As the British fleet sailed proudly from the harbor of Algiers, bearing its emancipated white slaves, and the express stipulation, that Christian slavery was abolished there forever, it left behind in bondage large numbers of blacks, distributed throughout all the Barbary States. Neglected thus by exclusive and unchristian Christendom, it is pleasant to know that their lot is not always unhappy. In Morocco, negroes are still detained as slaves; but the prejudice of color seems not to prevail there. They have been called "the grand cavaliers of this part of Barbary."[154] They often become the chief magistrates and rulers of cities.[155] They constituted the body guard of several of the emperors, and, on one occasion at least, exercised the prerogative of the Prætorian cohorts, in dethroning their master.[156] If negro slavery still exists in this state, it has little of the degradation connected with it elsewhere. Into Algiers France has already carried the benign principle of law--earlier recognized by her than by the English courts[157]--which secures freedom to all beneath its influence. And now we are cheered anew by the glad tidings recently received, that the Bey of Tunis, "for the glory of God, and to distinguish man from the brute creation," has decreed the total abolition of human slavery throughout his dominions.
[Footnote 154: Braithwaite's Morocco, p. 350. See also Quarterly Review, vol. xv. p. 168.]
[Footnote 157: Somersett's case, first declaring this principle, was decided in 1772. M. Schoell says, that "this fine maxim has always obtained" in France.--_Histoire Abrégée des Traités de Paix_, tom. xi. p. 178. By the royal ordinance 1318, it was declared, that "all men are born free (_francs_) by nature; and that the kingdom of the French (_Francs_) should be so in reality as in name." But this "fine maxim" was not recognized in France so completely as M. Schoell asserts. See Encyclopédie, (de Diderot et de D'Alembert,) art. _Esclavage_.]
Let us, then, with hope and confidence, turn to the Barbary States! The virtues and charities do not come singly. Among them is a common bond, stronger than that of science or knowledge. Let one find admission, and a goodly troop will follow. Nor is it unreasonable to anticipate other improvements in states which have renounced a long-cherished system of White Slavery, while they have done much to abolish or mitigate the slavery of others not white, and to overcome the inhuman prejudice of color. The Christian nations of Europe first declared, and practically enforced, within their own European dominions, the vital truth of freedom, that man cannot hold property in his brother man. Algiers and Tunis, like Saul of Tarsus, have been turned from the path of persecution, and now receive the same faith. Algiers and Tunis now help to plead the cause of Freedom. Such a cause is in sacred fellowship with all those principles which promote the Progress of Man. And who can tell that this despised portion of the globe is not destined to yet another restoration? It was here in Northern Africa that civilization was first nursed, that commerce early spread her white wings, that Christianity was taught by the honeyed lips of Augustine. All these are again returning to their ancient home. Civilization, commerce, and Christianity once more shed their benignant influences upon the land to which they have long been strangers. A new health and vigor now animate its exertions. Like its own giant Antæus,--whose tomb is placed by tradition among the hillsides of Algiers,--it has been often felled to the earth, but it now rises with renewed strength, to gain yet higher victories.