[303] Code Noir, Édit donné au mois de Mars 1724, art. 6, p. 286.
[304] Revised Statutes of North Carolina, lxxi. 5, vol. i. 386 sq.
[305] Alden and van Hoesen, op. cit. p. 771.
[306] Parker, op. cit. v. 58. Goodell Slavery and Anti-Slavery, p. 200.
[307] Seward, quoted by Newman, Abolition of Negro Slavery, p. 54.
[308] Couty, L’esclavage au Brésil, p. 8 sqq.
Thus we notice in the opinions regarding slavery throughout the same distinction as in the judgments on other matters of moral concern. A person is, as a rule, allowed to enslave or to keep as slaves only persons belonging to a different community or a different race from his own, or their descendants. To deprive anybody of his liberty is to inflict an injury on him, and is regarded as wrong whenever the act gives rise to sympathetic resentment, whereas nothing is thought of it where no sympathy is felt for its victim. Thus, whilst slavery grows up only under economic conditions favourable to slave labour, it is always limited by feelings of an altruistic character, and where these feelings are sufficiently broad and powerful it is not tolerated at all. The same factor also influences the condition of the slaves where slavery exists. We have seen that native slaves are better treated than foreign ones and slaves born in the household better than those who have been captured or purchased. The advancement of a nation, again, is frequently attended with greater severity in the treatment of the slaves, because, whilst the simplicity of early ages admits of little distinction between the master and his servants in their employments and manner of living, the introduction of wealth and luxury gradually destroys the equality. Besides, the number of slaves maintained in a wealthy nation makes them formidable both to their owners and to the State, hence it is necessary that they should be strictly watched and kept in the utmost subjection.[309]
[309] Millar, op. cit. p. 256 sqq.
The condition of slaves is in various respects influenced by the selfish considerations of their masters. Stuart Mill observes:—“When, as among the ancients, the slave-market could only be supplied by captives either taken in war, or kidnapped from thinly scattered tribes on the remote confines of the human world, it was generally more profitable to keep up the number by breeding, which necessitates a far better treatment of them, and for this reason, joined with several others, the condition of slaves … was probably much less bad in the ancient world, than in the colonies of modern nations.”[310] Among the Bedouins, says Burckhardt, “the slaves are treated with kindness, and seldom beaten, as severity might induce them to run away.”[311] Superstition may also help to improve the lot of the slave. In West Africa “the authority which a master exercises over a slave is very much modified by his constitutional dread of witchcraft. If he treats his slave unkindly, or inflicts unmerited punishment upon him, he exposes himself to all the machinations of witchcraft which that slave may be able to command.”[312] It is said in the Proverbs, “Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.”[313] The same danger threatens the cruel master. We read in the Apostolic Constitutions, “Thy man-servant or thy maid-servant who trust in the same God, thou shalt not command with bitterness of spirit; lest they groan against thee, and wrath be upon thee from God.”[314]
[310] Mill, Principles of Political Economy, i. 307. Cf. supra, [p. 701].