greater drudge than any other, yet if he had time to reach the temple of Hercules found a certain retreat from the persecution of his master; and he derived additional comfort from the reflection that his life could not be taken with impunity.[1] But no place seems to have been so favorable to slaves as Athens. Here they were allowed a greater liberty of speech; they had their convivial meetings, their amours, their hours of relaxation, pleasantry and mirth; and here, if persecution exceeded the bounds of lenity, they had their temple, like the Egyptians, for refuge. The legislature were so attentive as to examine into their complaints, and if founded in justice, they were ordered to be sold to another master. They were allowed an opportunity of working for themselves; and if they earned the price of their ransom, they could demand their freedom forever.
To the honor of Athens and Egypt, and the cities of the Jews, their slaves were considered with some humanity. The inhabitants of other parts of the world seemed to vie with each other in the oppression and debasement of this unfortunate class.
A modern writer, to whom the cause of humanity is under inexpressible obligations, proceeds to inquire by what circumstances the barbarous and inhuman treatment of slaves were produced. The first of these circumstances which he mentions, was "commerce;" for if men could be considered as possessions, if like cattle they might be bought and sold, it will be natural to suppose that they would be regarded and treated in the same manner. This kind of commerce, which began in the primitive ages of the world, depressed the human species in the general estimation; and they were tamed like brutes by hunger and the lash, and the treatment of them so conducted as to render them docile instruments of labor for their possessors. This degradation of course depressed their minds; restricted the expansion of their faculties; stifled almost every effort of genius, and exhibited them to the world as beings endued with inferior capacities to the rest of mankind. But for this opinion of them there seems to have been no foundation in truth and justice. Equal to their fellow men in natural talents, and alike capable of improvement, any apparent, or even real difference between them and others, must have been owing to the treatment they received, and the rank they were doomed to occupy.
This commerce of the human species commenced at an early period. The history of Joseph points to a remote era for its introduction. Egypt seems to have been, at this time, the principal market for the sale of human beings. It was indeed so famous as to have been known, within a few centuries from the time of Pharaoh, to the Grecian colonies in Asia and to the Grecian islands. Homer mentions Cyprus and Egypt as the common markets for slaves, about the time of the Trojan war. Egypt is represented in the book of Genesis as a market for slaves, and in Exodus as famous for the severity of its servitude.
- ↑ Herodotus.
