Part 4 (1/2)

CHAP. VI.

We proceed now to the consideration of the _commerce_: in consequence of which, people, endued with the same feelings and faculties as ourselves, were made subject to the laws and limitations of _possession_.

This commerce of the human species was of a very early date. It was founded on the idea that men were _property_; and, as this idea was coeval with the first order of _involuntary_ slaves, it must have arisen, (if the date, which we previously affixed to that order, be right) in the first practices of barter. The Story of Joseph, as recorded in the sacred writings, whom his brothers sold from an envious suspicion of his future greatness, is an ample testimony of the truth of this conjecture. It shews that there were men, even at that early period, who travelled up and down as merchants, collecting not only balm, myrrh, spicery, and other wares, but the human species also, for the purposes of traffick. The instant determination of the brothers, on the first sight of the merchants, _to sell him_, and the immediate acquiescence of these, who purchased him for a foreign market, prove that this commerce had been then established, not only in that part of the country, where this transaction happened, but in that also, whither the merchants were then travelling with their camels, namely, aegypt: and they shew farther, that, as all customs require time for their establishment, so it must have existed in the ages, previous to that of Pharaoh; that is, in those ages, in which we fixed the first date of _involuntary_ servitude. This commerce then, as appears by the present instance, existed in the earliest practices of barter, and had descended to the aegyptians, through as long a period of time, as was sufficient to have made it, in the times alluded to, an established custom. Thus was aegypt, in those days, the place of the greatest resort; the grand emporium of trade, to which people were driving their merchandize, as to a centre; and thus did it afford, among other opportunities of traffick, the _first market_ that is recorded, for the sale of the human species.

This market, which was thus supplied by the constant concourse of merchants, who resorted to it from various parts, could not fail, by these means, to have been considerable. It received, afterwards, an additional supply from those piracies, which we mentioned to have existed in the uncivilized ages of the world, and which, in fact, it greatly promoted and encouraged; and it became, from these united circ.u.mstances, so famous, as to have been known, within a few centuries from the time of Pharaoh, both to the Grecian colonies in Asia, and the Grecian islands. Homer mentions Cyprus and aegypt as the common markets for slaves, about the times of the Trojan war. Thus Antinous, offended with Ulysses, threatens to send him to one of these places, if he does not instantly depart from his table.[025] The same poet also, in his hymn to Bacchus[026], mentions them again, but in a more unequivocal manner, as the common markets for slaves. He takes occasion, in that hymn, to describe the pirates method of scouring the coast, from the circ.u.mstance of their having kidnapped Bacchus, as a n.o.ble youth, for whom they expected an immense ransom. The captain of the vessel, having dragged him on board, is represented as addressing himself thus, to the steersman:

”Haul in the tackle, hoist aloft the sail, Then take your helm, and watch the doubtful gale!

To mind the captive prey, be our's the care, While you to _aegypt_ or to _Cyprus_ steer; There shall he go, unless his friends he'll tell, Whose ransom-gifts will pay us full as well.”

It may not perhaps be considered as a digression, to mention in few words, by itself, the wonderful concordance of the writings of Moses and Homer with the case before us: not that the former, from their divine authority, want additional support, but because it cannot be unpleasant to see them confirmed by a person, who, being one of the earliest writers, and living in a very remote age, was the first that could afford us any additional proof of the circ.u.mstances above-mentioned.

aegypt is represented, in the first book of the sacred writings, as a market for slaves, and, in the [027]second, as famous for the severity of its servitude. [028]The same line, which we have already cited from Homer, conveys to us the same ideas. It points it out as a market for the human species, and by the epithet of ”_bitter_ aegypt,”

([029]which epithet is peculiarly annexed to it on this occasion) alludes in the strongest manner to that severity and rigour, of which the sacred historian transmitted us the first account.

But, to return. Though aegypt was the first market recorded for this species of traffick; and though aegypt, and Cyprus afterwards, were particularly distinguished for it, in the times of the Trojan war; yet they were not the only places, even at that period, where men were bought and sold. The Odyssey of Homer shews that it was then practised in many of the islands of the aegean sea; and the Iliad, that it had taken place among those Grecians on the continent of Europe, who had embarked from thence on the Trojan expedition. This appears particularly at the end of the seventh book. A fleet is described there, as having just arrived from Lemnos, with a supply of wine for the Grecian camp.

The merchants are described also, as immediately exposing it to sale, and as receiving in exchange, among other articles of barter, ”_a number of slaves_.”

It will now be sufficient to observe, that, as other states arose, and as circ.u.mstances contributed to make them known, this custom is discovered to have existed among them; that it travelled over all Asia; that it spread through the Grecian and Roman world; was in use among the barbarous nations, which overturned the Roman empire; and was practised therefore, at the same period, throughout all Europe.

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 025: me tacha pikren Aigypton kai Kyp.r.o.n idnai. Hom.

Odyss. L. 17. 448.]

[Footnote 026: L. 26.]

[Footnote 027: Exodus. Ch. 1.]

[Footnote 028: Vide note 1st. (Here shown as footnote 025).]

[Footnote 029: This strikes us the more forcibly, as it is stiled _eurreiten_ and _perikallea_, ”_beautiful and well watered_,”

in all other pa.s.sages where it is mentioned, but this.]

CHAP. VII.

This _slavery_ and _commerce_, which had continued for so long a time, and which was thus practised in Europe at so late a period as that, which succeeded the grand revolutions in the western world, began, as the northern nations were settled in their conquests, to decline, and, on their full establishment, were abolished. A difference of opinion has arisen respecting the cause of their abolition; some having a.s.serted, that they were the necessary consequences of the _feudal system_; while others, superiour both in number and in argument, have maintained that they were the natural effects of _Christianity_.

The mode of argument, which the former adopt on this occasion, is as follows. ”The mult.i.tude of little states, which sprang up from one great one at this aera, occasioned infinite bickerings and matter for contention. There was not a state or seignory, which did not want all the hands they could muster, either to defend their own right, or to dispute that of their neighbours. Thus every man was taken into the service: whom they armed they must trust: and there could be no trust but in free men. Thus the barrier between the two natures was thrown down, and _slavery_ was no more heard of, in the _west_.”

That this was not the _necessary_ consequence of such a situation, is apparent. The political state of Greece, in its early history, was the same as that of Europe, when divided, by the feudal system, into an infinite number of small and independent kingdoms. There was the same matter therefore for contention, and the same call for all the hands that could be mustered: the Grecians, in short, in _heroick_, were in the same situation in these respects as the _feudal barons_ in the _Gothick_ times. Had this therefore been a _necessary_ effect, there had been a cessation of servitude in Greece, in those ages, in which we have already shewn that it existed.