrop.

2 Herod. i, 137.

1 Herod. viii, 105. 9 Wallon, tom. i, p. 50. Xenophon, Cyrop. viii, 8, 20; Wallon, tom. i, 52, note.

❝ Wallon, tom. i, p. 51; Dion. Chrysost. Orat. iv, De Regno, p. 69. Wallon, tom. i, p. 52.

the sale of themselves and their children by the poor. The children of slaves were slaves by birth; and on the master's death, were the subjects of inheritance.

The treatment of slaves in China was milder than in the East generally. The law protected his life and his person. The branding of a slave with fire worked his enfranchisement. "Thus," says Wallon, "the mark of slavery became his title to liberty."

When the Greeks and Romans successively overran the East, they introduced no change in the system of slavery. It was, if different, more lenient in practice than their own. When Arabia, under the infatuation of religious zeal, brought the surrounding nations, at one time, under her power, and to the knowledge of the faith, she found nothing in slavery that was not only consistent with, but expressly commanded, in that great miracle of the Prophet, the Koran. Years and ages, hence, have made but little change in the law of Eastern slavery, though much of Eastern glory has departed.

Here, too, we find the negro still a slave. The numbers, in ancient times, we cannot estimate. In later days, a brisk trade has been and even now is carried on with the eastern coast of Africa by Arab dealers, who supply Persia and Arabia with African slaves."

Commodore Perry describes the Japanese slavery of the present day as of the most abject and wretched character. The poor frequently sell themselves as slaves, the price varying from two to ten dollars. The different ranks in society were distinguished by the metal of which the hair-pin was made, whether of gold, silver, or brass."

'See Wallon, tom. i, p. 40. He refers to and cites freely M. Biot, Mémoires sur les Chinois.

2 By its provisions, homicide of a freeman only was murder, and allowed the retribution by the avenger of blood. Chap. ii, 173.

3 Texier's Arménie, Perse, et Mésopotamie, 1842, Pl. 113. Quoted in Types of Mankind, 254.

78.

Harrington's Analysis, vol. iii, p. 748; Adam, on Slavery in India, 5 United States Japan Exped. vol. i, pp. 219–226.

CHAPTER V.

SLAVERY IN GREECE.

It has been considered a striking contradiction in the character of the Greeks, that while they professed to be worshippers of liberty, during their whole history they not only tolerated but encouraged slavery, and in such a form, that it became a proverb, that "at Sparta the freeman is the freest of all men, and the slave the greatest of slaves." Whether this is really a contradiction we shall elsewhere consider, when we examine the political and social influences of slavery; and perhaps we may find that true philosophy confirms the conclusions of Aristotle and Plato, that this is an element essential in a true republic, for the preservation of perfect equality among citizens, and the growth and encouragement of the spirit of liberty.

Our inquiry now is as to the facts, and we find slavery among the Greeks from their earliest authentic history. True, it is stated, that among the Hellenes, in the earliest times, there was no slavery. Yet, in the time of Homer, we find it in general use; not only of captives taken in war, but of slaves purchased for a price.3 The familiar use of the institution in illustration, by the poets, dramatists, and writers of Greece, shows how completely it was interwoven into their entire system."

1 Plutarch's Lycurgus.

2 Herod. vi, 137.

Odyssey, xiv, 339; xv, 483; xxii, 421; Iliad, iii, 407; vi, 460; Eurip. Hecuba, 442, 479.

4 The curious will find a large number of extracts and illustrations,

The legitimate use of these by the historian, is beautifully defended by M. Wallon: "Car les muses sont filles de la mémoire (Mnémosyne) et dans ces premiers temps, fidèles à leur origine, elles puisent aux traditions nationales le sujet de leurs chants."

The Hellenes were not the earliest inhabitants of Greece. The Ante-Hellenic period, however, is so legendary, as to be almost fabulous. Even the name of the people, Pelasgi, is said, and believed by many, to be without a corresponding race, in fact, and those who are said to be their descendants, occupied, in Ancient Greece, an inferior position in society. We may, therefore, well doubt the statement that there ever was a period in which the Hellenes did not practise and recognize slavery. The barbarous aboriginal inhabitants formed too convenient a material to be disregarded by their superiors; and the right to and practice of enslaving the conquered, were recognized by all the surrounding countries. These, of all others, saw a wider difference between themselves and barbarians, and were the least likely to doubt the right or discourage the practice of enslaving barbarians. Certain it is, that from the earliest period of their authentic history, we find conquest a fruitful source of slavery among the Greeks. An intelligent French writer concludes, after a full investigation, that the critic may rightfully determine that slavery existed in Greece prior to that time at which we have the evidence to demonstrate its presence. So deeply im

collected by the research and industry of Mr. Fletcher, in his Studies on Slavery, p. 516, et seq.; See Eurip. Hecuba, 442; Troades, 186, 282; Plautus, Casina. Captivi; Aristophanes, Plutus, et passim ; Sophocles, Trachiniæ. 'De l'Esclavage dans l'Antiquité, tom. i, 58.

2 Grote's History of Greece, vol. ii, 261, et seq., and authorities cited. Xen. Cyr. vii, 5, 73. Homer gives a graphic description of the taking of a city and its consequences in the address of the old knight, Phoenix. Iliad, ix, 585–600.

Wallon, de l'Esclavage dans l'Antiquité, tom. i, p. 56.

pressed was slavery upon the Grecian institutions in the heroic age, that we find it transplanted among the Gods, and Apollo serving as the slave of Admetus, as a penalty for the murder of the Cyclops. And Hercules, sold to Omphale a barbarian, completes a year in her service. Enraged at this indignity, he seeks revenge upon Eurytus, whom he looked to as the cause, and taking an advantage of Iphitus, the son, while his eye is turned in another direction, hurls him from a towering height. Jupiter, incensed at this cowardly trick, condemned Hercules again to slavery. In a fragment of Panyasis, he says, "such (slavery) was the lot of Ceres, of the illustrious blacksmith of Lemnos, of Neptune, of Apollo, of the terrible Mars, bending under the fatal will of his father."3

2

In the Grecian mythology, Mercury was the peculiar God of the slave, who protected and partook of his thefts.1

The sources of slavery among the Greeks were the same as those we have noticed among other nations, until the celebrated Seisachtheia (etoázeta) or Relief Law of Solon, the insolvent debtor was the slave of his creditor. This act forbade the pledge of the person as a security for the debt, released many debtors, who were suffering the penalty of slavery, and even made provision for the repurchasing and bringing back in liberty, many insolvent debtors, who had been sold and exported. Solon farther forbade the sale by parents of their children as slaves, except in the case of an unchaste daughter. The policy of their laws from that time discou

'Eurip. Alcestis, i, 2.

2 Sophocles, Trachiniæ, 225-293; Eschylus, Agam. 1020.

3 Quoted in Wallon, tom. i, 81.

4

Aristoph. Plutus, 1140, et seq. Quoted in Wallon, tom. i, p. 300. 5 Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. iii, p. 98; Plutarch's Life of Solon. In the other Grecian states, except Athens, the sale of children into slavery continued. Wallon, i, 158.