Those
Of The First Description Are By Far The Most Numerous, For Prisoners
Taken In War (At Least Such As Are Taken In Open And Declared War,
When One Kingdom Avows Hostilities Against Another) Are Generally Of
This Description.
The comparatively small proportion of free people
to the enslaved throughout Africa has already been noticed:
And it
must be observed that men of free condition have many advantages
over the slaves, even in war time. They are in general better
armed, and well mounted, and can either fight or escape with some
hopes of success; but the slaves, who have only their spears and
bows, and of whom great numbers are loaded with baggage, become an
easy prey. Thus when Mansong, king of Bambarra, made war upon
Kaarta (as I have related in a former chapter), he took in one day
nine hundred prisoners, of which number not more than seventy were
freemen. This account I received from Daman Jumma, who had thirty
slaves at Kemmoo, all of whom were made prisoners by Mansong.
Again, when a freeman is taken prisoner his friends will sometimes
ransom him by giving two slaves in exchange; but when a slave is
taken, he has no hopes of such redemption. To these disadvantages,
it is to be added that the slatees, who purchase slaves in the
interior countries and carry them down to the coast for sale,
constantly prefer such as have been in that condition of life from
their infancy, well knowing that these have been accustomed to
hunger and fatigue, and are better able to sustain the hardships of
a long and painful journey than freemen; and on their reaching the
coast, if no opportunity offers of selling them to advantage, they
can easily be made to maintain themselves by their labour; neither
are they so apt to attempt making their escape as those who have
once tasted the blessings of freedom.
Slaves of the second description generally become such by one or
other of the following causes:- 1, captivity; 2, famine; 3,
insolvency; 4, crimes. A freeman may, by the established customs of
Africa, become a slave by being taken in war. War is of all others
the most productive source, and was probably the origin, of slavery;
for when one nation had taken from another a greater number of
captives than could be exchanged on equal terms, it is natural to
suppose that the conquerors, finding it inconvenient to maintain
their prisoners, would compel them to labour - at first, perhaps,
only for their own support, but afterwards to support their masters.
Be this as it may, it is a known fact that prisoners of war in
Africa are the slaves of the conquerors; and when the weak or
unsuccessful warrior begs for mercy beneath the uplifted spear of
his opponent, he gives up at the same time his claim to liberty, and
purchases his life at the expense of his freedom.
In a country divided into a thousand petty states, mostly
independent and jealous of each other, where every freeman is
accustomed to arms and fond of military achievements, where the
youth, who has practised the bow and spear from his infancy, longs
for nothing so much as an opportunity to display his valour, it is
natural to imagine that wars frequently originate from very
frivolous provocation.
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