Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/48

 public slaves; their possessor could neither liberate them, nor sell them beyond the borders." His inference is, that they were the property of individuals, but that the state reserved to itself the right of enfranchising them and preventing their emancipation, lest persons should be found, who would sell or give them their liberty when too old to labor. It is true there was an ancient law prohibiting the exportation of the Helots; but we find that there was a regular trade carried on in females, who were exported into all the neighboring countries for nurses. Thus it seems that the state exercised the power to convert its serfs into merchandize. It is stated that over the Helots, "not the state only, but even private individuals, possessed the power of life and death, as well as the right of beating and maiming them."

As the Spartans possessed estates, which personally they never cultivated, the Helots were stationed throughout the country upon those estates, which it was their business to till for the owners. To live, it was of course necessary that they should eat, and therefore a portion of the produce was set aside for them, — one-half, according to Tyrtæos, — a division not over generous, since their numbers were five times greater than those of the Spartans. The learned historian Herodotus remarks upon this, "as the quantity had been definitively settled at a very early period, to raise the amount being forbidden under very heavy imprecations, the Helots were the persons who profited by a good, and lost by a bad harvest, which must have been to them an encouragement to industry and good husbandry; a motive which would have been wanting, if the profit and loss had merely affected the landlords."

There appear to have been instances of Helots becoming comparatively wealthy in spite of the oppressions they endured; as did the Jews of the middle ages, notwithstanding the terrible robberies, persecutions and cruelties they were subject to. This fact proves that no pressure of hardship or ill-usage can entirely destroy the elasticity of the spirit: and no doubt the Helots, like all slaves, sought to soften their miseries by a gratification which the sense of property procures even in bondage. But of what value is property to a man who is himself the property of another? It appears, however, according to Herodotus, that "by means of the rich produce of the land, and in part by plunder obtained in war, they collected a considerable property."

But very little intercourse took place between the Spartans and Helots, at least in earlier times. Afterwards, when the masters quitted the capital, took to husbandry, and went to reside on their estates, the link must necessarily have been more closely drawn. Intercommunion begot more humane feelings in the master, and more attachment in the slave; for the Spartans felt the influence of intimacy, as is proved by their enfranchising the slave companions of their childhood. A certain number of Helots were retained in the city as personal attendants, and these waited at the public tables, and were lent by one person to another.

In the military service of the state, the Helots fought and bled by the side of their masters. The state was, no doubt, reluctant to admit them among the