Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1894 — GO TO SLAVERY WILLINGLY. [ARTICLE]

GO TO SLAVERY WILLINGLY.

To Enter a Harem 1* the Height of a Circassian Ulrl's Ambition. Far from dreading .their sale, says a writer in the Popular Science Monthly, the girls of Circassia look forward to it as the greatest opportunity of their lives. They go to seek it as a conscious jewel might start in search of a costly setting. They show no more reluctance than Esther manifested when Mordecai delivered her over as one of the fair young virgins gathered from far and near to adorn the palace of Ahasuerus. Indeed, the history of Esther reveals the motives which probably animate each of the many maidens of Circassia, who to this day re-enact the old biblical story. Each believes that it is she who may find grace and favor in the royal crown, and thus control at will the rise or fall of the royal scepter. But even if not chosen by royalty, those who purchase the beautiful damsels of Circassia are the wealthy and titled; and not the slightest social degradation is attached to their position even if taken to harems wherein a Turkish wife may be installed as head of the household. The common dependence of all the inmates of a harem upon the favor of a lord who may at any time elevate a Circassian slave to the position of a lady fosters a spirit of equality, of pure practical democracy, that would be inconceivable under any other circumstances, and in our Southern slave relation to nominal mistress was totally undreamed of. As a Turkish lady explained to an astonished English visitor, “A slave may become a lady any day, and in treating her as one beforehand we take off much of the awkwardness which would else ensue.” When we consider that all the children of slaves are acknowledged as the legitimate children of their father, we must confess in justice to the Turk that theirs is a condition in which the evils of slavery to the slave are reduced to a minimum.