Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/24

 his hand, he shall be surely punished; notwithstanding if he continue a day or two he shall not be punished, for he is his money." This restriction is said, by some, to have applied only to Hebrew slaves, and not to foreign captives who were owned by Jews. In general, if any one purchased a Hebrew slave, he could hold him only six years. Among other provisions, the Mosaic laws declared the terms upon which a Hebrew, who had been sold, could redeem himself, or be redeemed by his friends, and his right to take with him his wife and children, when discharged from bondage.

Among those who were denominated slaves in the more lax or general use of the term, we may reckon those who were distinguished among the Romans by the appellation of "mercenarii," so called from the circumstances of their hire. These were free-born citizens, who, from the various contingencies of fortune, were under the necessity of recurring for support to the service of the rich. A contract subsisted between the parties, and most of the dependents had the right to demand and obtain their discharge, if they were ill-used by their masters. Among the ancients there was another class of servants, which consisted wholly of those who had suffered the loss of liberty from their own imprudence. Such were the Grecian prodigals, who were detained in the service of their creditors, until the fruits of their labor were equivalent to their debts; the delinquents, who were sentenced to the oar; and the German enthusiasts, mentioned by Tacitus, who were so addicted to gaming, that when they had parted with every thing else, they staked their liberty and their persons. "The loser," says the historian, "goes into a voluntary servitude; and though younger and stronger than the person with whom he played, patiently suffers himself to be bound and sold. Their perseverance in so bad a custom is styled honor. The slaves thus obtained are immediately exchanged away in commerce, that the winner may get rid of the scandal of his victory." The two classes now enumerated comprehend those that may be called the Voluntary Slaves, and they are distinguished from those denominated Involuntary Slaves, who were forced, without any previous condition or choice, into a situation, which, as it tended to degrade a part of the human species, and to class it with the brutal, must have been, of all situations, the most wretched and insupportable. The class of involuntary slaves included those who were "prisoners of war," and these were more ancient than the voluntary slaves, who are first mentioned in the time of Pharaoh. The practice of reducing prisoners of war to the condition of slaves existed both among the eastern nations and the people of the west; for as the Helots became the slaves of the Spartans merely from the right of conquest, so prisoners of war were reduced to the same situation by the other inhabitants of Greece. The Romans, also, were actuated by the same principle; and all those nations which contributed to overturn the empire, adopted a similar custom; so that it was a general maxim in their polity that those who fell under their power as prisoners of war, should immediately be reduced to the condition of slaves. The slaves of the Greeks were generally barbarians, and imported from foreign countries.