

SLAVERY 



499 



being sometimes made that lie should purchase his 

 freedom with his peculium when it amounted to a 

 specific sum. Having no legal standing, a slave 

 could not give evidence. 



Though the introduction of Christianity did not 

 do away with slavery, it tended to ameliorate the 

 condition of the slave. The fathers taught that 

 the true slavery is not that of the body, but the 

 slavery of sin ; and Chrysostom thought the apostle 

 diil not insist on the suppression of slavery because 

 it was desirable that men should see how truly the 

 slave could enjoy liberty of soul. Constantino 

 allowed poor parents to sell their children into 

 slavery. Justinian, though his Constitution (529 

 A.D. ) drew a very sharp line between slaves and 

 freemen, did something to promote the eventual 

 extinction of slavery ; the church excommunicated 

 slave-owners who put their slaves to death without 

 warrant from the judge. But it was not till the 

 reign of Basil (867-886) that the slaves' contuber- 

 niinn was hallowed by the blessing of the church. 

 The number of slaves again increased ; multitudes 

 being brought with them by the barbarian 

 invaders, who were mostly Slavonic captives 

 (whence our word slave); and in the countries 

 which hail been provinces of the empire slavery 

 continued long after the empire had fallen to 

 pieces. The doctrine of Von Manrer and Sir Henry 

 Maine has till of late found almost universal accept- 

 ance that the original bases of Germanic societies 

 were Village Communities (q. v.) of freemen owning 

 the land in common, and that slavery arose by 

 degradation of this social condition. But the 

 researches of Fustel de Coulanges and others tend 

 to show that the evidence for Von Maurer'a view 

 is slender, and that probably the earliest state of 

 landed property amongst the Teutonic tribes was 

 manorial lordship with slavery as an adjunct. In 

 Britain great munbea of the Celtic or other natives 

 were enslaved by the Anglo-Saxons ; and the 

 Christian Anglo-Saxons had a regular trade with 

 the Continent in Irish slaves, Bristol being a great 

 slaving port. After the Norman Conquest slaves 

 as in a separate class ceased to exist, and slavery 

 eventually merged into the mitigated condition 

 known as serfdom, which prevailed all over Europe 

 in the middle ages, and has been gradually abolished 

 in modern times. But though the practice of sell- 

 ing captives taken in war as slaves ceased in 

 the Christian countries of Europe, a large traffic 

 in slaves continued among Mohammedan nations, 

 by whom Christian captives were sold in Asia 

 and Africa; and in the early middle ages the 

 Venetian merchants traded largely in slaves, whom 

 they purchased on the coast of Slavonia, to supply 

 the slave-markets of the Saracens. The history of 

 the achievements of the Uarbary corsairs is not to 

 the glory of the Christian nations of Europe. 

 These professional tea-robbm continued for cen- 

 turies down to 1812, indeed to harry the coasts 

 and the commerce of Europe, carrying large nuin- 

 IXM- nf Christians into all hut hopeless captivity. 

 \Vlien Cervantes was for five years a slave 

 he hail about 2o,000 fellow-captives in Algiers 

 alone, some treated fairly well, some with great 

 Wbarity. Cervantes was ransomed for about 

 100; 30 or 40 was a more usual price. An- 

 other famous slave was St Vincent de Paul. The 

 order of Trinitarians (q.v.) was founded in 1198 

 for the purpose of redeeming captives (especially 

 French) out of the hands of the infidels, some- 

 times bringing away several hundreds at a time ; 

 and in the 18th century it was not unusual 

 in English and Scottish churches to make collec- 

 tions for a like purpose (see CORSAIR, GALLEY). 

 Christians sent to the galleys by their own or 

 foreign authorities were worse off than domestic 

 laves. English convicts used to be transported to 



what was practically slavery in His Majesty's 

 Plantations (see PRISONS, Vol. VIII. p. 417) ; and 

 convict labour is still a kind of judicial slavery for 

 life or a term of years. 



Serfdom A numerous class of the population 

 of Europe known as serfs or villeins were in a 

 state of what was almost tantamount to slavery 

 during the early middle ages. In some cases this 

 serf population consisted of an earlier race, who 

 had been subjugated by the conquerors ; but there 

 were also instances of persons from famine or other 

 pressing cause selling themselves into slavery, or 

 even surrendering themselves to churches and 

 monasteries for the sake of the benefits to be 

 derived from the prayers of their masters. Differ- 

 ent as was the condition of the serf in different 

 countries and at different periods, his position was 

 on the whole much more favourable than that of 

 the slave under the Roman law. He had certain 

 acknowledged rights and this was more particu- 

 larly the case with the classes of serfs who were 

 attached to the soil. In England, prior to the 

 Norman Conquest, a large proportion of the popu- 

 lation were in a servile position, either as domestic 

 slaves or as cultivators of the land. The humblest 

 was nearly a slave the tkeow ; the other the Ceorl 

 (q.v.), an irremovable tiller of the ground. The 

 powers of the master over his serf were very exten- 

 sive, their principal limitations being that a master 

 who killed his serf was bound to pay a fine to the 

 king, and that a serf deprived of his eye or tooth by 

 liis- master was entitled to his liberty. And English 

 serfdom was always territorial rather than personal. 

 After the Norman Conquest there were various 

 names used for the serfs, who j?eem ultimately all 

 to have been confounded in one class, though ori- 

 ginally different. The villein (villmiut) was the 

 Anglo-Saxon ceurl ; less favourably situated were 

 the bordarii ; but the Anglo-Saxon theow (the 

 a /<.) was no longer part of the system of society. 

 Other names in the Norman period were rustici 

 and natii-i. Soon the difference became at most 

 one of degree ; and serf and villein are used almost 

 indiscriminately for the great group of non-freemen. 

 They were incapable of enjoying anything like a 

 complete right to property, inasmuch as it was 

 held, in accordance with the principles of the 

 Roman law, that whatever the slave acquired 

 belonged to his lord, who might seize it at his 

 pleasure. The master could transfer them to any 

 other master with the land they tilled. They 

 could not even buy their freedom ; and they could 

 not educate their sons for the church without the 

 consent of the lord. If the villein ran away he 

 could be pursued and carried back. But if his lord 

 maltreated him he might have remedy in the king's 

 court ; and the law defended him fully against 

 injury from strangers. His oath was accepted as 

 evidence. He was often kindly used by his lord, 

 and generally allowed to lay by his savings. He 

 was free from military service, and had a powerful 

 friend in the church. It used to be said that as 

 distinguished from these villeins regardant there 

 were also a distinctly lower class of villeins in gross 

 who had no political rights, and might be sold 

 away from the land as absolute chattels of the 

 lords ; but this is now denied on good evidence. 

 By a peculiarity in the usages of. Britain, the con- 

 dition of a child as regards freedom or servitude 

 followed the father, and not the mother, and there- 

 fore the bastards of female villeins might be free. 

 The abolition of serfdom in western Europe was 

 a very gradual process, various causes having com- 

 bined to bring it about. The church did not as such 

 denounce the practice of keeping Christians in 

 bondage ; indeed, churches and monasteries were 

 amongst the largest proprietors of serfs. But 

 churchmen insisted on humane treatment and 



