From the opposite point of view, Christianity is seen to be equally opposed to slavery, blasters are to treat their slaves kindly, and as brothers (Eph. vi, 9 ; Col. iv, 1; Philem. 1(5). In practice, the early Christians were accustomed to give freedom to their slaves, and to pur- chase the freedom of the slaves of others: witness the action of Gregory the Great in the 6th century in pur- chasing a number of British captives and returning them in freedom to their native land, that they, aid- ed by the monk Augustine, might carry the blessings of Christianity to their countrymen. Where slavery ex- ists in a Christian land in anj' pronounced form, it is because Christianity itself has remained in a low state of development — as, for instance, in Russia — or because it has relapsed into such a state, as was the case in Eu- rope during the Middle Ages. In its fundamental nat- ure, Christianity is the law of liberty, and, therefore, opposed to the enslaving of individual men, on the one hand, and to the exercise of absolutism and despotism in the government of states, on the other.
The extirpation of slavery has been made a part of the mission of Protestantism. It is among Evangeli- cal Christians alone that the evils of slavery have ar- rested attention, and it is chiefly through their influ- ence that its sway has been contested. The attitude of the Papal Church has been that of indifference or of impotency. The first place among the opponents of human slavery belongs to Great Britain, whose West- Indian colonies and naval supremacy compelled a rec- ognition of responsibility in the matter; but the Chris- tian spirit ruling in Protestant lands will allow none of the nations which they shelter to rest until the last vestige of human slavery is wiped from the face of the earth.
The earliest endeavors for the overthrow of slavery date back to A.D. 1270, when an alliance between Eng- land and France was formed to punish the pirates of the Barbary states. The object was to compel the lib- eration and subsequent immunity from slavery oi white persons. Philip the Bold attacked Tunis with this in- tention, and England repeated the attack in 1389, in each instance compelling the liberation of all Christian slaves; but the states of Oran, Algiers, Timis, and Tripoli, nevertheless, devoted themselves, from the close of the loth century, to piracy as their leading industry. lie- peated inflictions of punisliment were received by them at the hands of England, France, and America; but they continued at the same time to exact tribute and ran- som from the sulyects of those powers. The first ef- fectual hindrance to this business was realized in the present century through the conquest and colonization of Algiers by the French.
The idea of breaking up the trade in negro slaves is of much more recent birth. The Pennsylvania Quak-
SLAVERY
802
SLAVES
ers passed resolutions ngainst slavery in 1C96. and re- jifatedly afterwards, and enforced tliem practically since 17".'7. Georite Vox and William I'eini were especially active ill this movement. The earliest authors who wrote against slavery were William Burlin (1718) and afterwards Thomas Lay. John Woolman became prom- inent in this work, as did his friend Anthony Benezet, who was connected with .lolin Wesley, (ieorge White- rield. and the Countess of Huntingdon. In 1751 the Quakers gave up the trade in slaves among them- selves, which led Sidmouth, Wellesley, and others to advocate in Parliament the abrogation of trade in ne- groes generally. It was, however, chicHy through the efforts of Granville Sharp that the (irinciple was estab- lished, in 1772, that "a slave who treads on English soil is free." I'ublic opinion was now with him, and Sharp proceeded to demand the closing of the slave- trade, and the liberation of the slaves in all the colo- nies of England. Clarkson's prize-essay on the ques- tion "Is it right to make slaves against their will?" ap- peared in 1785. Wilberforce, Pitt, and Fox were gain- ed over to the cause of abolition soon afterwards ; and in 1788 a petition by the first of these men led to an of- ficial inquiry into the slave-trade and its consequences by a commission raised by the privy-council. Facts were accumulated which caused the passage of the tirst bill for the restriction of the slave-trade in 1789. The Commons passed a bill for the abolition of slavery in 1792 by a majority of nineteen votes; and in 1807 the iletinitive "Abolition Act of Slavery" became a law. In 1811 conscious participation in the slave-trade was made a penal offence, to be punished with banishment, or hard labor for fourteen years; and in 1827 Canning's resolution, which declares the slave-trade to be piracy, was adoptecL Treaties for the suppression of the traf- fic were entered into at various times with other na- tions; expeditions were repeatedly sent into the heart of the African continent charged to make every eifort to secure the co-operation of the native kings in the Work of stopping the supply of slaves ; and fleets were sent out and kept on the African coast, at great ex- ])ense, to prevent their exportation. Negroes rescued from their captors were sent to the colony of Sierra Leone, where thej- have made most rapid progress in civilization under the influence of Christian teaching. Denmark and France were equally prompt in their ac- tion. The former in 1793 restricted the slave-trade in its West-Indian colonies, and in 1804 forbade it entire- ly; and the latter liberated all slaves within its coloni- al territories by act of the National Convention.