POLITICAL DIFFERENTIATION. 293 



owners. Ceasing to stand in the position of domestic cattle, 

 slaves begin to form a division of tlie body politic when their 

 personal claims begin to be distinguished as limiting the 

 claims of their masters. 



457. It is commonly supposed that serfdom arises by 

 mitigation of slavery ; but examination of the facts shows that 

 it arises in a different way. While, during the early struggles 

 for existence between them, primitive tribes, growing at one 

 another s expense by incorporating separately the individuals 

 they capture, thus form a class of absolute slaves, the formation 

 of a servile class considerably higher, and having a distinct 

 social status, accompanies that later and larger process of 

 growth under which one society incorporates other societies 

 bodily. Serfdom originates along with conquest and annexa 

 tion. 



Tor whereas the one implies that the captured people are 

 detached from their homes, the other implies that the subju 

 gated people continue in their homes. Thomson remarks 

 that, &quot; among the New Zealanders whole tribes sometimes 

 became nominally slaves when conquered, although permitted 

 to live at their usual places of residence, on condition of 

 paying tribute, in food, &c.&quot; a statement which shows the 

 origin of kindred arrangements in allied societies. Of the 

 Sandwich Islands government when first known, described as 

 consisting of a king with turbulent chiefs, who had been sub 

 jected in comparatively recent times, Ellis writes: &quot;The 

 common people are generally considered as attached to the 

 soil, and are transferred with the land from one chief to 

 another.&quot; Before the late changes in Fiji, there were enslaved 

 districts ; and of their inhabitants we read that they had to 

 supply the chiefs houses &quot;with daily food, and build and 

 keep them in repair.&quot; Though conquered peoples thus 

 placed, differ widely in the degrees of their subjection (being 

 at the one extreme, as in Fiji, liable to be eaten when wanted. 

 and at the other extreme called on only to give specified pro 



