and political parties of the country, until, after many years of bitter contention, it was met in 1854 by the organization of a determined opposition political party, which, after one failure, brought about its political overthrow, an event followed by a last tremendous struggle for the mastery, in which slavery was wiped out forever in the life-blood of those who upheld and those who opposed it.

CHAPTER II.

ANCIENT AND MODERN SLAVERY.

"Slavery is as ancient as War, and War as human nature."

Voltaire.

"That execrable sum of all villainies, commonly called the slave trade."

John Wesley, 1792.

The earliest records of the human race begin with accounts of slavery. The first slave was probably a war captive whose life had been spared, and slavery probably originated when the nations emerging from the savagery of early times discovered that the prisoner captured in war could render to the conqueror more service alive than dead; and it became a very early custom that all persons captured in war and not ransomed by their fellows should remain the property of the conqueror to be used by him at will or sold to others. It is seen that slavery in its inception was in some degree an innocent and humane institution, because it saved many lives and resulted in much development in building, agriculture and the crude manufacturing of early times.

It is convenient to divide the history of slavery into two epochs, ancient and modern, although there are times in the history of several nations when ancient slavery assumed the modern form. The ancient slaves were the pris

oners captured in war, the hereditary slaves, and persons who, by the laws of their country, became slaves by the commission of crime or inability to meet their debts. Modern slavery assumed a more brutal aspect. Here the slave was not the result of wars, but the direct object of them, and we find nations engaged in the shameful traffic of deliberately declaring war upon a foreign and inoffensive people for the purpose of obtaining possession of their bodies to carry them away for sale in foreign countries. The modern slave for four centuries was a distinct article of commerce, quoted and bargained for in the markets and reckoned on as a medium of exchange.

For the history of ancient slavery we turn first to Egypt, and find abundant evidence of the use of slaves from the very earliest times. Egypt thrived, and its native population was overflowing; but notwithstanding this, thousands of slaves were brought into the country by the early Wars of Conquest. Most of these slaves, for lack of other work, were put to labor on vast monuments, buildings, shrines and temples. The great Pyramid of Gîzeh, near Memphis, the smaller pyramids near it and the ruins near Thebes, and the Karnak, still remain as mysterious and wonderful records of the skill of the Egyptian builders, and as mute evidence of the use of vast numbers of slaves.

In the quaint diction of early biblical history is told the manner of the Egyptian use of slaves. We learn how Joseph was treacherously sold by his brethren into Egyptian captivity, but gaining favor, was placed in the house of his master, and how, in later years, when famine waxed

sore in the land of Canaan, Joseph's father, Jacob, and his brethren and their flocks went into Egypt and prayed to Pharaoh for permission to dwell there, and partly through the influence of Joseph were given permission to live in the country of Goshen. The Israelites grew and multiplied until the land was filled with them, but new Kings ruled in Egypt, hostile to them, and their lives were made bitter with hard bondage and compulsory work in mortar and brick, "and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses."

When the Hebrews, under the guidance of Moses, left Egypt, they took slaves with them, and in their subsequent history we find a record of the use of two classes of slaves, the Hebrew born and those of alien blood. The Hebrew slave usually became such by selling himself on account of his poverty, or because it was imposed upon him as a punishment for crime. He could claim his liberty at the end of six years, but not so with the alien, who was in bondage for life. Jerusalem was built, and after many years captured by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, who razed the city and carried the upper classes of the Hebrews captive to Babylon, where they remained in a condition of servitude until the destruction of Babylon by Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, who, as a political measure, permitted the Hebrews to return to their homes and rebuild Jerusalem. Egypt went down to rise no more before the new power of the Persians, who, in turn, gave way to the Greeks, and they to the Romans. Throughout the history of the ancient people, the Egyptians, the Syrians, Babylonians, Phœni

cians, Medes and Persians, slavery developed in the same general way; the prisoner of war was held in slavery and reduced to the lowest caste, and this we find true in China, Ancient India and in the history of the Aztecs.

Slaves were used in Greece, especially so at Athens, where, at the height of the city's power, there were four times as many slaves as citizens. The slaves took a prominent part in the domestic and public economy, being used as agricultural laborers, and as artificers and servants, and by the State as policemen and soldiers. Sparta possessed very few slaves, probably only enough to supply the demand for domestic servants. With the rapid progress of the Greeks came an increased use of slaves, and the wars not being sufficient to supply the demand, an open slave trade was soon established. In Greece arose to its height that peculiar form of slavery practiced by the early Hebrews, wherein foreigners violating laws, and Greeks themselves, if unable to meet their debts, were sold with their families into slavery. This brought about such a threatening state of affairs that by the wise laws of Solon this form of slavery was abolished. This peculiar slavery also existed in the early days of Rome, but in the third century before Christ it was also abolished.

In the Roman Empire slavery existed from the earliest times, and was carried to an excess not known before or since in the history of slavery. The wonderful and rapid. rise of the Romans in power, domain and wealth led to a moral and political degeneracy which demanded the increased use of slaves in all branches of domestic and public