itically and socially at a
lower level than the mass of the people, and performing compulsory
labor.

The great function of slavery can be no other than a _division of
labor_. Division of labor is taken here in the widest sense, as
including not only a qualitative division, by which one man does one
kind of work and another a different kind, but also a quantitative one,
by which one man's wants are provided for, not by his own work only, but
by another's. A society without any division of labor would be one in
which each man worked for his own wants, and nobody for another's; in
any case but this there is a division of labor in this wider sense of
the word. Now this division can be brought about by two means. "There
are two ways" says Puchta "in which we can avail ourselves of the
strength of other men which we are in need of. One is the way of free
commerce, that does not interfere with the liberty of the person who
serves us, the making of contracts by which we exchange the strength and
skill of another, or their products, for other performances on our part:
hire of services, purchase of manufactures, etc. The other way is the
subjugation of such persons, which enables us to dispose of their
strength in our behalf but at the same time injures the personality of
the subjected. This subjection can be imagined as being restricted to
certain purposes, for instance to the cultivation of the land, as with
soil-tilling serfs, the result of which is that this subjection, for the
very reason that it has a definite and limited aim, does not quite annul
the liberty of the subjected. But the subjection can also be an
unlimited one, as is the case when the subjected person, in the whole of
his outward life, is treated as but a means to the purposes of the man
of power, and so his personality is entirely absorbed. This is the
institution of slavery."

3. Excerpts from the Journal of a West India Slave Owner[226]

Soon after nine o'clock we reached Savannah la Mar, where I found my
trustee, and a whole cavalcade, waiting to conduct me to my own estate;
for he had brought with him a curricle and pair for myself, a gig for my
servant, two black boys upon mules, and a cart with eight oxen to convey
my baggage. The road was excellent, and we had not above five miles to
travel; and as soon as the carriage entered my gates, the uproar and
confusion which ensued sets all description at defiance. The works were
instantly all abandoned;