CHAP. VII. — APPENDIX I. /,I7 



But the commiseration of the chaiitahle was more 

 excited by the condition of the n'ite thcow (those who 

 had been reduced to slavery by a judicial sentence) 

 than of such as had been born in that state, and had 

 never tasted the blessings of liberty. By the bishops in 

 the council of Calcuith it was agreed to free at their 

 decease every slave of that description j and similar 

 provisions are inserted in the wills of the lady Winfleda , 

 of Athelstan son of king Ethelred , and of iElfric arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury '. Their manumission , to be 

 legal , was to be performed in public , in the market, in 

 the court of the hundred, or in the church at the foot 

 of the principal altar. The lord taking the hand of the 

 slave offered it to the bailiff, sheriff, or clergyman, 

 gave him a sword and a lance, and told him that the 

 ways were open , and that he was at liberty to go where- 

 soever he pleased. ^ 



Before I conclude this subject, it is proper to add Trade in 

 that the sale and purchase of slaves publicly prevailed 

 during the whole of the Anglo-Saxon period. These 

 unhappy men were sold like cattle in the market : and 

 there is reason to believe that a slave was usually esti- 

 mated at four times the price of an ox ^. To the impor- 

 tation of foreign slaves no impediment had ever been 

 opposed : the export of native slaves was forbidden 

 under severe penalties 4, But habit and the pursuit of 

 gain had taught the Northumbrians to bid defiance to 

 all the efforts of the legislature. Like the savages of 



' Wilk. Con. 171. Mores, p. 63. Lye, app. v. Hicks, prsef. xxii. 

 See also Hist. Ram. 407- — ^ Leg. ii. 229. 270. 



' The toll in the market of Lewes was one penny for the sale of 

 an ox, four pennies for that of a slave. Domesday. 



•Leg. 17.93. 107. 134. 



slaves 



