SLAVE, a person in the absolute power of a master, either by war or conquest. See SERVANT.—Ménage and Vossius derive the word from Sclavus, the name of a Scythian people, whom Charlemagne condemned to perpetual imprisonment; whence the Italians made their schlavo, the Germans their schlave, the French their esclave, and we slave. The Italians and other nations used to buy these Sclavi or Sclavonians to make drudges of; whence the proper name of a nation, became in time the name of a state or condition.—The Romans called their slaves servi, from servare, to "keep, save;" as being such as were not killed, but saved, to yield money either by sale or by their work. Though other authors are of opinion that the Roman name servi might come from that of Serbi, as that of slaves from Sclavi, a people.
We find no mention of slaves before the deluge; but immediately after, viz. in the curse of Canaan, Gen. ix. 25: whence it is easily inferred, that servitude commenced soon after that time; for in Abraham's days we find it generally established.—Some will have it to have commenced under Nimrod, because it was he who first began to make war, and of consequence to make captives; and to bring such as he took, either in his battles or irruptions, into slavery.
Among the Romans, a slave, when he was set at liberty, changed his name into a surname, and took the nomen or prænomen of his master; to which he added the cognomen he had been called by when a slave. Great part of the Roman wealth consisted in slaves: they had the power of life and death over them, which no other nation had; but this severity was afterwards moderated by the laws of the emperors. The slaves were esteemed the proper goods of their masters, and all they got belonged to them; but if the master was too cruel in his correction, he was obliged to sell his slave at a moderate price. The Romans not only approved of, but even invented new ways of making slaves; for instance, a man born free among them might sell his freedom and become a slave. There were generally three ways of obtaining slaves; either when they bought them with the booty taken from the enemy, distinct from the share reserved for the public; or of those who took them prisoners in war; or of merchants who dealt in them, and sold them at fairs.
Slavery is absolutely abolished in Britain and France, as to personal servitude. See SERVANTS.