SLA 



SLA 



3"Anfwer. 



E. gr. What is the amount of the tihng of a houfe, at 

 ^ Jj. Gd.per fquare ; the length being 43 feet 10 inches, and 

 the breadth on the flat 27 feet 5 inches, and the eaves alfo 

 projeding 16 inches on each fide. Anf. 24/. (js. ^^d. 



SLATINA, in Geography, a town of Bohemia, in the cir- 

 cle of Schlan ; 6 miles E. of Schlan. — Alfo, a town of Wa- 

 lachia, on the E. fide of the river Alaut ; 2 miles N.E. of 

 Brancovani — Alfo, a town of European Turkey, in Mol- 

 davia ; 18 miles N.W. of Niemecz. 



SLATTBOG, a town of Sweden, in the province of 

 Smaland ; 15 miles N.W. of Wexio. 



SLATY Rock, or SchiJIus, in Agriculture, a fubftance 

 of a mouldering, enriching nature, which is fometimes 

 blended up with other matters as a compolt for land. The 

 lort of material of this kind which forms the under-foil in 

 many parts of Cornwall, and fome other diftrifts, is of an 

 argillaceous, unftuous, foapy quality ; which in fome cafes 

 (3 ploughed up with a ftrong plough ; and after being well 

 expofed to the fummer fun and winter froft, is mixed with 

 lime or fand ; in which (late it is faid to become a very capi- 

 tal thickener and fertihzer of thin poor worn-out foils, and 

 by which much improvement is afforded at little trouble or 

 expence. 



SLAVANESS, in Geography, a cape on the E. coalt 

 of the ifland of Shetland. N. lat. 60° 31'. W. Ion?. 

 i»i3'. ^ 



SLAVE, a perfoB in the abfolute power of a mafter, 

 with regard to his life, liberty, and fortune. See Ser- 

 vant. 



Menage and Voflius derive the word from Sclavus, the 

 name of a Scythian people, whom Charlemagne condemned 

 to perpetual iiriprifonment. See Sclavonic. 



The Romans called their (laves, y^rw, from fervare, to keep, 

 or Ja-ve ; as being fuch as were not killed, but faved to yield 

 money, either by fale, or by their work. Though other 

 authors are of opinion, that the Roman name fervi might 

 come from that oi ferbi ; as that of flaves from Sclav'i, a 

 people. 



The term for a flave born and bred in the family, was 

 ■verna ; equivalent to fcurra, denoting the petulance and im- 

 pudence of thefe flaves. They fecm to have been entitled by 

 cullom to privileges and indulgences beyond others. 



Among the Romans, when a flave was fet at liberty, he 

 changed his name into a furname ; he took the nomen or pre- 

 nomen of his mailer, to which he added the cognomen he had 

 been called by when a flave. See Name. 



Among thofe who were denominated flaves in the more 

 lax and general ufe of the term, we may reckon thole who 

 were diftinguiflled among the Romans by the appellation of 

 " mercenarii," fo called from the circumltance of their hire. 

 Thefe were free-born citizens, mentioned in the law-books by 

 the name of liberi, and thus contradiltinguilhed from the alieni, 

 or foreigners, who, from the various contingencies of fortune, 

 were under a neccdity of recurring for lupport to the fer- 

 vice of the rich. To this clafj belonged thofe who, both 

 among the Jews and Egyptians, are recorded in the facred 



writings. (Gen. ch. xlvii. Levit. xxv. 39, 40.) The Grecian 

 Thetes (9>iT!;-, fee Horn. Odyll. A. 642.) were alfo of this 

 defcription. The fituation of thefe perfons refembled that 

 of our fervants ; a contraft fubfilling between the parties, 

 and mod of the fubordinate dependants having a right to de- 

 mand and obtain their difcharge if they were ill ufed by their 

 mailers. 



Among the ancients there was another chfs of fervants, 

 which confifted wholly of thofe who had fuffered the lofs of 

 liberty from their own imprudence. Such were the Gre- 

 cian prodigals, who were detained in the fervice of their ere • 

 ditors, till the fruits of their labour were equivalent to their 

 debts ; the delinquents, who were fentenced to the oar ; and 

 the German enthujiajls, mentioned by Tacitus, who were fo 

 addiftcd to gaming, that when they had parted with every- 

 thing, alfo itaked their liberty and their perfons. •' The 

 lofer," fays the hillorian, " goes into a voluntary fervitude ; 

 and though younger and (tronger than the perfon with whom 

 he played, patiently fuffers himfelf to be bound and fold. 

 Their perfeverance in fo bad a cullom is ftyled honour. 

 The flaves thus obtained are immediately exchanged away in 

 commerce, that the winner may get rid of the fcandal of his 

 viftory." The two claffes now enumerated comprehend 

 thofe that may be called voluntary flave^, and they are dif- 

 tinguiflied from thofe denominated in-voluntary flaves ; who 

 are forced, without any previous condition or choice, into a 

 fituation, which, as it tended to degrade a part of the hu- 

 man fpecies, and to clafs it with the brutal, mult have been, 

 of all fituations to which a human being can be reduced, the 

 mod wretched and infupportable. 



We find no mention of flaves before the Deluge, but im- 

 mediately after, w'a. in the curfe of Canaan, Gen. vs.. 25 ; 

 whence it is eafily inferred, that fervitude commenced foon 

 after that time ; for in Abraham's days we find it generally 

 eftablilhed. Some will have it to have commenced under 

 Nimrod, becaufe it was he who fir ft began to make war, and 

 of confequence to make captives ; and to bring fuch as he 

 took, either in his battles or irruptions, into flavery. 



" Proud Nimrod firft the bloody chace began, 



Almighty hunter, and his prey was man." Pope. 



Hence probably 9rofe the connexion between viftory and 

 fervitude, an idea of which has prevailed among the nations 

 of antiquity, and which has uniformly exifted, in one country 

 or another, to the prefent day. Accordingly, the firll 

 clafs of involuntary flaves, included thofe who were " pri- 

 foners of war ;" and thefe were more ancient than the ro- 

 luntary flaves, who are firfl. mentioned in the time of Plit- 

 raoh. The practice of reducing prifoners of war to the 

 condition of flaves, fubfilted both among the ealtern nations 

 and the people of the Weft ; for as the Helots became the 

 flaves of the Spartans, merely from the right of conquefl, fo 

 prifoners of war were reduced to the fame fituation by the 

 other inhabitants of Greece. The Romans, alfo, were 

 aftuated by the fame pnnciple ; and all thofe nations which 

 contributed to overturn the empire, adopted a fimilar cuf- 

 tom ; fo that it was a general maxim in their polity, that 

 thole who fell under their power as prifoners of war, flioold 

 immediately be reduced to the condition of flaves. See Pri- 

 son ers of War. 



The flaves of the Greeks were generally, or very com- 

 monly, barbarians, and imported from foreign countries. 



By the civil law, the power of making flaves is efleemed 

 a right of nations, and follows, _;«;■<• ^cn/;um, as a natural con- 

 fequence of captivity in war. " Jure gentium fcrvi noltri 

 funt, qui ah hollibus capiuntur." Julliiiian, 1. i. 5. 5. l. 



This is the firll origin of the right of flavery affigned by 

 P z .lullinian. 



