Note 3 — Chapter I · DEFINITION AND DISTINCTION FROM KINDRED PHENOMENA.

We can express it most generally thus: a slave is one who is not free. There are never slaves without there being freemen too; and nobody can be at the same time a slave and a freeman. We must, however, be careful to remember that, man being a “social animal”, no man is literally free; all members of a community are restricted in their behaviour towards each other by social rules and customs3. But freemen at any rate are relatively free; so a slave must be one who does not share in the common amount of liberty, compatible with the social connection.