Slavery as an industrial system

by H. J. Nieboer

I. Wives in an abject condition.

In the first paragraph it has already been noticed, that the advocates of women’s rights make very great use of the term “slavery”. We shall see that this equally applies to some ethnographers and theorists describing the state of women, especially as wives, in some primitive societies. To give one instance of each of them: Bancroft says of the Northern Californians: “Although I find no description of an actual system of slavery existing among them, yet there is no doubt that they have slaves. We shall see … that women entitled by courtesy wives, are bought and sold”[17]. The theorist we shall quote is Letourneau: “In all very primitive societies woman represents the domestic [[10]]animals, the beasts of burden which the more advanced societies possess: she is indeed treated as a slave, and this certainly is one of the reasons why slavery has been instituted so late in the course of social evolution”[18].

We may say that such authors use the word metaphorically (as Letourneau certainly does); but this does not exempt us from examining, whether the condition of wives in those cases, where according to them it so much resembles slavery, is really slavery. We must not, of course, inquire whether there are instances of female slaves being the wives of their owners, but whether in any case the wives as such are slaves. In doing this, we may confine ourselves to observing the condition of wives among the natives of Australia, as this condition is commonly described as a striking instance of an abject one. Letourneau remarks: “In the Australian clans slavery, in the sense in which we use the word, did not exist; but one half of the social group, the weaker half, was reduced to servitude; the Australian woman, an indispensable and despised helpmate, was during her whole life burdened with work, ill-used, and in reward often eaten by those whom her unavailing labour had fed”[19]. Schurtz states that the treatment of the Australian wives is bad[20]. Ratzel expresses the same view: “The position of the wife in such circumstances is always a low one. That she is positively considered to be the property of her husband (hence in the Adelaide district “owner of a wife” means husband) is not peculiar to Australia. But to this a number of customs are added here, that, more than among other peoples to which the notion of the wife as a commodity is equally familiar, place her in the back-ground of public and even of family life”[21].

Now let us cite some particulars about this abject state of the Australian wives, as given by ethnographers. For the purpose of enabling the reader to take a comprehensive view of the matter, we shall arrange these particulars not according to the different tribes each applies to, but according to the several phenomena bearing on the object of our inquiry. This gives the following result: [[11]]

A. The wife is acquired by the husband without her consent being asked. So among the Dieri: “under no circumstances has a woman any say in the choice of a partner”. Powell’s Creek natives: “After being purchased or captured, the woman is generally taken away to a distance and kept more or less isolated with her husband for some months, until she contentedly settles down to the new order of things”. Queenslanders on Herbert River: wives are acquired by bethrothal as children, by exchange for a sister or daughter or by capture. N. W. Central Queenslanders: the marriage can be proposed by the male relatives of the woman, or a man can exchange his true blood-sister, i.e. by the same mother, for another’s blood-sister; in both cases the consent of the whole camp-council is required. Aborigines of N. S. Wales: girls are often betrothed in infancy, or else given away by their father or brother without their wishes being consulted; “the women are considered an article of property, and are sold or given away by the parents or relatives without the least regard to their own wishes”. Natives of the Western District of Victoria: betrothal of children is very frequent. A girl when adult can be asked of her father, without any attention being paid to her wishes. When two young men have each a sister or cousin, they may exchange the young women and marry them; the women are obliged to obey. Southern Australians: the husband most often acquires his wife by means of a contract with her father. Southern Australians of Port Lincoln: girls are betrothed long before puberty; when adult they must follow their intended husbands whether they wish it or not. Tribes of Central Australia (described by Spencer and Gillen): the most usual method of obtaining a wife is that which is connected with the custom of Tualcha mura, i.e. an agreement between two men that the relationship shall be established between their two children, one a boy and the other a girl. S. W. Australians: “In no case is the girl asked for her consent”. Natives of King George Sound (W. Australia): a girl is often promised to a man years before her birth, but generally she is acquired by capture. Northern Australians of Port Darwin and the W. Coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria: “Wives are obtained by gifts of parents; in the majority of cases female children when born are promised to [[12]]men of all ages.… Some men obtain women by stealing them, generally from other tribes, or get them in exchange for a sister”. Tasmanians: the girls are betrothed as children; before marriage they are the property of their father or brother. When the match is broken off, the girl is again betrothed, without her wishes being consulted. Brough Smyth, speaking of the Australians in general, remarks: “Men obtain wives by a convenient system of exchange, by conquest sometimes, and sometimes a woman is stolen. By what mode soever a man procures a bride, it is very seldom an occasion of rejoicing for the female”. And Thomas says: “The process of acquiring a bride differs in different tribes; she may be exchanged for a sister, the simplest and perhaps the commonest form; she may be betrothed at, or even, provisionally, before, birth, but this is usually part of a process of barter; she may be abducted, either from an already existing, or a prospective husband, or from her relatives; or she may be inherited from a brother or tribal kinsman”.

B. The wife is entirely in the power of her husband, and treated accordingly.

a. Sometimes such general expressions are found, as the wife being her husband’s “property” or “slave”. So on Moreton Bay: wives are slaves. On Herbert River: wives are slaves. In N. S. Wales: “the woman is the absolute property of her husband”. In S. W. Australia: “the state of slavery in which they [the women] are all held, is really deplorable.” In Central Australia: the wife is desired by the husband only for a slave. In Tasmania: the women are slaves and do all the menial work. We may add Curr’s statement about the Australians in general: The wife “is not the relative, but the property of her husband”. “The husband is the absolute owner of his wife (or wives)”. Brough Smyth too remarks that the husband is called the owner of the wife.

b. He treats her with contempt. In S. Australia women are despised. In the Moore River District of W. Australia the husband gives his wife only the offal of the chase. Central Australian men “eat alone, and throw what they can’t eat to the women”. In N. S. Wales “as her husband walks along, she follows him at a respectful distance.… If they sit down to [[13]]a meal, she still keeps behind and gets her share flung to her without ceremony”.

c. He may sometimes ill-use and even kill her. On Moreton Bay the wife is often beaten by her husband, especially when he is drunk with rum. The Queenslander of Herbert River “treats his wife with but little consideration, is often very cruel; he may take her life if he desires”. In N. S. Wales the husband “may do with her whatever he likes, even to the extent of putting her to death, without any challenge from social or tribal law.” “The waddy(club) is applied to their heads in a most unmerciful style, and few old women are to be seen who do not bear unquestionable marks of the hard usage they have received.” The Cammarray beats his wife violently for a trifling fault even a few hours before her confinement. Dawson speaks of the “apparent hard usage to which the women [of W. Victoria] are subjected”. In S. W. Australia the method “he [the husband] adopts for correcting her is so barbarous, that it often occurs that for a single look he pierces her leg with the ghici, breaks her head with the dauac, and treats her to other similar caresses”. The natives of King George Sound treat their wives very badly. In the Moore River District most of the women die a violent death before they have reached an advanced age. If, after an unsuccessful chase, the husband finds that his wife has not enough yams, she is glad to get off with only a flogging. In cases of famine the women are eaten. In Central Australia women are very badly and roughly treated. Nobody aids an ill-used woman. “If … rightly or wrongly, a man thinks his wife guilty of a breach of the laws which govern marital relations, then undoubtedly the treatment of the woman is marked by brutal and often revolting severity.” Tasmanian wives were often cruelly beaten by their jealous husbands. According to Curr, the Australian husband may “treat her well, or brutally ill-use her, at his pleasure.” The wives “are, occasionally, cruelly beaten, or speared, for even a trifling offence”. Brough Smyth states that “if she shows favour towards another and be discovered, she may suffer heavy punishment, be put to death even”. And, according to Thomas, “an erring wife might be clubbed or speared through the leg on the spot by her husband, and [[14]]no one would take much notice of the incident. Indeed, the injured husband might actually kill her.”

d. The husband exchanges and lends his wife. At Powell’s Creek wives are sometimes exchanged. In Queensland and S. Australia “it frequently occurs, that a woman is exchanged, and passes to a number of husbands in a few years”. The Moreton Bay aborigines lend their wives to each other and offer them to Europeans. In N. S. Wales “when visitors come to the camp they are accommodated with wives while they remain; and a brave chief, who has done much for their tribe by his prowess, gets the wives of other men sent to him by them as a mark of respect and friendship. Two men may even agree to exchange wives for a time”. “They will frequently give one of their wives to a friend who may be in want of one.” At Port Lincoln the men frequently exchange wives. The S. Australian husband offers his wife to friends and strangers. Exchange of wives also occurs in S. Australia. In Central Australia the husband lends his wife to his friends. When he goes abroad a husband is given her for the time. A guest is also provided with a wife. Men and parents prostitute their wives and daughters. “At times a man will lend his wife to a stranger as an act of courtesy”. Another writer informs us that “they often bring them [their wives] up to white men and beg of them to take them”. The natives of Port Darwin “exchange wives occasionally”. Tasmanian women were offered to whites for payment. A describer of the Australians in general states that the husband may “keep her to himself, prostitute her, exchange her for another, or give her away to any male of the same class as himself”. According to another writer a young man who has no wife sometimes gets one from an old man, who is tired of her. And Thomas states: “The Australians were accustomed to lend their wives to strangers on festive occasions or during ordinary visits. They might even agree to exchange wives for a month”.