cases that I recollect, in which the domestic slaves are liable to be sold, without any misconduct or demerit of their own. But these restrictions on the power of the master extend not to the case of prisoners taken in war, nor to that of slaves purchased with money. All these unfortunate beings are considered as strangers and foreigners, who have no right to the protection of the law, and may be treated with severity, or sold to a stranger, according to the pleasure of their owners. There are, indeed, regular markets, where slaves of this description are bought and sold. And the value of a slave, in the eye of an African purchaser, increases in proportion to his distance from his native kingdom; for when slaves are only a few days' journey from the place of their nativity, they frequently effect their escape; but when one or more kingdoms intervene, escape being more difficult, they are more easily reconciled to their situation. On this account, the unhappy slave is frequently transferred from one dealer to another, until he has lost all hopes of returning to his native kingdom. The slaves which are purchased by Europeans on the coast are chiefly of this description. A few of them are collected in the petty wars which take place near the coast, but by far the greater number are brought down in large caravans from the inland countries, of which many are unknown even by name to Europeans.
"The slaves which are thus brought from the interior, may be divided into two distinct classes, — first, such as were slaves from their birth, having been born of enslaved mothers; secondly, such as were born free, but who afterwards by whatever means became slaves.
