15.12. 12. Danger from the Multitude of Slaves.
The multitude of slaves has
different effects in different governments. It is no grievance in a
despotic state, where the political servitude of the whole body takes
away the sense of civil slavery. Those who are called freedmen in
reality are little more so than they who do not come within that class;
and as the latter, in quality of eunuchs, freedmen, or slaves, have
generally the management of all affairs, the condition of a freedman and
that of a slave are very nearly allied. This makes it therefore almost a
matter of indifference whether in such states the slaves be few or
numerous.
But in moderate governments it is a point of the highest importance
that there should not be a great number of slaves. The political liberty
of those states adds to the value of civil liberty; and he who is
deprived of the latter is also bereft of the former. He sees the
happiness of a society, of which he is not so much as a member; he sees
the security of others fenced by laws, himself without any protection.
He perceives that his master has a soul, capable of enlarging itself:
while his own labours under a continual depression. Nothing more
assimilates a man to a beast than living among freedmen, himself a
slave. Such people as these are natural enemies of society; and their
number must be dangerous.
It is not therefore to be wondered at that moderate governments have
been so frequently disturbed by the revolts of slaves, and that this so
seldom happens in despotic states.
[16]
Footnotes
[16]
The revolt of the Mamelukes was a different case; this was a
body of the militia who usurped the empire.
