ttracted also by the hope of finding
better food in the seribas than their own native wilderness can produce.
The mere offer of these simple inducements in any part of the Niam-niam
lands would be sufficient to gather a whole host of followers and
vassals."[898] He goes on to show how the mode of grinding durra corn
used in Africa keeps women in slavery. They pound it on a big stone by
means of a little stone. One woman's day's work will grind enough for
five or six men. It has been shown above (sec. 275) how badly the
abolition of slavery has been received in Algeria and Sahara. Gibson is
quoted "that voluntary and hereditary slavery might well be permitted to
continue" in West Africa.[899] In that region "a slave man could hold
property of his own. If he were a worthy, sensible person, he could
inherit." He could take part in discussions and the palaver, and could
defend himself against abuse. There are now no slaves bought or sold,
but there are "pawns" for debt, who are not free.[900] On the one hand,
the slave trade in Africa has required for its successful prosecution
that the slaves should first be war captives or raid captives of other
negroes. This has led to the wildest and most cruel devastation of the
territory. On the other hand, the question arises whether savages must
be left to occupy and use a continent as they choose, or whether they
may be compelled to come into cooperation with civilized men to use it
so as to carry on the work of the world. Many who think the latter view
sound are arrested by the fact that no one has ever been found great or
good enough to be a slave owner. On the other hand, a humanitarian
doctrine which orders that a slave be turned out of doors, in spite of
his own wish, is certainly absurd.

+312. Future of slavery.+ In the eighteenth century, in western Europe,
there was a moral revolt against slavery. None of the excuses, or
palliatives, were thought to be good. The English, by buying the slaves
on their West India islands, took the money loss on themselves, but they
threw back the islands to economic decay and uncultivation. When the
civilized world sees what its ideas and precepts have made of Hayti, it
must be forced to doubt its own philosophy. The same view has spread.
Slavery is now considered impossible, socially and politically evil, and
so not available for economic gain, even if it could win that. It is the
only case in the history of the mores where the so-called mor