Slavery as an industrial system

by H. J. Nieboer

Although we find no description of slave-trade among the Circassians, slaves in the Caucasus are exported on a large scale[103].

Most slaves found among the Somal and Danakil are articles of transit trade: they are purchased from interior tribes and intended to be sold to Arabians. A Somali never becomes the slave of a Somali, and prisoners of war are not enslaved[104].

Many Beduan make it their business to steal slaves, whom they sell in Massowah[105].

The slaves kept by the Beni Amer are either captured from enemies or purchased abroad; a Beni Amer never loses his freedom. Slaves are not, however, often sold abroad[106].

On the other hand, the pastoral tribes of Central Asia and Siberia live in secluded parts, far from the centres of the slave-trade.

The slave-trade greatly facilitates the keeping of slaves. Where slaves are brought by slave-dealers from remote parts, it is much easier to keep them than where they have to be [[288]]captured from enemies, i.e. from the neighbours; in the latter case the slaves are very likely to run away and return to their native country; but a purchased slave transported from a great distance cannot so easily return; if he succeeded in escaping, he would be instantly recaptured by one of the foreign tribes whose countries he would have to traverse. Moreover, some tribes may, by their intercourse with slave-traders, have become familiar with the idea of slavery, and so the slave-trade may have suggested to them the keeping of slaves for their own use.

There is another circumstance, which may partially account for the existence of slavery among some of these tribes: the slaves are often Negroes. And Negroes have always and everywhere been enslaved; they seem to be more fit for slaves than most races of mankind. Galton, speaking of the Damaras, says: “These savages court slavery. You engage one of them as a servant, and you find that he considers himself your property, and that you are, in fact, become the owner of a slave. They have no independence about them, generally speaking, but follow a master as spaniels would. Their hero-worship is directed to people who have wit and strength enough to ill-use them. Revenge is a very transient passion in their character, it gives way to admiration of the oppressor. The Damaras seem to me to love nothing; the only strong feelings they possess, which are not utterly gross and sensual, are those of admiration and fear. They seem to be made for slavery, and naturally fall into its ways”[107]. And Hutter, describing the Bali tribes of Cameroon, remarks that the Negro wants to be ruled and patiently endures any amount of oppression[108]. Similar descriptions may undoubtedly be given of many other Negro tribes. Moreover several slave-keeping nomadic tribes are Semites and Hamites, and therefore look upon the Negroes as an inferior race. Now, where slaves are procured mainly for military purposes (and we have seen that this is often the case with pastoral tribes), an absorption of foreigners into the tribe would answer the purpose as well as, and perhaps better than, slavery. But where the foreigners belong to inferior races, the members of the tribe [[289]]are not likely to intermarry with them and look upon them as their equals; they remain slaves, though they are not of great use as such. We must also take into consideration that inferior races are not so much to be dreaded as superior peoples; the latter, if individuals belonging to them were kept as slaves, might retaliate upon the slave-owners. This may have been the reason why the Kazak Kirghiz who, in Levchine’s time, kidnapped many Russians, always sold them abroad: it would not have been safe to keep them as slaves. Accordingly, Pallas states that in his time they used to kidnap men on the Russian frontiers towards the time when they were going to remove with their herds, so that they could not be pursued[109].

In the second chapter of this Part we have remarked that the growth of slavery is furthered by the existence of a group of more or less similar tribes, the slave-trade being in such cases the means of spreading slavery over the group. We may say now that, whether such a group exists or not, the slave-trade facilitates the keeping of slaves. When the coercive power of a tribe is not strong enough for the keeping of prisoners as slaves, the slave-trade may enable such a tribe to keep slaves; for the keeping of purchased slaves, brought from a great distance, does not require so much coercive power.

We see that the difference between the slave-keeping and the other pastoral tribes consists in external circumstances. Pastoral tribes have no strong motives for making slaves, for the use of slave labour is small. On the other hand, there are no causes absolutely preventing them from keeping slaves. These tribes are, so to speak, in a state of equilibrium; a small additional cause on either side turns the balance. One such additional cause is the slave-trade; another is the neighbourhood of inferior races. There may be other small additional causes, peculiar to single tribes. We shall not inquire whether there are, but content ourselves with the foregoing conclusions, of which the principal are these, that the taming of animals does not naturally lead to the taming of men, and that the relation between capital and labour among pastoral tribes renders the economic use of slavery very small. [[290]]

Recapitulating, we may remark that our general theory, that there is no great use for slave labour where subsistence depends on capital, is fully verified by our investigation of economic life among pastoral tribes.