A father if very poor, was allowed to give his son up to slavery for seven years, if the child consented to it. If the mass of the Anglo-Saxon population had continued in this servile state, the progress of the nation in the improvements of society would have been very small. But a better destiny awaited them: the custom of manumission began; and the diffusion of Christianity, by mildly attempering the feelings of the individual, and by compelling him to cultivate acts of benevolence as a religious duty, increased the prevalence of the practice. A We have many instances of the emancipation of slaves. landholder, in Edgar's time, who had thirty men on his grounds, directed that out of these thirteen should be liberated as lot should decide; so that, placed in the highway, they might go wherever they pleased. It seems to have been an exercise of philanthropy. not uncommon in wills, to give freedom to some of this pitiable class of human kind. Wynfleda displays the compassionate feelings of her sex very strikingly, by directing the emancipation of several of her slaves: "Let Wulfware be freed, and follow whomsoever he likes best; and let Wulflæde be freed, on the condition that she follow Ethelfleda and Eadgifa (her daughters); and let Gerburg be freed, and Miscin, and the daughter of Burhulf at Cinnuc; and Elfsige, and his wife, and his eldest daughter, and Ceolstane's wife; and at Ceorlatune let Pifus be freed, and Edwin, and -'s wife; and at Saccuncumbe let Edelm be freed, and man, and Johannan, and Spror and his wife, and Enefette, and Gersand, and Snel; and at Colleshylle let Æthelgythe be freed, and Bicca's wife, and Æffa, and Beda, and Gurhan's wife, and let Bryhsig's wife, the sister of Wulfar, be freed; and the workman, and Wulfgythe the daughter of Elfswythe."i We have many instruments of manumission extant, from which we learn some of the causes which produced it. Sometimes individuals, from their benevolence, gave them their freedom. Thus Halwun Noce, of Exeter, freed Hagel, his family woman; and so Lifgith and his two children were declared free.1 Sometimes the charitable kindness of others redeemed them: "Here appeareth in this Christ's book, that Siwine the son of Leofwie, at Lincumb, hath bought Sydelflæda out with five shillings and ****** pennies, to perpetual freedom, of John the bishop and all the family at Bath; and hereto witness is Godric Ladda, and Sæwold, and his two sons, Scirewold and Brihtwold."m So Eilgyfu the Good redeemed Hig and Dunna, and their offspring, for thirteen mancson." We will give another specimen of these benevolent actions: "Here it is stated in this writing, that Aluric, the canon of Exeter, redeemed Reinold and his children, and all their offspring, of Herberdi, for two shillings; and Aluric called them free and sac-less, in town and from town, for God's love; and the witness to this is," &c.° Sometimes piety procured a manumission. Thus two Irishmen were freed for the sake of an abbot's soul.P But the most interesting kind of emancipation appears in those writings which announce to us that the slaves had purchased their own liberty, or that of their family. Thus Edric bought the perpetual freedom of Sægyfa, his daughter, and all her offspring. So, for one pound, Elfwig the Red purchased his own liberty; and Sawi Hagg bought out his two sons. Godwin the Pale is also notified to have liberated himself, his wife, and children, for fifteen shillings. Brightmær bought the perpetual freedom of himself, his wife Elgyfu, their children and grandchildren, for two pounds. Leofenoth redeemed himself and his offspring for five oran and twelve sheep; and Ægelsig bought his son's liberty for sixty pennies." The Anglo-Saxon laws recognised the liberation of slaves, and placed them under legal protection. In one of them it is declared, that if any of them freed his slave at the altar, the theow should become folk-free, or free among the people; but his former owner was to possess his property, his weregeld, and his mund. It was enjoined by the synod, held in 816, that at the death of a bishop, his English slaves, who had been reduced to slavery in his lifetime, should be freed." The liberal feelings of our ancestors towards their enslaved domestics appear in the generous gifts which they made to them. The grants of land from masters to their servants are very com mon. Our wise and benevolent Alfred directed one of his laws to lessen the number of the enslaved. He could not emancipate those who were then in servitude, nor their future families, without a violent convulsion of the rights of property which then subsisted; and the general resistance would have made the romantic attempt not only ineffectual, but pernicious, both to those he wished to benefit and to society at large. But what he could do safely he performed. He procured it to be enacted, by the witena-gemot, that if any one should in future buy a Christian slave, the time of his servitude should be limited to six years; and that on the seventh he should be free, without any payment, and depart with the wife and the clothes he had at first. But if the lord had given him the wife, both she and her children were to remain. If he chose to continue a slave, he might determine to do so." This law struck a decisive blow at slavery in England; it checked their future multiplication; it discouraged their sale • Wanley, Catal. 152. P Sax. Dict. App. See all these emancipations in the Appendix to the Saxon Dictionary. Spel. Conc. 330. Wilk. Leg. Sax. 11. "Wilk. Leg. 29. and purchase; it established a system of legal emancipation; and gave the masters a deep interest in the kind treatment of the slaves then belonging to them, in order to preserve the race. From this provision every year added something to the numbers of the free. The servile class was more numerous in England than the free. This is the usual case in all countries where slavery prevails: the laborious class always outnumbers the proprietary body. CHAPTER X. Their Gilds, or Clubs. THE gilds, or social confederations, in which many of the AngloSaxons chose to arrange themselves, deserve our peculiar attention; we will describe them as they appear to us from some MSS. of their instruments of association which are yet in being. They are remarkable for the social and combining spirit which they display. One of these is a gild-scipe, composed of eighteen members, at Exeter, whose names are mentioned in it, and to which the bishop and canons are stated to have acceded. It recites, that they have undertaken the association in mutual fraternity: the objects of their union appear to have been, that every hearth, or family, should, at Easter in every year, pay one penny; and on the death of every member of the gild one penny, whether man or woman, for the soul's scot. The canons were to have this soul's scot, and to perform the necessary rites. This gild-scipe somewhat resembles one of our benefit societies, in which the members make small stated payments, and are buried at the expense of the fund so raised. Another gild-scipe at Exeter purports to have been made for God's love, and their soul's need, and to have agreed that their meetings should be thrice a year; viz. at Michaelmas, at Mary's Mass, over Midwinter, and at the holy days after Easter. Every member was to bring a certain portion of malt, and every cniht was to add a less quantity and some honey. The mass-priest was to sing a mass for their living friends, and another for their dead friends, and every brother two psalms. At the death of every member, six psalms were to be chanted; and every man at the rup-rone was to pay five pennies, and at a house-burning one penny. If any man neglected the appointed days, he was to be Our illustrious Hickes has printed this gild-scipe agreement, with others, in his Dissert. Ep. p. 18. fined the first time in three masses, the second in five, and the . third time no man was to share with him, unless sickness or the compulsion of the lord occasioned his absence. If any one neglected his payments at the appointed time, he was to pay double; and if any member misgreeted another, he was to forfeit thirty pence. It concludes thus:-"We pray for the love of God that every man hold this meeting rightly, so as we have rightly agreed it should be. May God assist us in this." There is an instrument made on the establishment of a gild of thegns at Cambridge. By this every member was to take an oath of true identity to each other, and the gild was always to assist him who had the most just claim. If any of the gild died, all the gild-scipe was to carry him wherever he desired; and if any neglected to attend on this occasion, he was fined a syster of honey; and the gild-scipe was to furnish half of the provisions at the interment, and every one was to pay two-pence for alms, and what was suitable was to be taken to St. Etheldrytha. If any of the gild should need the assistance of his companions, and it was mentioned to the gerefa nearest the gild, then if the gerefa neglected him, unless the gild itself was near, he was to pay one pound. If the lord neglected it, he was to forfeit the same sum, unless his superior claims compelled him to the inattention, or sickness prevented. If any killed one of a gild, eight pounds were to be the compensation; and if the homicide did not pay it, all the gildship were to avenge their member, and to support the consequences: if one did it, all were to bear alike. If any of the gild killed any other person, and was in distress, and had to pay for the wrong, and the slain were a twelfhinde person, every one of the gild must help with half a mark. If the slain be a ceorl, let each pay two ora, or one ora if a Welshman. If the gildman kills any one wilfully or foolishly, he must bear himself what he should do; and if he should kill any of the gild by his own folly, he and his relations must abide the consequence, and pay eight pounds for the gild, or else lose its society and friendship. If any of the gild eat or drink with the homicide, unless before the king, or the lord bishop, or the ealdorman, he must pay a pound, unless, with two persons sitting, he can prove that he did not know it. If any of the gild misgreet another, let him pay a syster of honey, unless with two friends he can clear himself. If a cniht draw a weapon, let him pay his lord a pound, and let the lord have it where he may; and all the gild-scipe shall help him to get it. If the cniht wound another, let the lord avenge it. If the cniht sits within the path, let him pay a syster of honey; and if he has a foot-seat, let him do the same. If any of the gild die, or fall sick, out of the district, let the gild fetch him, and bring b Hickes, Dissert. Epist. p. 21, 22. him as he wished, either dead or alive, under the penalty before mentioned. If he die at home, and the gild seek not the body, nor his morgen spæce, let a syster of honey be forfeited. These gilds are sometimes alluded to in the laws. If a man without paternal relations should fight and kill another, then his maternal kinsmen were ordered to pay one-third of the were, his gild a third, and for the other part his gild was to escape. In London there appear to have been free gilds: "This is the council that the bishops and gerefas that belong to London borough have pronounced, and with pledges confirmed in our free gilds." In a charter concerning Canterbury, the three companies of the citizens within the walls, and those without, are mentioned. Domesday-book likewise notices a gild of the clergy in the same city. They seem, on the whole, to have been friendly associations made for mutual aid and contribution, to meet the pecuniary exigencies which were perpetually arising from burials, legal exactions, penal mulets, and other payments or compensations. That much good fellowship was connected with them can be doubted by no one. The fines of their own imposition imply that the materials of conviviality were not forgotten. These associations may be called the Anglo-Saxon clubs. That in mercantile towns and sea-ports there were also gilds, or fraternities of men constituted for the purpose of carrying on more successful enterprises in commerce, even in the AngloSaxon times, appears to be a fact. Domesday-book mentions the gihalla, or guildhall, of the burghers of Dover.h CHAPTER XI. Their Trades, Mechanical Arts, and Foreign Commerce. Two things become essential to the peace and comfort of all social unions of mankind ;-one, that each should have the means of acquiring the property he needs for his subsistence and welfare; and the other, that he should be accustomed to some employments or amusements, in which his activity and time may be consumed without detriment to others or weariness to himself. c Hickes, Dissert. Epist. p. 20. d Wilkins, Leg. Sax. p. 41; and see the laws, p. 18. e Wilkins, Leg. Sax. p. 65. MS. Chart. penes the late Mr. Astle "cha chɲeo geferriɲar inne buɲhрana and utan buɲhpaɲa." No. 28. 8"32 inauguras quas tenent clerici de villa in gildam suam." Domesday, f. 3. "In quibus erat gihalla burgensium." Domesday, f. 1. |