Note 45 — Chapter V · CONCLUSION.

Slavery very probably first appears in the form of extratribal slavery, and originates from the adoption of captives, especially captive children. This is also Powell’s opinion. According to him captive children were originally adopted and treated by the captors entirely as their own children. “This is not yet slavery. If the captive belongs to a tribe of hereditary enemies who have from time immemorial been designated by some opprobrious term, as cannibals, liars, snakes, etc.—then it may be that the captive is doomed to perpetual younger brotherhood, and can never exercise authority over any person within the tribe, though such person may be born after the new birth of the captive. This is the first form of slavery. Usually, though not invariably, the captives adopted are children”45. Whether the first slaves were really captives belonging to a tribe of hereditary enemies, we do not know; but Powell expresses himself very appropriately, when he says that the slaves are “doomed to perpetual younger brotherhood”. In the early stages of culture slaves are on the whole leniently treated, and there is little difference between young slaves and free children. But the slave always remains a “younger brother”. He never becomes the head of a family; and when the master who educated him dies, he becomes the subject of the master’s child, who has been the companion of his childhood. The slave does not count among the full-grown men of the tribe; he is not allowed to bear arms, he has no voice in government matters; though a member, he is an inferior member of the household in which he lives.