Nec, aequom anne iniquom imperet, cogitabit.(5*)What a painful and humbling comparison, what mortifying reflections does this afford to those wretches who are reduced into a state of bondage! reflections which cannot fail to sour their temper, to inspire them with malevolent dispositions, and to produce an untoward and stubborn behaviour; for it is impossible that man, by any system of management, should be so inured to oppression as, like a beast of burden, to submit entirely to the yoke, and not, on some occasions, to feel and testify resentment against the oppressor.A more severe discipline is thus rendered necessary, to conquer the obstinacy of persons, unwilling to labour in their employments.Besides, from the number of slaves which are usually maintained in a wealthy and luxurious nation, they become formidable to the state; and it is requisite that they should be strictly watched, and kept in the utmost subjection, in order to prevent those desperate attempts to which they are frequently instigated in revenge of their sufferings.This is at least the pretence for that shocking barbarity to which the negroes in our colonies are frequently exposed, and which is exhibited even by persons of the weaker sex, in an age distinguished for humanity and politeness.
The prodigious wealth acquired by the Romans towards the end of the commonwealth, and after the establishment of despotism, gave rise to a degree of cruelty and oppression, in the management of their slaves, which had been unknown in former times.
Hic frangit ferulas, rubet ille flagellis, Hic scutica: sunt quae tortoribus annua praestent.
Verberat, atque obiter faciem linit, audit amicas, Aut latum pictae vestis considerat aurum, Et caedit, longi relegit transversa diurni Et caedit, donec lassis caedentibus, exi Intonet horrendum, jam cognitione peracta:
Praefectura domus Sicula non mitior aula.(6*)It was to be expected, however, that particular enormities of this kind would at length excite the attention of the public, and would be in some measure restrained by the gradual progress of government.Although the institution of slavery was permitted to remain, regulations came to be made, by which the master was prevented from such wanton exercise of his power as must have been highly prejudicial to his interest, and could only be regarded as an absurd abuse of his property.
In the Jewish law, we meet with some regulations for this purpose at an early period.
If a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be punished.
Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.
And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.
And if he smite out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.(7*)At Athens, the slaves who had been barbarously treated by their master were allowed to fly for sanctuary to the temple of Theseus, and to commence a suit at law against their master, who, if their complaint appeared well founded, was laid under the necessity of selling them.
Various equitable laws, upon this subject, were made by the Roman emperors.At Rome, the absolute power of the master was first subjected to any limitation in the reign of Augustus, who appointed that the Praefectus urbi should afford redress to such of the slaves as had been treated with immoderate severity.In the reign of the emperor Claudius, it was enacted, that if a master abandoned the care of his slaves during their sickness, he should forfeit the property of them; and that if he put them to death, he should be held guilty of homicide.Soon after, the inhuman practice of obliging the slaves to fight with wild beasts, which was carried to a prodigious height, and which appears to have afforded a favourite entertainment to men of all ranks, was in some measure restrained.Other statutes were afterwards made, in the reigns of Adrian, or Antoninus Pius, and of Constantine, by which it was finally established, that the master who killed his own slave, by design, and not from the accidental excess of chastisement, should suffer the ordinary punishment of murder.
Section III
Causes of the freedom acquired by the labouring people in the modern nations of Europe By what happy concurrence of events has the practice of slavery been so generally abolished in Europe? By what powerful motives were our forefathers induced to deviate from the maims of other nations, and to abandon a custom so generally retained in other parts of the world?
The northern barbarians, who laid the foundation of the present European states, are said to have possessed a number of slaves, obtained either by captivity or by voluntary submission, and over whom the master enjoyed an unlimited authority.(8*)When these nations invaded the Roman empire, and settled in the different provinces, they were enabled by their repeated victories to procure an immense number of captives, whom they reduced into servitude, and by whose assistance they occupied landed estates of proportionable extent From the simple manner of living to which those barbarians had been accustomed, their domestic business was usually performed by the members of each family; and their servants, for the most part, were employed in cultivating their lands.
