Africa^ its Past and Future. 113 



sacrificed, eaten, or made slaves. Slavery is also a punishment 

 for certain offences, while in some tribes men frequently sell 

 themselves. These slaves are of the same race and civilization 

 as their masters. They are usually well treated, regarded as 

 members of the family, to whom a son or daughter may be 

 given in marriage, the master often preferring to keep his 

 daughter in the family to marrying her to a stranger. This 

 slavery is a national institution of native growth. It is said one 

 half of the inhabitants are slaves to the other half. The horrors 

 of the slave-trade are unknown in this kind of slavery. 



In the other case the slave is torn from his home, carried to 

 people, counti'ies, and climates with which he is unfamiliar, and 

 to scenes and civilization which are uncongenial, where his 

 master is of a different color and of another and higher civili- 

 zation, where the master and slave have nothing in common. 

 The Spaniards made slaves of the Indians of America, but they 

 were incapable of work, unfitted for slavery, and rapidly faded 

 away. In pity for the Indians, the Africans were brought to 

 supply their places. Their ability to labor was proved, and they 

 were soon in great demand. 



It is impossible to ascertain the number of slaves imported 

 into America. The estimates vary from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000. 

 The larger number is probably an underestimate ; but these 

 figures do not represent the number shipped from Africa, for \1\ 

 per cent, were lost on the passage, one-third more in the " process 

 of seasoning;" so that, out of ]00 shipped from Africa, not 

 more than 50 lived to be effective laborers. 



Livingstone, who studied the question of slavery most care- 

 fully, estimated, that, for every slave exported, not less than five 

 were slain or perished, and that in some cases only one in ten 

 lived to reach Ameri&a. If the lowest estimate is taken, then 

 not less than 20,000,000 Negroes were taken prisoners or slain to 

 furnish slaves to America. No wonder , that many parts of 

 Africa were depopulated. 



Though the slave-trade with America has been suppressed, 

 thousands are annually stolen and sold as slaves in Persia, 

 Arabia, Turkey, and central and northern Africa. Wherever 

 Mohammedanism is the religion, there slavery exists ; and to 

 supply the demand the slave-trade is carried on more extensively 

 and more cruelly to-day than at- any previous time. The great 

 harvest-field for slaves is in Central Africa, between 10° south 



