252 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



vioiisly to that the Eiissiau authorities had sought to ameliorate, m some 

 degree, the hardships of this wretched class iu the viciuity of Sitka, but 

 it was still iu practice when we took possession. The slave class has 

 now gradually been absorbed into the body of the freemen and slavery 

 is a thing of the past. 



Formerly wealth consisted largely in the possession of slaves. Simp- 

 son estimates that in 1841 one- third of the entire population of this 

 region were slaves of the most helplesss and abject description. . 

 Though some of them were prisoners of war and their descendants, yet 

 the great supply was obtained by trade with the southern Indians, in 

 which the Tsimshian acted as middlemen. They were kidnapped or 

 captured Toy the southern Indians from their own adjacent tribes and 

 sold to the Tsimshian, who traded them to the northern Tlingit and in- 

 terior Tinne tribes for furs. The last-named had no hereditary slaves, 

 getting their suj)ply from the coast. Dunn states (1834) that at Port 

 Simpson, British Columbia, " A full-grown athletic slave, who is a good 

 hunter, will fetch nine blankets, a gun, a quantity of powder and ball, 

 a couple of dressed elk skins, tobacco, vermilion paint, a iiat file, and 

 other little articles." * 



Slaves did all the drudgery; fished for their owner; strengthened 

 his force in war ; were not allowed to hold property or to marry ; 

 and when old and worthless were killed. The master's power was 

 unlimited. If ordered by him to murder an enemy or rival, his own life 

 paid the forfeit or penalty if he either refused or failed. The children 

 of slave women by the master were slaves. In certain ceremonies it 

 was customary to give several slaves their freedom ; but at funerals of 

 chiefs, or in ceremonies attending the erection of a house by a person 

 of consequence, slaves were killed. Slaves sacrificed at funerals were 

 chosen long before the death of their master and were supposed to be 

 peculiarly fortunate, as their bodies attained the distinction of cremation, 

 instead of being thrown into the sea. Simpson (1841) says of Chief Shakes 

 at Wrangell (Stikine), that he was '' said to be very cruel to his slaves, 

 whom he frequently sacrificed in pure wantonness, in order to show how 

 great a man he was. Un the recent occasion of a house-warming, he 

 exhibited as part of the festivities the butchery of five slaves ; and at 

 another time, having struck a white man in a fit of drunkenness and re- 

 ceived a pair of black eyes for his pains, he ordered a slave to be shot, 

 by way at once of satifying his own wounded honor and apologizing 

 to the person whom he had assaulted. His rival (Qualkay), on the 

 contrary, was possessed of such kindness of heart, that on grand holi- 

 days he was more ready to emancipate his slaves than to destroy them ; 

 yet, strange to say, many bondmen used to run away from Qualkay, 

 while none attempted to escape from Shakes; an anomaly which, how- 

 ever, was easily explained, inasmuch as the one would pardon the 

 recaptured fugitives, and the other would torture and murder thera."t 



*Dnnti, Oregon, p. 273. + Simpson, .Tonrney, Vol. i, pp. 212, 21!^. 



