The origin and development of the moral ideas

In China the slave class is composed of prisoners of war, of persons who sell themselves or are sold by others, and of the children of slaves;64 and in former days public slavery was a punishment for crime.65 It is true that the penal code forbids the sale of free persons; according to the letter of the text even the father of a family must not sell his children,66 and persons who voluntarily submit themselves to be sold are punished by law.67 But these regulations are frequently transgressed; in times of distress children are often sold by their parents, and the kidnapping of children is an even more common source from which the supply of slaves is kept up.68 The master’s power over his slave is not quite absolute,69 but it seems to be fully as great as the father’s power over his child.70 A master who falsely accuses his slave suffers no punishment for it; on the other hand, a slave cannot complain in a court of justice of ill-treatment from his master.71 Yet the condition of slaves in China is generally easy enough.72 “In all Chinese families of ‘the upper ten thousand,’ an intimacy exists between masters and men-servants on the one hand, and mistresses and female servants on the other.

Servants not unfrequently make suggestions in reference to the well-being of the family, and in many instances, domestic matters of a grave nature are discussed before them.”73 In Chinese novels the servant is the confidant of his master, and harsh behaviour towards slaves is only attributed to vicious persons;74 according to the Divine Panorama, he who beats or injures his slave without estimating the punishment by the fault is tormented in hell.75 Many travellers have pointed out the difference between the comparatively happy condition of slaves in China and the degraded position of the former negro slaves in European colonies and the United States of America.76 “In China,” it is observed, “the identity of blood, colour, race, and habit between master and servant, operates as a restraint on the avarice, vices, and cruelty of the former, which would not be the case if they were of different races as in America.”77

It has been suggested that in ancient Egypt the aboriginal inhabitants of the country were made slaves by the conquering race. “Si nous consultons les monuments,” says M. Amélineau, “nous remarquons dans les peintures qui ornent les parois des tombeaux de Saqqarah une certaine race d’hommes sur laquelle Mariette avait déjà appelé l’attention…. Je crois que ce sont là des esclaves, vieux restes des populations primitives soumises par les conquérants nouvellement arrivés dans la vallée du Nil, descendants des premières tribus humaines qui s’étaient installées en Égypt.”78 During the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, which form the chief period of Egypt’s foreign conquests, mention is frequently made of the employment of prisoners of war as slaves. Every Pharao of these dynasties recounts how he filled the god Amon’s storehouses with male and female slaves from his spoil. These slaves are occasionally represented in tombs; thus in the tomb of Rekhmere some slaves who are making bricks and building a wall are designated as “the spoil which his Majesty brought for the construction of the temple of Amon.”79 M. Amélineau believes that slavery was in Egypt milder than in Greece and Rome.80 According to the Book of the Dead, the pity of the god extends to slaves; not only does he command that no one should ill-treat them himself, but he forbids that their masters should be led to ill-treat them.81

In ancient Chaldæa, beneath the free Semite and Sumerian population, there was a class of slaves largely consisting of captives from foreign races and their descendants, but continually reinforced by individuals of the native race such as foundlings, women sold by their husbands, children sold by their fathers, and probably debtors whom their creditors had deprived of their liberty.82 Their position was evidently not one of excessive hardship.83 As a rule, they were permitted to marry and bring up a family; and it seems that masters, when selling their slaves, as much as possible avoided separating parents and children.84 The master often apprenticed the children of his slaves, and as soon as they knew a trade he set them up in business in his own name, allowing them a share in the profits.85 A slave could hire himself out for wages, and could himself acquire slaves to work for him.86 He was even entitled to purchase his freedom.87 “La loi babylonienne,” says M. Oppert, “lassait aux esclaves sur quelques points plus de prérogatives que le Code français n’en accorde à nos épouses.”88

Among the Hebrews the slave class consisted of captives taken in war;89 of persons bought with money from neighbouring nations or from foreign residents in the land;90 of children of slaves born in the house;91 of native Hebrews who had been sold by their fathers,92 or who either alone or with their wives and children had fallen into slavery in consequence of poverty,93 or who had been sold by the authorities as slaves on account of theft when unable to pay compensation for the stolen property.94 To deprive an Israelite of his freedom for any other reason, to steal him, use him as a slave, or sell him, was a crime punishable with death.95 And even the Israelite who lost his liberty because he had become poor on account of poverty was not to be treated in the same way as the slave of foreign origin. He could not be compelled to serve as a bondservant, only as a hired servant.96 He should not be ruled over with rigour.97 He might not only be redeemed at any time by his relatives, but if not redeemed he was bound to receive his freedom without payment in the seventh year, and then the master should not let him go away empty, but furnish him liberally out of his flock, his floor, and his wine-press.98 Slaves of foreign extraction, on the other hand, were not to be emancipated, but should remain slaves for ever, descending to children and children’s children.99 But in no case had the master absolute power over his slave.

Whether the latter was an Israelite or a foreigner, his life, and to some extent his body, were protected by law;100 and if a slave escaped from a hard master, he should not be given up, but be allowed to live unmolested in the place which he should choose in one of the cities of Israel.101 From everything that we read about slaves among the Hebrews it appears that they were regarded as inferior members of the family, and that the house-father cared for their well-being hardly less than for that of his own children.102 In the Talmud masters are repeatedly admonished to treat their slaves with kindness;103 traffic in human beings is regarded as an occupation which incapacitates the dealer to sit as judge;104 and emancipation of slaves is practically encouraged in various ways,105 in spite of the dictum of certain rabbis that he who emancipates his slave transgresses the positive precept of Leviticus xxv. 46, “They shall be your bondmen for ever.”106