Part 2 (1/2)

CHAP. II.

The first that will be mentioned, of the _involuntary_, were _prisoners of war_.[007] ”It was a law, established from time immemorial among the nations of antiquity, to oblige those to undergo the severities of servitude, whom victory had thrown into their hands.”

Conformably with this, we find all the Eastern nations unanimous in the practice. The same custom prevailed among the people of the West; for as the Helots became the slaves of the Spartans, from the right of conquest only, so prisoners of war were reduced to the same situation by the rest of the inhabitants of Greece. By the same principles that actuated these, were the Romans also influenced. Their History will confirm the fact: for how many cities are recorded to have been taken; how many armies to have been vanquished in the field, and the wretched survivors, in both instances, to have been doomed to servitude? It remains only now to observe, in shewing this custom to have been universal, that all those nations which a.s.sisted in overturning the Roman Empire, though many and various, adopted the same measures; for we find it a general maxim in their polity, that whoever should fall into their hands as a prisoner of war, should immediately be reduced to the condition of a slave.

It may here, perhaps, be not unworthy of remark, that the _involuntary_ were of greater antiquity than the _voluntary_ slaves. The latter are first mentioned in the time of Pharaoh: they could have arisen only in a state of society; when property, after its division, had become so unequal, as to multiply the wants of individuals; and when government, after its establishment, had given security to the possessor by the punishment of crimes. Whereas the former seem to be dated with more propriety from the days of Nimrod; who gave rise probably to that inseparable idea of _victory_ and _servitude_, which we find among the nations of antiquity, and which has existed uniformly since, in one country or another, to the present day.[008]

Add to this, that they might have arisen even in a state of nature, and have been coequal with the quarrels of mankind.

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 007: ”Nomos en pasin anthropois aidios esin, otan polemounton polis alo, ton elonton einai kai ta somata ton en te poleis, kai ta chremata.” Xenoph. Kyrou Paid. L. 7. fin.]

[Footnote 008:

”Proud Nimrod first the b.l.o.o.d.y chace began, A mighty hunter, and his prey was man.”

--POPE.]

CHAP. III.

But it was not victory alone, or any presupposed right, founded in the damages of war, that afforded a pretence for invading the liberties of mankind: the honourable light, in which _piracy_ was considered in the uncivilized ages of the world, contributed not a little to the _slavery_ of the human species. Piracy had a very early beginning.

”The Grecians,”[009] says Thucydides, ”in their primitive state, as well as the contemporary barbarians, who inhabited the sea coasts and islands, gave themselves wholly to it; it was, in short, their only profession and support.” The writings of Homer are sufficient of themselves to establish this account. They shew it to have been a common practice at so early a period as that of the Trojan war; and abound with many lively descriptions of it; which, had they been as groundless as they are beautiful, would have frequently spared the sigh of the reader of sensibility and reflection.

The piracies, which were thus practised in the early ages, may be considered as _publick_ or _private_. In the former, whole crews embarked for the benefit[010] of their respective tribes. They made descents on the sea coasts, carried off cattle, surprized whole villages, put many of the inhabitants to the sword, and carried others into slavery.

In the latter, individuals only were concerned, and the emolument was their own. These landed from their s.h.i.+ps, and, going up into the country, concealed themselves in the woods and thickets; where they waited every opportunity of catching the unfortunate shepherd or husbandman alone. In this situation they sallied out upon him, dragged him on board, conveyed him to a foreign market, and sold him for a slave.

To this kind of piracy Ulysses alludes, in opposition to the former, which he had been just before mentioning, in his question to Eumoeus.

”Did pirates wait, till all thy friends were gone, To catch thee singly with thy flocks alone; Say, did they force thee from thy fleecy care, And from thy fields transport and sell thee here?”[011]

But no picture, perhaps, of this mode of depredation, is equal to that, with which[012] Xenophon presents us in the simple narrative of a dance.

He informs us that the Grecian army had concluded a peace with the Paphlagonians, and that they entertained their emba.s.sadors in consequence with a banquet, and the exhibition of various feats of activity. ”When the Thracians,” says he, ”had performed the parts allotted them in this entertainment, some Aenianian and Magnetian soldiers rose up, and, accoutred in their proper arms, exhibited that dance, which is called _Karpoea_. The figure of it is thus. One of them, in the character of an husbandman, is seen to till his land, and is observed, as he drives his plough, to look frequently behind him, as if apprehensive of danger. Another immediately appears in fight, in the character of a robber. The husbandman, having seen him previously advancing, s.n.a.t.c.hes up his arms. A battle ensues before the plough. The whole of this performance is kept in perfect time with the musick of the flute. At length the robber, having got the better of the husbandman, binds him, and drives him off with his team. Sometimes it happens that the husbandman subdues the robber: in this case the scene is only reversed, as the latter is then bound and driven, off by the former.”

It is scarcely necessary to observe, that this dance was a representation of the general manners of men, in the more uncivilized ages of the world; shewing that the husbandman and shepherd lived in continual alarm, and that there were people in those ages, who derived their pleasures and fortunes from _kidnapping_ and _enslaving_ their fellow creatures.