CHAP. IX.
Several Kinds of Slavery.
Book XV.
Chap. 9.SLAVERY is of two kinds, real and personal. The real annexes the slave to the land, which Tacitus[1] makes the condition of slaves among the Germans. They were not employed in the family; a stared tribute of corn, cattle, or other moveables, paid to their master, was the whole of their servitude. And such a servitude still continues in Hungary, Bohemia, and several parts of lower Germany.
Personal slavery consists in domestic services, and relates more to the master's person.
The worst degree ot slavery is, when it is at once both real and personal, as that of the Helotes among the Lacedæmonians. They underwent the fatigues of the field, and suffered all manner of insults within the house. This Helotism is contrary to the nature of things. The real slavery is to be found only among nations[2] of a plain manner of living; all family business being done by the wives and children. The personal slavery is peculiar to voluptuous nations; luxury requiring the service of slaves in the house. But Helotism joins in the same persons the slavery established by voluptuous nations, and that of the most simple.
