CHAPTER XXII.

_Observations concerning the state and sources of slavery in Africa._


A state of subordination, and certain inequalities of rank and condition,
are inevitable in every stage of civil society; but when this
subordination is carried to so great a length, that the persons and
services of one part of the community are entirely at the disposal of
another part, it may then be denominated a state of slavery; and in this
condition of life, a great body of the Negro inhabitants of Africa have
continued from the most early period of their history; with this
aggravation, that their children are born to no other inheritance.

The slaves in Africa, I suppose, are nearly in the proportion of three to
one to the freemen. They claim no reward for their services, except food
and clothing; and are treated with kindness or severity, according to the
good or bad disposition of their masters. Custom, however, has
established certain rules with regard to the treatment of slaves, which
it is thought dishonourable to violate. Thus, the domestic slaves, or
such as are born in a man's own house, are treated with more lenity than
those which are purchased with money. The authority of the master over
the domestic slave, as I have elsewhere observed, extends only to
reasonable correction; for the master cannot sell his domestic, without
having first brought him to a public trial, before the chief men of the
place.[20] But these restrictions on the power of the master extend not
to the case of prisoners taken in war, nor to that of slaves purchased
with money. All these unfortunate beings are considered as strangers and
foreigners, who have no right to the protection of the law, and may be
treated with severity, or sold to a stranger, according to the pleasure