THE LEGAL STATUS OF SERVANT-GIRLS. 805 



captivity in time of war, or by the voluntary submission of the indi- 

 gent, the prosperous and opulent became possessed of numerous ser- 

 vants, whom they chastised, sold, killed, and subjected to unlimited 

 jurisdiction generally. In time the master possessed so many of these 

 abject creatures that their numbers surpassed the accommodations of 

 the household, and it became necessary to quarter them out upon the 

 fields they cultivated. Here they lived in hamlets, and were called 

 villagers, or villeins. Living apart from the master, it became less 

 easy for him to keep a strict watch over their behavior, or to compel 

 them to labor by chastisement. To incite them to work, gifts of 

 money were made, and better results were obtained by making the 

 pay proportionate to the results accomplished. Thus the master, using 

 bribery instead of compulsion, and being removed from constant per- 

 sonal contact with his servants, had less occasion to become enraged 

 at their short-comings, or to visit them with severe punishment. The 

 exercise of dominion over life became less frequent, then ceased, and 

 with a growing sense of justice the arbitrary power was forever lost, 

 though it took centuries of the slow-working processes of evolution to 

 accomplish this result. Potgresserus says that not till the twelfth 

 century was the power lost. 



But if progress has brought amelioration to the servile class and 

 promises still more, it has brought also its disadvantages, some of 

 which are the results of changed and improved relations. In the 

 early ages masters and servants were more nearly alike in employ- 

 ments and manners of living than they are now. The acquirement of 

 wealth and the luxurious habits which wealth introduced destroyed 

 this degree of equality ; the additional advantages inured to the benefit 

 of the master alone ; the servant remained indigent. The effect of 

 social progress was thus to separate their lives as well as their inter- 

 ests. Servants constitute an isolated class. By an unwritten social law 

 they are cut off from intimacy with their superiors, and consequently 

 fail to reap the advantages which follow a community of interests with 

 those above them. They fail to be leavened by the influences which 

 act for the elevation of the community at large. This has operated 

 to retard their progress and elevation, and produces aggravating effects 

 which are more marked in our own republican country than in those 

 countries where social gradations are more definitely established. 

 Even in slavery there was a certain community of interest and respon- 

 sibility on the part of the master, of which we see but little in the 

 surviving forms of domestic servitude. This isolation drives servants 

 to self-defense against the iron hand of control on the part of masters 

 and mistresses, and results in a spirit of antagonism, leading to tacit 

 conspiracy against those whom they regard as their enemies. Obliga- 

 tions sit lightly upon servants, and they habitually study to promote 

 their own interests by unscrupulous arts and all kinds of dishonest 

 practices. This may be deplored, but we may well ask, What are the 



