Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/102

 SLAVERY slaves, Egyptians and Ethiopians, that city hav- ing a great trade in men. Others were drawn i hraee, which continued to be a slave- breeding country long after the fall of Greece. fell back nearer to its sources, and the Ro- mans obtained slaves direct from the marts on the Euxine, where the trade had existed from time immemorial, being fed by the constant warfare that was waged by the neighboring tribes. Many came from Scythia, and Scyth- ian and slave were all but convertible terms. The Galatians carried on an extensive slave trade ; and between Italy and Illyria this com- merce was considerable in the first days of the empire. The Roman wars fed the slave trade, and enabled those who carried it on to accu- mulate immense fortunes. So long as those wars were fought near home, the victors could sell their captives easily, without' much aid from traders ; but as soon as they extended to any distance from* Italy, the trader's aid became necessary. The trader followed the camp, and in the camp the human booty was sold, and often at prices so low as to appear incredible. The Romans neither encouraged nor discour- aged the slave trade. They held the slave tra- il, -r in contempt, and deemed his business ut- terly unworthy of merchants. Special names were given to such traders, implying that they were necessarily cheats; but their enormous wealth made them powerful. Slavery is re- garded as one of the chief causes of the decline of Rome. The institution existed in all parts of the Roman empire, and prevailed in the countries which were formed from its frag- ments, though essentially modified by a variety of circumstances. The influence of Christian- ity upon it was very great. It had indeed ex- isted before the extension of the Roman do- minion, and was known to most of the peoples who invaded and overthrew the empire, and on it-* ruins established the feudal system and serfdom. (See SERF.) The rise of the Saracens tended to increase the number of slaves, and to feed the trade in them, as Christians felt no smiples about enslaving Mussulmans, and the Mn^ulinans were quite as unscrupulous toward Christians. The wars between the Germans
 * ho devastation of Delos, the slave trade
 * ml Slavs furnished so many of the latter race

for the market, that the word slave is derived from them. The great commercial republics of Italy were much engaged in slave trading. The Venetians had many slaves, and the history of their commerce shows that they pursued the slave trade with vigor and profit. In spite of the efforts of the popes, they sold Christians to Moslems. Slavery also existed in Florence, though the slaves were almost exclusively Mos- lems and other unransomed prisoners of war. ..-land, under the Saxons, the slave trade bed, Bristol being the chief mart, whence -laves were exported to Ireland. But in and -lav, -holding was never very popu- l.-ir. and the Irish early emancipated their bond- men. At the close of the middle ages two peculiar forms of slavery and the slave trade began to be known, one of which has but re- cently ceased to exist, while the other is not yet entirely extinguished. The new phase of Mohammedanism that came up with the rapid development of the power of the Turks, in the 14th and 15th centuries, nearly synchronizes with the origin and progress of what is known specifically as negro slavery. The Turks com- pleted the establishment of their power in Europe by the conquest of Constantinople in 1463 ; and not quite 40 years later the last Mussulman state in Spain, Granada, was con- quered by the Christians. These two events had a remarkable effect on slavery. The fears of Christendom were excited by the rapid and sweeping successes of the Turks, and the anger of the Mussulmans was roused by the overthrow and enslavement of their brethren in Spain ; and from these feelings the system of slavery received an impetus and acquired forms that under other conditions it never could have known. We have seen that the church, at a much earlier period, did not ob- ject so much to the traffic in men as to the traffic in Christians, and that lay legislators took the same view of human duties ; and it was also the case that the selling of Chris- tians to Moslems was more strictly forbidden than was the selling of Christians to other Christians. The sentiment that prevailed while the Saracens were so strong as to ex- cite fears throughout all Christendom for its safety, was revived in the 15th century, and did not become altogether extinct until after the middle of the 17th. In the East, and for the greater part of the time in most of N. Africa, the Mohammedans were in the ascen- dant, they having become masters of Barbary and lords of the Levant. Between the Turks on the one side and the Italians and Spaniards on the other the long struggle was principally carried on in the south, the English being too remote from the scene to take much part in it, while the French, though occasionally furnish- ing some gallant volunteers, were as a nation the friends and sometimes the allies of the in- fidels. The knights of St. John of Jerusalem, first in Palestine, then at Rhodes, and after- ward at Malta, carried on perpetual warfare with -the Mussulmans. The contending parties divided between them the whole of the sea dominion of the Romans, and the compound rivalry of religion and race doomed multitudes of civilized people to slavery. Men who were taken in war did not alone compose these slaves, but among them were many women and chil- dren, the victims of razzias that were undertaken by the parties to the bitter and prolonged con- test. The light, low vessels of the Mussulmans often ran into the ports of the Spaniards and Italians by night, and plundered and burned them, while the inhabitants were either mur dered or carried into captivity. "Watch towers were built along the coasts, that the approach of the corsairs might be detected. So marl