Slavery: Definition, Categories, References

Definition: "an obligation to labour for the benefit of the master, without the contract or consent of the servant, the master at the same time having the right to dispose of him by sale, or in any other way to make him the property of a third person."

A slave was the absolute property of his master with no property rights with a status akin to his cattle. In 1829, when a case of 20 slaves valued at 50 pagodas was brought before a  judge in Kanara without individual details, he ordered, that in suits for slaves, each should be identified by his name and value. Owners possessed absolute and complete powers over their slaves. Hindu law did not protect slaves from an owner’s ill-treatment. Slavery was considered a misfortune rather than a crime. Persons of all castes could be enslaved. A person did not lose caste by becoming a slave.

Categories:

Hindu law recognized 15 different classes of slaves. A slave was one

1. born of a female slave

2. bought for a price from parents or former owner

3. received in donation

4. acquired by inheritance

5. maintained or protected in famine

6. pledged by his master

7. distressed by debt or engaged to serve his creditor for a stipulated period

8. taken captive in war

9. won in a stake or gambling wager:

10. offering himself in servitude without any compensation

11. (a Brahman) abandoning a state of religious mendicancy which he had voluntarily assumed (an apostate mendicant was a slave of the ruler or government)

12. offering his service for a stipulated time

13. offering his service for food

14. becoming a slave to marry a slave girl 

15. who has sold himself for a price

Muslim law permitted the following persons to be enslaved: an infidel captured in war, a child born to a female slave, a child sold by parents in distress or during famine. A slave could not marry without his owner’s consent, his evidence was inadmissible in matters relating to property, he was ineligible to perform certain civic functions, make a gift or sale, or inherit or bequeath property. A slave, though, could neither be sued except in the presence of his owner, nor be taxed or imprisoned for debt.

A slave could be freed under certain conditions: when manumitted by his master, for having saved his master’s life, a female slave bearing her master’s child (both mother and child were freed), the discharge of the debt for which he was enslaved.

Slavery in India was not sanctioned by British law, but continued to exist legally under the British government as a legacy of previous governments. With some exceptions, however, it continued to affirm, administer, and enforce, Hindu and Muslim laws of slavery. This required that they be studied and their practice understood. It was not just the legal and moral aspects that concerned the British. A major factor was the economic importance of slave labour.

Slaves were formally emancipated by an Act of Government in 1843.

References:

Adam, William. 1840. Law and Custom of Slavery in British India. Boston.

Baber. T. H. 1833. An Account of the Slave Population in the Western Peninsula of India. London

Buchanan, F. 1807.  A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar, Vol 3. London: T Cadell and W Davies. p 36-37

Copy of the DESPATCH from the GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA in Council to the Court of DIRECTORS OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY, dated the 8th day of February 1841 ( No. 3) , with the REPORT from the INDIAN LAW COMMISSIONERS, dated the 15th day of January 1841, and its APPENDIX enclosed in that Despatch, on the Subject of SLAVERY IN THE EAST INDIES. East India Ho Page 140- 149

Returns Slave Trade, East India and Ceylon. The House of Commons, July 31, 1838

Slavery and the Slave Trade in British India…Drawn from Official Documents. London 1841, Pa iii -viii