The slaves as Fighters.
Will the slaves fight?
The helots of
Sparta stood their masters good stead in battle.
In the great sea fight of
Lepanto, where the Christians checked forever the spread of Mohammedanism over
Europe, the galley slaves of portions of the fleet were promised freedom, and called on to fight at a critical moment of the battle.
They fought well, and civilization owes much to those brave galley slaves.
The negro slaves of
St. Domingo, fighting for freedom, defeated their white masters and the
French troops sent against them.
The negro slaves of
Jamaica revolted, and under the name of maroons held the mountains against their masters for 150 years; and the experience of this war has been so far that half-trained negroes have fought as bravely as many other half-trained Yankees.
If, contrary to the training of a lifetime, they can be made to face and fight bravely against their former masters, how much more probable is it that with the allurement of a higher reward, and led by those masters, they would submit to discipline and face dangers?
