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in a tribe largely depends on the manner in which that tribe lives. Among hunters it hardly occurs at all. Mr. Spencer justly observes that, "in the absence of industrial activity, slaves are almost useless; and, indeed, where game is scarce, are not worth their food." Moreover, they would have to be procured from foreign tribes, and to prevent such slaves from running away would be almost impossible for hunters who roam over vast tracts of land in pursuit of game, especially if the slaves also were engaged in hunting. For a small community of hunters -and their communities generally are small-it might even be dangerous to keep foreign slaves in their midst. Among fishing tribes, on the other hand, slavery is much. more common, attaining a special importance among those who live on or near the Pacific Coast of North-Western America. These tribes have an abundance of food, they have fixed habitations, they live in comparatively large groups, and trade and industry, property and wealth, are well developed among them. In consequence, they find the services of slaves useful, and, at the same time, the slaves have little chance of making their escape.*

Of the pastoral tribes referred to in Dr. Nieboer's list only one half keep slaves, and among some of these slavekeeping is said to be a mere luxury. To pastoral peoples, as such, slave labour is of little moment. Among them subsistence depends much more on capital than on labour, and for the small amount of work which is required free labourers are easily procured. As Dr. Nieboer observes, among people who live upon the produce of their cattle, a man who owns no cattle, i.e. no capital, has no means of subsistence. Accordingly, among pastoral tribes we find rich and poor men; and the poor often offer themselves as labourers to the rich."5 Pastoral peoples have thus no strong motives for making slaves, but at the same

1 Spencer, Principles of Sociology, iii. 459.

2 Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, p. 43 sqq. Hildebrand,

Recht und Sitte, p. I sqq.

3 Nieboer, op. cit. p. 191 sqq.

Ibid. p. 199 sqq.

5 See also Hildebrand, op. cit. p. 38 sq.

time “there are no causes preventing them from keeping slaves. These tribes are, so to speak, in a state of equilibrium; a small additional cause on either side turns the balance. One such additional cause is the slave-trade; another is the neighbourhood of inferior races." All those pastoral peoples who keep slaves live in districts where an extensive slave-trade has for a long time been carried on. The slaves are often purchased from slave-traders, and in several cases they belong to an inferior race.1

"2

Among agricultural peoples slavery prevails more extensively; further, it is more common among such tribes as subsist chiefly by agriculture than among incipient agriculturists, who still depend on hunting or fishing for a large portion of their food. In primitive agricultural communities nobody voluntarily serves another, because subsistence is independent of capital and easy to procure. "All freemen in new countries," says Mr. Bagehot, "must be pretty equal; every one has labour, and every one has land; capital, at least in agricultural countries (for pastoral countries are very different), is of little use; it cannot hire labour; the labourers go and work for themselves.' Hence in such countries, if a man wants another to work for him, he must compel him to do itthat is, he must make him his slave. This holds true of most savage countries, namely, of all those in which there is much more fertile land than is required to be cultivated for the support of the actual population; but it does not hold true of all. Where every piece of land fit for cultivation has been appropriated, a man who owns no land cannot earn his subsistence independently of a landlord; hence free labourers are available, slaves are not wanted, and slavery is not likely to exist. And even where there are no poor persons, but everybody has a share in the resources of the country, the use of slaves cannot be great, since a man who owns a limited capital, or a limited quantity of land, can only employ a limited number of labourers.

1 Nieboer, op. cit. p. 261 sqq.

VOL. I

2 Bagehot, Physics and Politics, P. 72.

X X

For instance, the absence of slavery in many Oceanic islands may be accounted for by the fact that all land had been appropriated, which led to a state of things inconsistent with slavery as a social system.1

These are the main conclusions at which Dr. Nieboer has arrived by means of much admirable and painstaking research. Most of them, I think, are undoubtedly correct; yet it seems to me that the influence of economic conditions upon the institution of slavery has perhaps been emphasised too much at the cost of other factors. The prevalence of slavery in a savage tribe and the extent to which it is practised must also depend upon the ability of the tribe to procure slaves from foreign communities and upon its willingness to allow its own members to be kept as slaves within the tribe. It may be very useful for a group of savages to have a certain number of slaves, and yet they may not have them, for the reason that no slaves are to be had. It is only in extraordinary cases that a person is allowed to enslave a member of his own community. Intra-tribal slavery is a question not only of economic but of moral concern, whilst extra-tribal slavery originally depends upon success in war.

We have reason to believe that the earliest source of slavery was war or conquest, and that slavery in many cases was a substitution for putting prisoners of war to death. Savages, who have little mercy on their enemies, naturally make no scruple in reducing them to slavery whenever they find their advantage in doing so. Among existing savages, in fact, prisoners of war are very frequently enslaved. They and their descendants, together 1 Nieboer, op. cit. pp. 294-347, 420

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(Western Eskimo). Petroff, 'Report on Alaska,' in Tenth Census of the United States, pp. 152 (Aleuts), 165 (Thlinkets). Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, i. 412 (Kutchin). Gibbs, Tribes of Western Washington and Northwestern Oregon,' in Contributions to North American Ethno

logy, i. 188. von Martius Beiträge zur Ethnographie Amerika's, i. 232 (Guaycurus), 298 (Carajás). Azara, Voyages dans l'Amérique méridionale,

with persons kidnapped or purchased from foreign tribes, seem generally to form by far the majority of the slave population in uncivilised countries.

Whilst little regard is paid to the liberty of strangers, custom everywhere, as a rule, forbids the enslaving of tribesmen. Yet sometimes a father's power over his children,' as also a husband's power over his wife, involves the right of selling them as slaves; and among various peoples a person may be reduced to slavery for committing a crime, or for insolvency. Among the tribes of Western

ii. 109 sq. (Mbayas). Lewin, Hill Tracts of Chittagong, p. 35. Idem, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 194 (Toungtha). Modigliani Viaggio a Nias, p. 521. Kohler, Recht der Papuas auf Neu-Guinea,' in Zeitschr. f. vergl. Rechtswiss. vii. 370. Williams and Calvert, Fiji, p. 25. Polack, Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders, ii. 52; Hale, U.S. Exploring Expedition. Vol. VI. -Ethnography and Philology, p. 33 (New Zealanders). Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. 192. Andersson, Lake Ngami, p. 231; Kohler, in Zeitschr. f. vergl. Rechtswiss. xiv. 311 (Herero). Velten, Sitten und Gebräuche der Suaheli, p. 305. Baumann, Usambara, p. 141 (Wabondei). Felkin, 'Notes on the Waganda Tribe,' in Proceed. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, xiii. 746. Mungo Park, Travels in the Interior of Africa, p. 19 (Mandingoes). Rowley, Africa Unveiled, p. 176. Tuckey, Expedition to Explore the River Zaire, p. 367 (Negroes of Congo). Sarbah, Fanti Customary Laws, p. 6. Burton, Abeokuta, i. 301. Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, p. 289. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 309 sq. (Beni Amer). Mademba, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse von eingeborenen Völkern in Afrika und Ozeanien, p. 83 (natives of the Sansanding States). Nicole, ibid. p. 118 sq. (Diakité-Sarracolese). Tellier, ibid. pp. 168, 171 (Kreis Kitą of the French Soudan). Beverley, ibid. p. 213 (Wagogo). Lang, ibid. p. 241 (Washambala). Desoignies, ibid. p. 278 (Msalala). Nieboer, op. cit. pp. 49, 52, 73-76, 78, 100.

1 Supra, p. 599.

2 Supra, p. 629 sq.

3 Butler, Travels and Adventures in Assam, p. 94 (Kukis). Mason, 'Dwellings, &c., of the Karens,' in Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxxvii. pt. ii. R. 146 sq.; Smeaton, Loyal Karens of Burma, p. 86. Wilken, 'Het strafrecht bij de volken van het maleische ras,' in Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 1883, Land- en volkenkunde, p. 108 sq. Junghuhn, Die Battalander auf Sumatra, ii. 145 sq. (Bataks). Raffles, History of Java, ii. p. ccxxxv. (people of Bali). Forbes, A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, p. 320 (people of Timor-laut). von Rosenberg, Der malayische Archipel, p. 166 (Niase). Hickson, A Naturalist in North Celebes, p. 194 (Sangirese). Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, ii. 87. Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas, p. 261. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 244 sq. (Marea). Petherick, Travels in Central Africa, ii. 3 (Shilluk of the White Nile). Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, p. 258 n.* (Fantis). Hübbe-Schleiden, Ethiopien, p. 152 (Mpongwe). Burton, Abeokuta, i. 301. Tuckey, op. cit. p. 367 (Negroes of Congo). Mungo Park, op. cit. p. 19 (Mandingoes). Tellier, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse, p. 171 (Kreis Kita of the French Soudan). Lang, ibid. p. 241 (Washambala). Dale, Customs of the Natives inhabiting the Bondei Country,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxv. 230. Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. 193. Velten, op. cit. p. 305 sq. (Waswahili).

Gibbs, loc. cit. p. 188 (Indians of Western Washington and Northwestern Oregon). Lewin, Hill Tracts of Chittagong, p. 34. Idem, Wild

Washington and North-Western Oregon, if an Indian has wronged another and failed to make compensation, he may be taken as a slave.1 The Papuans of Dorey had a law according to which an incendiary with his family became the slave of the late proprietor of the burned house. Among the Line Islanders of Micronesia, if a man of low class stole some food from a person belonging to the "gentry," he became the slave of the latter and lost all his property. Sometimes a man is induced by great poverty to sell himself as a slave. But most intra-tribal slaves are born unfree, being the offspring of parents one or both of whom are slaves.5

In descriptions of slave-holding savages it is often said that a master has absolute power over his slave. But even in such instances, when details are scrutinised, it frequently appears that custom or public opinion does not allow a person to treat his slave just as he pleases. We have noticed above that in many cases the master is expressly denied the right of killing him at his own discretion." More commonly than one would imagine the master has not

Races of South-Eastern India, pp. 194 (Khyoungtha), 235 (Mrús). Mason, 'Religion, &c., of the Karens,' in Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxxiv. pt. ii. 216. Blumentritt, 'Die Sitten und Bräuche der alten Tagalen,' in Zeitschr. f. Ethnol. xxv. 13 sqq. Lala, Philippine Islands, p. 111 (natives of Sulu). Low, Sarawak, p. 301. Bock, Head-Hunters of Borneo, p. 210 (Dyak tribes). Junghuhn, op. cit. ii. 151 sq. Raffles, op. cit. i. 353 n. (Javanese); ii. p. ccxxxv. (people of Bali). Nieboer, op. cit. pp. 110, 111, 114, 119 sq. (various peoples in the Malay Archipelago). Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, pp. 207 (Takue), 245 (Marea). Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 370. Hübbe-Schleiden, op. cit. p. 152 (Mpongwe). Burton, Abeokuta, i. 301. Mungo Park, op. cit. p. 19 (Mandingoes). Dale, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxv. 230(Wabondei). Baskerville, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse, p. 193 sq. (Waganda). Lang, ibid. p. 240 (Washambala). Walter, ibid. p. 381 (Natives of Nossi-Bé and

Mayotte, Madagascar). Post, Afrikan-
ische Jurisprudenz, i. 90 sq. Idem,
Grundriss der ethnologischen Juris-
prudenz, i. 363 sqq.; ii. 564 sqq.
Kohler, Shakespeare vor dem Forum
der Jurisprudenz, p. 14 sq.

1 Gibbs, loc. cit. p. 188.
2 Earl, Papuans, p. 83.

3 Tutuila, in Jour. Polynesian Soc. i. 268 sq.

Azara, op. cit. ii. 109 (Mbayas). Hale, op. cit. p. 96 (Kingsmill Islanders). Burton, Abeokuta, i. 301. Andersson, Lake Ngami, p. 231 (Herero). Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. 192 sq.

5 Cf. Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, i. 89 sq.; Mademba, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse, p. 83 (natives of the Sansanding States); Nicole, ibid. p. 119 (Diakité-Sarracolese); Baskerville, ibid. p. 194 (Waganda); Desoignies, ibid. p. 278 (Msalala); Dale, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxv. 230 (Wabondei); Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. 193.

Supra, p. 422 sq.

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