Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/97

 SLAVE COAST SLAVERY 89 n New York in November, 1789, and learned accidentally that Moses Brown had made some attempts at cotton spinning by machinery in Rhode Island. He wrote to Mr. Brown inform- ing him of what he could do, and received a reply stating that these attempts had not been successful, and adding : " If thou canst do this thing, I invite thee to come to Rhode Isl- and and have the credit and the profit of in- troducing cotton manufacture into America." Slater proceeded thither, and immediately en- tered into articles of agreement with William Almy and Smith Brown to construct and oper- ate the new cotton-spinning machinery. On Dec. 21, 1790, he started at Pawtucket three 18-inch carding machines, the necessary draw- ing heads with two rolls and four processes, the roving cases and winders for the same, and throstle spinning frames of 72 spindles. Reels were soon after made for putting the yarn into skeins, in which form it was then exclusively marketed. The first yarns made on this ma- chinery were equal in quality to the best made at that time in England. The growth of cot- ton manufacture was for some time necessarily slow, as the cotton was picked by hand in fam- ilies. Further progress was made some years later when yarn was dyed and distributed in families for weaving. In 1812 Slater began the erection of mills in Oxford (now Webster), Mass., adding in ISIS-'IG the manufacture of woollen cloths ; and here has grown up the large establishment which still bears his name. He established in 1796, for the improvement of his workpeople, a Sunday school, which was the first or among the first in the United States! SLAVE COAST, a part of the coast of Upper Guinea, W. Africa, between the rivers Volta and Cameroons, comprising a small part of the British Gold Coast protectorate, the coast of Dahomey, the British colony of Lagos, and the coast of Benin and Calabar. It derived its name from the trade in slaves, formerly the chief traffic of the coast. (See GUINEA.) SLAVERY, the condition of absolute bondage, in which one person is the unconditional prop- erty or chattel of another, and obliged to labor for his master's benefit, without his own con- sent. It has existed in some form in all na- tions, and still exists in many countries, though modern slavery differs in several respects from ancient slavery. It was in perfect existence at the dawn of history, and allusions to it are found in some of the earliest extant wri- tings. ^ Kidnapping was a common mode of obtaining slaves for commerce, and it was ex- tensively followed by the Phoenicians as much as 3,000 years ago, and the slave trade was then in full vigor. Slavery first appears in Chinese records about 13 centuries B. C. In India the number of slaves was small, and it has even been asserted that slavery was there prohibited by positive law; but the lower castes could be enslaved for debt. Slavery existed among the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians after they had become con- querors. The conquering races who estab- lished their rule, in succession, in that quar- ter of the globe, found slavery there existing, and in some instances they increased its ex- tent; but the general tendency of extensive conquests was to lessen the number of slaves, for when different races became subject to the same royal line, and peace prevailed, as in the Persian empire, which extended from the bor- ders of Ethiopia to India, the supplies of slaves were largely cut off, as those supplies were principally obtained through war. The He- brews had some form of slavery from the time of Abraham. The Mosaic legislation concern- ing servitude was very mild, and contained nu- merous important limitations of the rights of masters. In Phoenicia slaves were very numer- ous, and were extensively employed in all the branches of industry that were pursued by that enterprising people. They formed much the larger part of the populations of such cities as Tyre and Sidon. Slavery was a firmly es- tablished institution of the Hellenic heroic age. It was the consequence of invasion and con- quest, and it led to further wars that were waged in order to procure more slaves. Piracy and kidnapping were resorted to for the same object, and no degree of life was exempt from the effects of this state of things. Yet in the heroic age Grecian slavery was mild. " In Homer," it has been truly said, "the condition of the slave seems everywhere tempered by the kindness and indulgence of the master." The condition of women, however, was worse than that of men. The female slaves per- formed the principal work in the interior of the house. Not only do they seem to have been more harshly treated than the males, but they were charged with the hardest and most exhausting labor which the establishment of a Greek chief required. The treatment of slaves was very different by the different Greek communities. The Athenians were very kind toward them, and throughout Attica prevailed the mildest form of servitude known to the world of antiquity. Athenian legislation pro- tected the personal' rights of the slave, and promoted his efforts to obtain freedom. There were both public and private slaves at Athens, the former being the property of the state, some of whom were educated and filled impor- tant offices, such as those of secretaries of the commanders and treasurers of the armies. Sparta was regarded by Greece as furnishing the practical antithesis to Athens in the treat- ment of slaves. The helots of Sparta furnish the type of all that is calamitous among the oppressed, and there is much in Spartan his- tory that justifies this view of their condition. They were slaves of the state, and those by whom they were held could neither liberate them nor sell them out of Laconia. They ap- pear to have occupied some such position as the serfs of the middle ages, but the central authority had more power over them. (See HELOTS.) The supplies of slaves were obtained