As this class of servants was composed of men, who had been reduced to such a situation by the contingencies of fortune, and not by their own misconduct; so there was another among the ancients, composed entirely of those, who had suffered the loss of liberty from their own imprudence.  To this class may be reduced the Grecian Prodigals, who were detained in the service of their creditors, till the fruits of their labour were equivalent to their debts; the delinquents, who were sentenced to the oar; and the German enthusiasts, as mentioned by Tacitus, who were so immoderately charmed with gaming, as, when every thing else was gone, to have staked their liberty and their very selves.  “The loser,” says he, “goes into a voluntary servitude, and though younger and stronger than the person with whom he played, patiently suffers himself to be bound and sold.  Their perseverance in so bad a custom is stiled honour.  The slaves, thus obtained, are immediately exchanged away in commerce, that the winner may get rid of the scandal of his victory.”

To enumerate other instances, would be unnecessary; it will be sufficient to observe, that the servants of this class were in a far more wretched situation, than those of the former; their drudgery was more intense; their treatment more severe; and there was no retreat at pleasure, from the frowns and lashes of their despotick masters.

Having premised this, we may now proceed to a general division of slavery, into voluntary and involuntary.  The voluntary will comprehend the two classes, which we have already mentioned; for, in the first instance, there was a contract, founded on consent; and, in the second, there was a choice of engaging or not in those practices, the known consequences of which were servitude.  The involuntary; on the other hand, will comprehend those, who were forced, without any such condition or choice, into a situation, which as it tended to degrade a part of the human species, and to class it with the brutal, must have been, of all human situations, the most wretched and insupportable.  These are they, whom we shall consider solely in the present work.  We shall therefore take our leave of the former, as they were mentioned only, that we might state the question with greater accuracy, and, be the better enabled to reduce it to its proper limits.

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FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 004:  Genesis, Ch. 47.  Leviticus XXV. v. 39, 40.]

[Footnote 005:  The Thetes appear very early in the Grecian History.—­kai tines auto kouroi epont’Ithakes exairetoi; he eoi autou thentes te Dmoes(?) te; Od.  Homer.  D. 642.  They were afterwards so much in use that, “Murioi depou apedidonto eautous ose douleuein kata sungraphen,” till Solon suppressed the custom in Athens.]