Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/177

 THE NEGRO RACE AND EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION 161

traded off for ivory. This combination of servant, carrier, and currency makes the slave almost indispensable as long as no rail- ways, roads, and metal money exist. In the remoter regions of Africa this abuse will therefore continue to thrive in some more or less veiled form until the industrial conditions of the country have been changed radically. One result of the long-continued slave-trade is that the population of Africa is far below the natural limit, and large districts of fertile land are almost entirely deserted; an opportunity is thus afforded for bringing in large bodies of alien settlers, from India or other regions, without any displacement of native tribes.

When we turn to consider domestic slavery among the Arabs and negroes in Africa, we encounter far fewer abuses. The African slave is not looked down upon, nor is the door of hope forever closed to him. Slaves who have survived the sufferings of transport, when exhibited in the market-places of such towns as Kano in Nigeria, were often apparently in the happiest of moods. Being an object now of considerable value, they were cared for more properly and groomed up so as to present the best appear- ance to intending purchasers. The slave women know that they may, through gaining the favor of their masters, become power- ful and even be the mothers of kings. The male slaves also may rise to importance and wealth, if luck favors them; of course, there is still a good deal of suffering in domestic slavery, and the separation from home and dear ones is most cruel; but it does not mean absolute and abject degradation forever, and often it even opens the door to new opportunities and to a welcome change of experiences.

The slave-trade is throughout European colonies and depend- encies made a criminal offense ; a man so influential as the cousin of the sultan of Zanzibar was imprisoned for six months and lost all his slaves, by sentence of his sovereign relative, for being mixed up with the slave-trade. Domestic slavery, however, can- not be dealt with so harshly. The experience in Zanzibar and Pemba in this respect is most instructive. By the decree of the sultan of Zanzibar, any slave in the protectorate may demand his freedom by simply applying to the so-called " Court of Slavery."