Abyssinia and Slavery Abolition

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 287, 31 August 1935, Page 18

Abyssinia and Slavery Abolition

IN bis book “The Last of Free Africa," Mr. Gordon MacCreagli, an American, deals with slavery in Abyssinia. The Emperor, as is well known, is determined to enforce its abolition, and while the process may be slow, the author is convinced that the Emperors policy is wise. He writes:—“Civil war there would be in Abyssinia within 24 hours of the signing of an edict of abolition. . . . Abyssinia has grown up with a tradition and exists upon institutions based upon five thousand years of slavery. A mode of life built upon institutions as old as all that cannot be rooted out of its sleepy comfort by the mere signing of an edict. “There are powerful chiefs in the grain and cotton-bearing south and south-west of Abyssinia whose very existence depends upon slave labour for their plantations. Every family in the country, even those of quite moderate circumstances, must rely upon domestic slaves to carry on the manifold hand labour of the household—spinning, weaving, grinding corn, drawing water from deep and distant wells—even as did our own south before the days of swift transportation and electric kitchens. “Al! these people would fight before relinquishing the necessities of their lives—pven as did our own south., “Therefore it is that the Prince Regent has issued an edict which commands that those who have slaves may keep them. But that no man may buy or sell or In any manner trade in slaves; and that children born of slaves shall be automatically free from the moment of birth. This far-sighted ruling means that slavery will die out with the present generation; quietly, without disturbance, letting the country readjust its mode of living gradually as the new conditions will demand. ... * “Some of the regulations for the protection of slaves are interesting. “A slave, if he thinks that he is being cruelly treated, may bring a charge to that effect against his master before judges appointed for that

purpose. If the charge is upheld by the court, the slave—the wording is significant —‘has the right to be freed,’ if he wishes. “If a slave runs away.from his master, he may not be arrested anywhere within the confines of the country. But if he arrives at a frontier post without papers of liberation he is to be held and a message is to be sent to his master, who is then allowed eight days to come and fetch him; failing which, the slave ‘has the right to be freed.’ In a country where the frontier may be a journey of a month's hard travel the slave, it would seem, has a prety fair chance of becoming his own master. “What would not Uncle Tom and Eliza or Huck Finn’s nigger have given for a chance one-tenth as good? . . . “If a slave should be sold or in any way conveyed to another person, that fact alone is sufficient to free him. Except that a man may leave bis existing slaves to his son by will. Should a man die intestate, all his slaves become free. There are dozens of different ways .by which n slave, under the prince regent’s new edict, may acquire that right to be freed. “Let us accord just a little justice to Ethiopia and look once more into facts. “This is what the prince’s edict has to say about slave raiding. Any person buying or selling or in any way trading in slaves shall be fined, for the first offence, five hundred dollars and shall be sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. For the second offence, life. “Further, the governor of the province in which such offence might be committed shall be fined three hundred dollars the first time as a penalty for not regulating his province better; five hundred dollars the second time, and. should it happen a third time, he shall be deprived of his governorship. The chief of the district and the chief of the tribe implicated shall be punished in proportion. - “If a similar ruling were to be applied to some of our own officials responsible for the maintenance of our country’s laws, I cannot help feeling' that we might have fewer bootleggers and gunmen."