SLAVERY.

house of commons. At length, 1833, a ministerial proposition for emancipation was introduced by Stanley, then colonial sec., and an emancipation bill passed both houses, and obtained the royal assent, 1833, Aug. 28. This act, while it gave freedom to the slaves throughout all the British colonies, at the same time awarded an indemnification to the slave-owners of £20,000,000. S. was to cease 1834, Aug. 1, but the slaves were for a certain time to be apprenticed laborers to their former owners. Objections being raised to the apprenticeship, its duration was shortened, and the complete enfranchisement took place 1838.

The French emancipated their negroes 1848; as did most of the new republics of S. America at the time of the revolution; while the Dutch slaves had freedom conferred on them 1863. In Hayti, S. ceased as far back as 1791, its abolition having been one of the results of the negro insurrection of that year. In Portugal it was enacted 1858 that all slaves belonging to Portuguese subjects should be free after 20 yrs.: hence, since 1878 S. has been illegal throughout all the Portuguese provinces. Many of the Spanish Amer. states abolished S. on declaring their independence; the rest have since that time abolished the institution. In Brazil a law of gradual emancipation was passed 1871, freeing all children born after that date, though holding children born of slave women to be apprentices of their mothers' owners for 21 years.-A treaty between Great Britain and the Sultan of Zanzibar secures, in promise, the speedy abolition of the slave-trade on the opposite e. coast of Africa. The expedition of Sir Samuel Baker, 1873, was announced as having ended the slave-trade s. of Egypt as far as the equator. How far the khedive was sincere in coupling this object with the conquest of the Nile regions is doubtful; and it is certain that most of his officers and an army of slave-hunters are bent on defeating the attempt.

Slavery in the United States.-In presence of the famous statement in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are born free and equal, and possess equal and inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' the colonies which threw off the British yoke and became the United States contained several hundred thousand negro slaves, whose condition of S. was expressly recognized in the constitution of the United States as ratified 1788-by a provision for rendition of fugitive slaves. The regulation of this particular subject was delegated to the federal govt., S. being otherwise left to be governed by the laws of the states where it existed (see CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES-Art. IV., Sec. 2). S. established itself firmly in the southern states, where negro labor was required for cultivation of sugar and cotton, while it declined in the northern states, where it was not needed, and was even unprofitable; and after the limitation of the supply from Africa. the breeding of slaves went on

to a large extent in Md. and Va. for supply of the other states of the south. The different position of the northern and southern states regarding slavery combined, with other causes, to engender that diversity of feeling and interest between north and south out of which arose the civil war.

S. was from the beginning recognized as an evil to be abated: the leaders of public opinion-Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, etc., deemed it inconsist ent with the principles of free government. An abolition soc. was founded in Penn. 1775, with Benjamin Franklin as its pres.; and similar organizations soon arose in Mass., Conn., R. I., Del., Md., and Va. A determined and aggressive agitation against the continu. ance of the institution was begun 1831 under the leadership of Garrison (q.v.), Wendell Phillips (q.v.), Arthu Tappan (q.v.), Lewis Tappan (q.v.), and many others (see various biographical titles), who declared slaveholding a sin against God and a crime against humanity.' The liberty party, the free soil party, and finally the republican party were doubtless inspired by the principles of human freedom proclaimed by these leaders; though neither the free soil party nor the republiean party was in any sense committed to the policy of abolition. Many among them hoped for its abolition; but the principle of the party, as concerned S., was to prevent its extension as a political power perilous to the union of the states. The increased consumption of cotton had led to an increased demand for slave labor; and 1820, when Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state, a compromise was entered into by which slavery was legalized southward, but prohibited northward of 36° 30′ n. lat.: see MASON AND DIXON'S LINE: COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1850: MISSOURI-History. California, though partly lying s. of this geographical line, was admitted as a free state, the southern party obtaining in compensation the boon of an amendment of the Fugitive Slave Law, making it penal to harbor runaway slaves or aid in their escape. A belated moral awakening, accompanied by a reaction against the extreme and dictatorial policy of the south, taking distinct political form in Lincoln's election as president, was the signal for a long-threatened secession of the southern states, and for the bloody war which ended in the overthrow of the principle of state-sovereignty and the consolidation of the Union, with S. totally eliminated. Even so late as the second year of the rebellion, 1862, Aug. 22, Pres. Lincoln wrote, My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery.' When the abolition of S. appeared to be demanded in the interest of the Union and as a military measure hastening the downfall of the Confederate govt., Pres. Lincoln-having given warning by a preliminary proclamation-issued, 1863, Jan. 1, his Proclamation of Emancipation, as follows:

SLAVERY.

PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, On the 22d day of Sep., in the year of our Lord 1862, a proclamation was issued by the president of the United States, containing among other things the following, to wit:

That, on 1st day of Jan., in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state, or any designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be thenceforward and forever free, and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

That, the executive will, on the 1st day of Jan. aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States, and the fact that any state, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such state shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such state and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States.

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war-measure for repressing said rebellion, do, on the 1st day of Jan., in the year of our Lord 1863, and in accordance with my purpose soto do, publicly proclaim for the full period of 100 days from the day of the first above-mentioned order, and designate as the states and parts of states wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, except the 48 counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and which excepted parts are, for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states

SLAVIC SLAVIC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense, and I recommend to them, that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. [L.S.] Done at the city of Washington, this 1st day of Jan., in the year of our Lord 1863, and of the independence of the United States of America the 87th.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

The U. S. sec. of state proclaimed 1865, Dec. 18, the adoption by 27 out of the 36 states of a constitutiona amendment (which had been voted in congress 1865, Jan.) forever prohibiting S. and involuntary servitude' within the United States (see CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES-Art. XIII.).

S. no longer exists anywhere on the Amer. continent, nor in the former Spanish colonies of Cuba and Porto Rico, now under the American flag. In Africa S. and the slave trade still flourish except where those practices are repressed by European governments.

SLAVIC, n. slăvik: Slavonic. CHURCH SLAVIC, & name given to an ancient dialect of Bulgaria, from its being used as the sacred language of the Greek Church; called also Old Bulgarian.

SLAV'IC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE: generic terms (like Celtic or Teutonic language, etc.) for a group of kindred languages and writings of peoples belonging to the great Indo-Germanic or Aryan family. The leading characteristics of the Slavic tongues are the completeness of their system of declensions (nouns and adjectives have 7 cases, and the Sorbish and the Slovenish languages have the dual number), lack of articles, absence of pronouns in conjugation of the verb, pure vowel-endings, fixed quantity of the syllables, free construction of sentences, and richness of vocabulary. The earliest dialect of Slavic that received a literary culture was the Old Bulgarian,' better known as the Church Slavic;' which, however, failed to become the literary

SLAVONIA.

vehicle for all the Slavic peoples, inasmuch as the special dialect of each gradually acquired a literature of its own. The existing Slavic languages are: Great Russian; Little Russian; White Russian; Bulgarian (including Old Bulgarian, the ecclesiastical language; and New Bulgarian, under which are comprised Upper and Lower Moesian and Macedonian); Servo-Croatian, comprising Herzegovinian, Syrmian, Resanian; Slovenish, comprising the dialects of Upper, Middle, and Lower Carniola, Styrian, Ugro-Slovenish, and CroatoSlovenish all of the foregoing belong to the s.e. branch of the Slavic languages. To the w. branch belong Poish, including Masovian, Great Polish, Silesian, and Kashoulish; Bohemian, including Czechish, Moravian, and Slovakish; Lusatian Wendish, or Sorbish, comprising Upper and Lower Lusatian. Polabish, belonging to this division, is now extinct.--SEE BOHEMIA: POLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE: RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE: SERVIA.—In regard to Slavic literature, considering the articles above referred to, it is necessary to say only that at present the Russian branch of the Slavic is the richest in the number of its published works; but as regards literary merit, the Polish ranks first, having cultivated with great success almost all sorts of literature, and possessing in particular an exquisite poetry. The Bohemian and Servian literatures both contain many fine and original productions. See Morfill's Slavonic Literature (1883); works of Schafarik, Eichhoff (in French), Mickiewicz, Talvi (Eng transl.), Krek and Miklosich (Vergl. Grammatik).

SLAVONIA, slâ-võ ́nì-a: province of Austria, e. o Croatia (q.v.), with which it is now politically united. It is bounded n. by the Drave, e. by the Danube, s. by the long strip of marsh-land known as the Slavonian Military Frontier, which stretches between it and the Save. Area of S., about 6,600 sq. m. The greater part of the surface of S. consists partly of eminences clothed with vines and fruit-trees, and partly of fertile plains; the existence of great marshes renders the climate insalubrious. The mountains are rich in coal, marble, and mineral springs. The principal products are all sorts of grain, particularly maize and wheat, leguminous plants, fruit in abundance, especially apples and plums, walnuts, chestnuts, melons, tobacco, wine, etc. There is little manufacturing industry. The inhabitants of S. belong to the Slavic family (see SLAVS), and call their land Slavonska; themselves Slavonaz. They speak the so-called Illyrian or Servian tongue: see SERVIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The Slavonians proper are a handsome, tall, and slender race. The prevailing forms of religion are the Rom. Cath, and the Greek Orthodox; the Reformed religion numbers a few thousand adherents. Pop. S. (1880) 377,616; (1890) Slavonia and Croatia, 2,184,414. See CROATIA.