Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/64

56 Slaves were principally owned by the chief men of the tribe where they were to be found; when it was otherwise, they had become enslaved for various offences to individuals. Not a few negroes were made slaves for debt; for seducing the wives of their neighbors; for handling a neighbor's fetish; and for a few other causes. These slaves were very well treated as a rule by their owners,— almost as members of the family. It was only after the white man came upon the coast that they began to increase in number, to be kidnapped and treated with diabolical cruelty, and slain by the score when the danger of discovery was imminent or where they mutinied against their captors or owners. However, the negroes often killed and ate their captured enemies and their slaves; sometimes they were butchered, burned, disemboweled and otherwise used as "sacrifices" on gala-days, jubilees, fetes, the foundation of a juju-house, and similar festivals. If any one cares to read of the horrors of the customs and ceremonies of these black demons in their native land, and these customs are still in vogue, I can suggest no better book than The Ethiopian, by J. Cameron Grant (Chas. Carrington, Paris, 1900). This is a work that ought to interest any one and everyone in the United States who may be studying the negro problem in this country and its solution; who desires to know from what kind of stock our negroes are derived; and the length, breadth, and thickness of the terrible black stain we have soiled our racial record with,— a stain that unfortunately possesses innate properties for spreading. In a later chapter I shall touch upon this point.

In 1645 slaves were becoming more difficult to ob-