Page:The rise, progress, and phases of human slavery.djvu/72

 needlewoman," or "as happy as a Dorchester labourer" would be as current proverbial phrases in England as the phrase, "as happy as a nigger," is in America. Add to this the difference between the toleration allowed to opinions now-a-days and formerly, and the fact that as slaves were the property of their masters, to tamper with them was, in the eye of the law and of public opinion, to tamper with the master's rights of property and with his personal security. Just imagine these things, and we shall then have some faint idea of what the early Christians had to contend with from this source alone, in the first propagation of liberty, equality, and fraternity. But of this and their other difficulties, dangers, and sufferings more in the next chapter.