History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c22.2

v2.c22.2

Slavery has existed as a constant element in the social and economical life of all nations of antiquity such as Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome and also of many nations of Europe.⁴²⁰ It was however left to such Christian nations of the West as England and the United States of America to carry on the institution of slavery in the most horrible manner possible never dreamt of by any nation of antiquity, viz. by sending out kidnapping expeditions to Africa to collect slaves, to huddle them in ships in such unspeakably filthy conditions that half of them died on the voyage, to sell them to plantation owners and others like chattel. Westermarck in his ‘Origin and Development of the moral ideas’ vol. I (1912) p. 711 was constrained to observe ‘This system of slavery, which at least in the British colonies and slave states surpassed in cruelty the slavery of any pagan country ancient and modern, was not only recognised by Christian Governments but was supported by the large bulk of the clergy, Catholic and Protestant alike.’ Slavery was abolished in the British Dominions only in 1833 and in British India by Act V of 1843.