Most Of These Men Were Doubtless Caught In Wars, As May Be Seen
Every Day In Africa, Made Slaves Of, And Sold To The Arabs For A
Few Yards Of Common Cloth, Brass Wire, Or Beads.
They would then
be taken to the Zanzibar market, resold like horses to the
highest bidder, and then kept in bondage by their new masters,
more like children of his family than anything else.
In this new
position they were circumcised to make Mussulmans of them, that
their hands might be "clean" to slaughter their master's cattle,
and extend his creed; for the Arabs believe the day must come
when the tenets of Mohammed will be accepted by all men.
The slave in this new position finds himself much better off than
he ever was in his life before, with this exception, that as a
slave he feels himself much degraded in the social scale of
society, and his family ties are all cut off from him - probably
his relations have all been killed in the war in which he was
captured. Still, after the first qualms have worn off, we find
him much attached to his master, who feeds him and finds him in
clothes in return for the menial services which he performs. In
a few years after capture, or when confidence has been gained by
the attachment shown by the slave, if the master is a trader in
ivory, he will intrust him with the charge of his stores, and
send him all over the interior of the continent to purchase for
him both slaves and ivory; but should the master die, according
to the Mohammedan creed the slaves ought to be freed.
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