SLAVERY (from slave, from OF. Fr. eselave, from MHG. slave, sklave, Ger. Sklare, slave, Slav; originally referring to Slays taken by the Germans in war). Legally, that status of an individual or individuals characterized by the perpetual and almost absolute loss of personal and political liberty; socially, an institution de fined by law and custom similar to patria pates tas, comitatus, c]ientela in personal dependence and to villeinage, vassalage, serfdom, servitude, and apprenticeship in personal and economic subjection and common incidents, but distin guished from them as the most absolute and in voluntary form of human servitude.
The slave is the property, chattel or real, of his master, and cannot participate in the civil right of persona] freedom, though, except in strict Roman law, he may enjoy limited persona] rights. Slavery represents a stage in social or industrial organization and development. It probably coin cides with the beginnings of settled agricultural tribal life, but its ultimate origin is in depen dence resulting from inequality of capacity or opportunity between individuals or sets of indi viduals brought into competitive relations. Whether recognized by common, statutory, or international law, slavery is a developing status varying its character in place and time as defined by local law and custom. Slavery, either by his toric contact, slave trade, or independent origin, existed anciently among Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians,Hebrews, Persians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans, and in India, China, and Africa. It is interpreted in ancient monuments and literature and locally defined by law. Philosophic justifi cation of slavery, ancient and modern, rests his torically upon natural subjection and difference of race or creed, or both. But nationals as well as barbarians, heathen, and heretics have been enslaved by all races. Classical philosophy, He brew and other ancient religions, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism sanctioned the institution, but its essential sanc tion rested in law defining the status and its incidents. Of the chief sources of slavery (cap ture in war, man-stealing, purchase, birth by a slave parent, and action of law), capture was most prevalent in early society. Hebrew, Greek, and Roman slavery. recruited from all these sources, more often than modern slavery, applied to a subject the equal o• superior of his master. An extensive slave trade with the Mediterranean islands, Asia Minor, Africa, or Southern Europe aided to fill Athens, Corinth, ..Egina, and Italy
with vast numbers of slaves, numbering often thrice the free men. At Sparta conquered helots, owned by the State but let to individuals, num bered seven to one Spartan.
The incidents of Greek. Roman, and American slavery are strikingly similar, but Rome's war like and organizing genius gave the institution greater legal definiteness and harshness. In each country the slave was sold, hired, seized for debt, and treated as his master's property, chattel or real. He was controlled by whipping, branding, fetters, exile, or by the tie of mutual affection in the family of lie was one. He had cus tomary limited rights of marriage, property, maintenance, contract, religion, and personal se curity and sanctuary (in Greece). Post-Homeric Greece, the later Roman Empire, and some Amer ican colonies of the eighteenth century legalized his right to life and limb. Previously Roman slaves were `things' in the master's dam inico potestas, subject to life and death, torture, muti lation, crucifixion. gladiatorial combat, and work in mines under drivers: but were, like American slaves, superior to Greek in having greater oppor tunity to obtain their freedom. Greek and Roman freedmen gradually became free men. Classical and American slave labor was prtedial, domestic, industrial, clerical, and public. Rome denied slaves civil or military service. Many Greek and Roman slaves entered learned profes sions. Italian latifundia worked by slaves de stroyed free-hold yeomanry and increased, with harsh treatment. danger of servile insurrection. Serious revolts occurred in Greece and Rome, and later in the West Indies, but .North America suffered only minor local insurrections, such, for instance, as Gabriel's Insurrection (q.v.) and Nat Turner's Insurrection. (See TURNER, NAT.) The closing of Roman conquest, jus vaturale, and C']n•istianity, modified the rigid chattel concep tion of jus civile and jus gentiim, and law gave the slave personality and protection. Finally Justinian enlarged the coloni, men personally free but tied to the soil like serfs. Thereafter slavery, the chief labor system since the Punic Wars, though practiced by Rome's Teuton con querors, was gradually replaced in medkeval Europe by feudal vassalage, villeinage, or serf dom. particularly where German and Roman life came in close contact. Serfdom persisted to modern times, surviving in Russia until 1861. See SERF.