Note 29 — Chapter II · HUNTERS AND FISHERS.

But even if the idea of subjecting tribesmen or enemies had entered the minds of these hunters, hunting slaves would not be of any use. For hunting requires the utmost application of strength and skill; therefore a compulsory hunting system cannot exist. If a man is to exert all his faculties to the utmost, there must be other motives than mere compulsion. It is for the same reason that in countries where manufactures are highly developed, a system of labour other than slavery is required. “It remains certain” Stuart Mill remarks “that slavery is incompatible with any high state of the arts of life, and any great efficiency of labour. For all products which require much skill, slave countries are usually dependent on foreigners.… All processes carried on by slave labour are conducted in the rudest and most unimproved manner”29. And Cairnes says that the slave is “unsuited for all branches of industry which require the slightest care, forethought, or dexterity. He cannot be made to co-operate with machinery; he can only be trusted with the coarsest implements; he is incapable of all but the rudest forms of labour”30. Mr. Kruijt, describing the natives of Central Celebes, speaks in the same way: “The free Alifur works as hard as his slave and even harder; for during the hours that there is nothing to do in the gardens, the freeman has to mend the furniture, plait baskets, and cut handles from wood or horn etc., all which work the slave does not understand”31. And Schurtz, in his most valuable essay on African industry, remarks: “Slavery has little to do with the development of industry. Among the Negroes of Africa only free people spend most of their time in industrial pursuits, the slaves performing at most subordinate functions. In the Soudan there are slaves who work on their own account and pay only a tribute to their master; but it scarcely ever happens that slaves are made to work in large numbers for the purpose of manufacturing goods. Those artisans who belong to pariah tribes are despised, but are not slaves, and the unwritten law defends them from arbitrary treatment”32. A freeman may give his whole mind to his work, because he knows he will enjoy the fruits of it, and still more because he will win a reputation by it among his fellow-men. The slave has not these motives; he works mainly on compulsion33. And as both hunting and higher industrial labour require much personal application, neither can be well performed by slaves. Here extremes meet, if hunting and manufactures are to be considered as extremes, which we are inclined to doubt, at least regarding those tribes that have brought the art of hunting to a high perfection; such hunting probably supposes more development of cerebral power than the lowest stage of agriculture34. But there is a difference between hunting and manufacturing nations. In manufacturing countries, besides the higher kinds of labour, there are also many sorts of ruder work to be done, that can be done by slaves as well. Moreover, slavery among a manufacturing nation may date from a former period and have passed into the laws and customs; then social life is based upon it; and so it remains for a long time after its economic basis has fallen. Slavery in such cases, by a gradual mitigation, is made to agree with changed economic conditions: the slave is given a proportionate share in the produce of his labour; he is allowed to buy his freedom by means of his savings; or his obligations are restricted to fixed tributes and services, and so the slave becomes a serf35. But the Australians and other hunting tribes have not probably ever done anything but hunting; and so neither present wants induce them to make slaves, nor do the traditions of the past maintain slavery36. We may add, that supervision of the work of a hunting slave would be nearly impossible. An agricultural slave can work in the presence of and surveyed by his master; but hunting requires rather independent action.