Untitled - African American History

SLAVERY AMONG THE BOMAJTS. XCV
descendants attaining eminence and distinction among
the Komans. Servius Tullius, "the last of the good
1
kings," was the son of a bondmaid. Yindicius, who
gave to the Conscript Fathers notice of a secret treason,
himself a slave, was mourned publicly by the Roman
matrons at his death, as Brutus had been. 2
Terence, a
captive slave, born near Carthage, became the delight of
Roman audiences, through his graceful comedies. 3 And
Horace was not ashamed to acknowledge himself the son
of a freedman. 4
There existed no reason why this result should not
follow. The captives brought to Rome were of races
intellectually equal ; in cultivation, superior to their Roman
masters. Slavery was, to them, an unnatural con-
dition. The inferior should serve the superior, and the
reverse is a violation of nature.
The precise time when slavery, property in the person,
ceased to exist among the Romans, cannot be fixed with
certainty.
It was never abolished formally, by statute or
decree. Circumstances combined to work a gradual
change in the system, from slavery to serfdom. 5 Rome
entered into the turbid flood of the dark ages weighted
with slavery.
"When she emerged again, so that history
1 Liv. i, 39 ; Juvenal, Sat. viii. Thus rendered by Gifford :
"And he who graced the purple which he wore,
The last good King of Rome, a bondmaid bore."
2
Juv. viii, ad finem; Liv. ii,
7. Livy derives from his name "vin-
dicta" the rod of manumission used on occasions of manumitting
slaves.
3 Life,.&c., Terence, prefixed to his plays.
4 Sat. vi. He did not hesitate, however, to speak scornfully of the low
birth of a freedman, who was made a military tribune. Carmina, Lib.
v, Ode iv.
6 M. Wallon, speaking of slavery under the empire, says : "L'homme
libre devient moins libre, il est moins maitre de lui et des siens ; et par
contre-coup, 1'esclave n'a pas change en droit : il n'a pas plus de liberte",
mais il a moins de dependance ; et le meme mot finira par couvrir deux
etats fort diffe'rents, 1'esclave et le serf, servus." Part iii, ch. iii, 121.