his due, and of the servant being subject to his lord, the woman to her
husband, and children to their parents. The early Christians too
sincerely despised the prizes of this world--including the greatest of all,
liberty--to struggle for possession of any of them; unresponsive to the
lure of earthly honours and treasures, they fixed their desires on things
eternal. Slavery continued to coexist with Christianity: children were
sold publicly in the markets of Bristol during the reign of King Alfred,
and the villeins were bound to the glebe, changing masters with the
transfer of the property from one proprietor to another. The laws of
Richard III. and of Edward VI. dealt severely, not only with slaves, but
with all deserters, runaway apprentices, and other recalcitrant
dependents, who were reduced to partial or perpetual slavery for the most
trivial offences. The condition of these various categories of bondmen,
however, was more one of serfage and vassalage, the ancient system of
slavery that had culminated in the Roman Empire having been modified by
the mild doctrines of Christianity and the gradual spread of the new
civilisation.

From the discoveries along the west coast of Africa, made by the
Portuguese in the first half of the fifteenth century, may be dated the
revival of the trade in slaves for purely commercial purposes. Portugal
and southern Spain were thenceforward regularly supplied with cargoes of
negroes, numbering between seven and eight hundred yearly. The promoter
of these expeditions was Prince Henry of Portugal, third son of John I.
and Philippa, daughter of John Gaunt, though in justice to that amiable
and learned prince, it must be borne in mind that the capture and sale of
negroes was merely incidental to explorations the unary purpose of which
was purely scientific. Prince Henry held that the negroes thus captured
into his dominions were amply compensated for the loss of such uncertain
liberty as they enjoyed, by receiving the light of Christian teaching. It
seems evident that most of them merely changed masters and probably gained
by the exchange, for they were born subjects of barbarous rulers, in
lands where the traffic in slaves was active. Many were obtained from the
Arabs and Moors, who already held them in bondage and, without minimising
the sufferings inseparable from all slave-trade, we may not unreasonably
assume that those who reached Portugal and Spain were the least
unfortunate