After domestic liberty had been thus, in a great measure, established in those European nations which had made the greatest improvement in agriculture, America was discovered; the first settlers in which, from their distance, and from the little attention that was paid to them by the government of their mother countries, were under no necessity of conforming to the laws and custom of Europe.The acquisition of gold and silver was the great object by which the Spaniards were directed in their settlements upon that continent; and the native inhabitants, whom they had conquered, were reduced into slavery and put to work in the mines.But, these being either exhausted by the severity with which they were treated, or not being thought sufficiently robust for that kind of labour, negro-slaves were afterwards purchased for this purpose from the Portuguese settlements on the coast of Africa.When sugar-plantations were erected, the same people were employed in these, and in most other kinds of work which came to be performed in that part of the world.Thus the practice of slavery was no sooner extinguished by the inhabitants in one quarter of the globe, than it was revived by the very same people in another, where it has remained ever since, without being much regarded by the public, or exciting any effectual regulations in order to suppress it.(16*)It merits particular attention, that the chief circumstance which contributed to procure freedom to the slaves in Europe, had no place in our American plantations.From the manner of working the mines, a number of slaves are usually collected together, and may therefore be placed under the command of a single person, who has it in his power to superintend their behaviour, and to punish their negligence.The same observation is applicable to the planting of sugar, and to the other occupations in our colonies, in which the negroes perform the same sort of work which in Europe is commonly performed by cattle, and in which, of consequence, many servants are kept upon the same plantation.As the slaves are continually under the lash of their master, he has not been forced to use the disagreeable expedient of rewarding their labour, and of improving their condition by those means which were found so necessary, and which were employed with so much emolument, to encourage the industry of the peasants in Europe.
Section IV
Political consequences of slavery In the history of mankind, there is no revolution of greater importance to the happiness of society than this which we have now had occasion to contemplate.The laws and customs of the modern European nations have carried the advantages of liberty to a height which was never known in any other age or country.In the ancient states, so celebrated upon account of their free government, the bulk of their mechanics and labouring people were denied the common privileges of men, and treated upon the footing of inferior animals.In proportion to the opulence and refinement of those nations, the number of their slaves was increased, and the grievances to which they were subjected became the more intolerable.
The citizens of Athens, according to an enumeration of Demetrius Phalerius, are said to have amounted to 21,000, the strangers residing in that city to 10,000, and the slaves possessed by the whole people, to no less than 400,000.There is reason to believe, however, that, in this enumeration of the free men, none but the heads of families are included, and in that of the slaves, every individual is comprehended; for an account of the former would probably be taken with a view to the taxes imposed upon each head of a family, and the latter, it is most likely, would be numbered, like cattle, in order to ascertain the wealth of each proprietor.Thus, allowing five persons to each family, the Athenian slaves exceeded the free men in the proportion of between two and three to one.(17*)In the most flourishing periods of Rome, when luxury was carried to so amazing a pitch, the proportion of the inhabitants reduced into servitude was in all probability still greater.The number of slaves possessed by particular Roman citizens was prodigious.T.Minucius, a Roman knight, is said to have had 400.
Pliny mentions one Caecilius, who bequeathed in his testament upwards of 4000 slaves.And Athenaeus takes notice, that the Roman slaves, belonging to individuals, often amounted to 10,000, or even to 20,000; and sometimes, to a greater number.
The negro-slaves in the West-Indies are commonly said to exceed the free people nearly as three to one; and it has been supposed that the disproportion between them is daily increasing.
It may in general be observed, that according as men have made greater progress in commerce and the arts, the establishment of domestic freedom is of greater importance; and that, in opulent and polished nations, its influence extends to the great body of the people, who form the principal part of a community, and whose comfortable situation ought never to be overlooked in the provisions that are made for national happiness and prosperity.
In whatever light we regard the institution of slavery, it appears equally inconvenient and pernicious.No conclusion seems more certain than this, that men will commonly exert more activity when they work for their own benefit, than when they are compelled to labour for the benefit merely of another.The introduction of personal liberty has therefore an infallible tendency to render the inhabitants of a country more industrious;and, by producing greater plenty of provisions, must necessarily increase the populousness, as well as the strength and security of a nation.
Some persons have imagined that slavery is conducive to population, on account of the frugality with which the slaves are usually maintained, and on account of the attention which is given by the master to their multiplication.
