Untitled - African American History

CXXV1 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SLAVERY.
a common punishment. 1 "We have already mentioned
the punishment for the homicide of a slave. The rape
of a female slave was also punished by a fine. 3
Manumission at the altar, is mentioned as early as the
laws of King Wihtraed (about the year 700), as an exist-
ing and established custom. 3 The laws of William the
Conqueror prescribe other modes of manumission, evi-
dently borrowed from the continent, viz., the declaration
of freedom before the County Court, the " ostendens ei
liberas vias et portas," the giving to him of the arms of
a freeman, a lance and a sword. 4 The laws of Henry I
are very full in prescribing additional modes of effecting
manumission. 5
The records of ancient wills exhibit a number of cases
of emancipation by will. The causes operating upon
the testator were usually gratitude and benevolence.
One instance is given of two Irishmen who were freed
for the sake of an abbot's soul. 6
The effect of manumission was simply to release the
slave from the bondage of the master. It did not place
him upon the footing of a free citizen.
" Thus," says
Bacon, " though they had escaped the depth of bondage,
yet attained they not to the full pitch of freemen ; for
the lord might acquit his own title of bondage, but no
man could be made free without the act of the whole
body. And therefore the historian (Tacitus) saith, that
they are not multum supra servos, or scarce not servants.
.... Those are, nowadays, amongst the number and
rank of such as are called copyholders, who have the privilege
of protection from the laws, but no privilege of
vote in the making of laws." 7
1 Laws of King Ina, ch. Ixxiv ; Laws of King Aethelstan, Ordinance
3 ; Laws of King Ethelred, ch. ii j Laws of King Cnut, ch. xxxii.
2 Laws of King Alfred, ch. xxv.
3 Ibid. ch. viii.
4 Ibid. ch. XY.
6 Ibid. ch. Ixxviii.
6 See Turner, Bk. VII, ch. ix.
7
Discourse of the Laws and Government of England, by Nath'l Bacon
(1739), p. 35 ;
see also Glanville, Lib. V, ch. v.