Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/28

 Tyre and Sidon, as we learn from the book of Joel, were notorious for the prosecution of this trade.

This custom appears also to have existed in other States. It traveled all over Asia. It spread through the Grecian and Roman world. It was in use among the barbarous nations that overturned the Roman empire; and was therefore practised at the same period throughout Europe. However, as the northern nations were settled in their conquests, the slavery and commerce of the human species began to decline, and were finally abolished. Some writers have ascribed this result to the prevalence of the feudal system; while others, a much more numerous class, have maintained that it was the natural effect of Christianity. The advocates of the former opinion allege, that "the multitude of little states which sprung up from one great one at this era occasioned infinite bickerings and matter for contention. There was not a state or seignory that did not want all the men it could muster, either to defend their own right or to dispute that of their neighbors. Thus every man was taken into service: whom they armed they must trust; and there could be no trust but in free men. Thus the barrier between the two classes was thrown down, and slavery was-no more heard of in the west."

On the other hand, it must be allowed that Christianity was admirably adapted to this purpose. It taught "that all men were originally equal; that the Deity was no respecter of persons; and that, as all men were to give an account of their actions hereafter, it was necessary that they should be free." These doctrines could not fail of having their proper influence upon those who first embraced Christianity from a conviction of its truth. "We find them accordingly actuated by these principles. The greatest part of the charters which were granted for the freedom of slaves, many of which are still extant, were granted "pro amore Dei, pro mercede animæ." They were founded in short on religious considerations, "that they might procure the favor of the Deity, which they had forfeited by the subjugation of those who were the objects of divine benevolence and attention equally with themselves." These considerations began to produce their effects, as the different nations were converted to Christianity, and procured that general liberty at last, which at the close of the twelfth century was conspicuous in the west of Europe.

But still we find that within two centuries after the suppression of slavery in Europe, the Portuguese, in close imitation of those piracies which we have mentioned as existing in the uncivilized ages of the world, made their descents upon Africa, and committing depredations upon the coast, first carried the wretched inhabitants into slavery. This practice, thus inconsiderable in its commencement, soon became general, and we find most of the maritime Christian nations of Europe following the piratical example. Thus did the Europeans, to their eternal infamy, revive a custom, which their own ancestors had so lately exploded from a consciousness of its impiety. The unfortunate Africans fled from the coast, and sought in the interior part of the country a retreat from the persecution of their invaders. But the Europeans still pursued them; they