Section LXIX.. Origin of Slavery.—Want of Freedom.

Origin Of Slavery.—Want Of Freedom.

It is not to be supposed that slavery, at this stage, is so oppressive even to those who have been deprived of their freedom. The feeling of moral degradation which slavery, abstraction even made of its abuses, awakens in us, is unknown in a very uncivilized age.(406) The child willingly obeys the orders of strangers, and is hired out to service by his parents etc. The want or craving for liberty keeps pace with the intellectual growth of a people. The systematic over-working of servants or slaves, in the interest of their masters, is scarcely thinkable in an uncultured age, when, in the absence of commercial intercourse, every family consumes what it produces.(407) The only thing which the slave has to fear is an occasional outburst of tyranny on the part of the master, a thing which is far from unfrequent in all the relations of low civilizations. Fear restrains masters to a certain extent; for, in those early days, how few were the institutions of state which could protect them against the vengeance of their slaves!(408)(409)