SLAVERY SLAVIC LANGUAGES even in commerce, and occupations in which in 1619, but the English afterwards supplied the risk and responsibility were great. In the greater number, and continued the trade Attica the slaves bore to the free native popu- throughout the eighteenth century, despite the lation the ratio of three to one, and in Sparta increasing opposition to it on both sides of the Helots numbered 220,000, while the Spar- the Atlantic. The Quakers had from the first tans numbered only 32,000. In Sparta the opposed it, but they lacked numbers and influHelots suffered cruel treatment, while Athenian ence. The enemies of slavery, through the masters were noted for their mildness. In labors of Clarkson, Sharp, Wilberforce, and Athens a slave who had a just complaint others, after repeated failures to secure legisagainst his master could demand to be sold; lation triumphed at last, and an act abolishing he had a right to asylum in the temples, and the slave trade was passed, 1807. August 28, his death could be avenged. He could pur1833, a law was enacted fixing August 1, 1834, chase his freedom, and could be liberated by as the date for the emancipation of all slaves the act of his master. Emancipation was frewithin the British Empire, and providing for quent. No consciousness of the injurious moral the payment of £20,000,000 to the masters, effects of slavery seems to have been felt by who, however, were to retain their slaves as the greatest thinkers. apprentices till August, 1840. The apprenticeship system was found to work badly, and was discontinued in 1838. Slavery was not abolished in Brazil till 1888. In Rome the sources of supply of slaves were wars and commerce. The proportion of slave to free is estimated at three to one in the period 150 B.C.-235 A.D. A freedman in the reign of Augustus is said to have left over 4,000, and families of 200 or 300 slaves were not uncommon. A slave was under the dominion of his master, against whom he had no legal redress. The marriage of slaves had no legal recognition, nor could a slave acquire property, though it became customary to permit him to enjoy a share of his earnings, known as his peculium. Punishments for crime were severe against slaves. Their harsh treatment is attested by several servile insurrections, as that of Eunus in Sicily, 133 B.C., and that of Spartacus in 73 B.C. By the second century greater humanity began to display itself in dealing with the slaves. Upon contact with the Roman civilization the Germanic tribes were naturally affected by the system of agricultural labor which they found in operation, the coloni being free but not allowed to leave the soil. The resulting sys tem was serfdom (see SERF). During the Middle Ages slavery was still practiced, but among Christian races the enslavement of Christians was opposed by the Church. No such scruple applied to the enslavement of Mohammedans, many of whom were held as slaves in Europe, while Christian slaves were left in the hands of the Turks and Saracens. The great commercial cities of Italy carried on an extensive slave trade with the East, and the corsairs of Barbary carried off Christians into slavery, even penetrating into Spain and S. France, and seizing the peasants. Charles V freed 20,000 Christian slaves after his expedition against Tunis in 1535, and 12,000 Christian galley slaves were liberated after the battle of Lepanto, 1571. White slavery still exists among the Mohammedans, but the slaves are on the whole humanely treated. The traffic in black slaves, however, is marked by atrocity, and continues despite the prohibition of the Porte. African slavery on an extensive scale was not practiced by Europeans till after the discovery of America, when a great demand arose for negro labor. The Portuguese had at first a monopoly of the slave trade, but the English soon took part in supplying the Spanish demand. The first slaves sold to English colonists were brought by a Dutch vessel to Jamestown In the U. S. the slave trade was forbidden by law in 1808. Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, and Jay were among the advocates of emancipation, and in the N. this policy was so far carried out that by 1821 slavery had ceased to be a power in that region. The ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory. In the S., however, the cotton gin caused an ever-increasing demand for slave labor, and the S. states were more tenacious of slavery while the abolition sentiment was developing in the N. The more moderate opposition confined itself to attempts to restrict its sphere, but unconditional abolition was favored by radical reformers like Benjamin Lundy and W. L. Garrison, who represented a small and discredited but agThe contest belongs to the gressive party. In the Missouri Comhistory of the U. S. promise, in the struggle over the Wilmot Prosoil Party, in the Kansas-Nebraska difficulty, viso, resulting in the formation of the Freeand the formation of the Republican Party the extension of slavery became the leading issue. When civil war followed secession, the expediency of emancipation as a war measure began to be seriously considered, and on January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued a proclamation granting unconditional emancipation to nearly four million slaves. See NEGROES; SERFS. Slav'ic Lan'guages, group which embraces Russian, Polish, Servian, etc. The undivided Slavic people, apparently with the principal designation of Slovene (sing. Slovenină), inhabited the region of the Vistula (upper and lower) and of the upper Dniester and Dnieper, extending to the outer fringe of the Carpathian Mountains. They are first mentioned by Pliny, Tacitus, and Ptolemy as the Veneda (Ovevédau). The Slavic overflow into central and SE. Europe came to a close in the first decade of the sixth century. The patriarchal organization of the Slavs and their division into small disunited tribes allowed them to make no immediate political impression on their better organized neighbors. Their Christian neighbors sought both to convert and to subjugate them. In the meantime the Slavs learned the new forms of political and national life from those around them. In answer to a request of Rostislav, who SLAVONIA wished to free his kingdom from ecclesiastical | dependence upon the Frankish, the learned Constantine and his brother Methodius were sent from Constantinople as missionaries to the Slavs. Constantine (later called Monk Cyril) found a literary language for all the Slavs the Church Slavonic or Old Bulgarian (Old Slovenian), which served for many centuries as the organ of the Church and of civilization for half the Slavic race. It was written in two alphabets-the Glagolitic, still retained for Constantine's writings, and the Cyrillic, which arose soon after, apparently in Bulgaria, and, because of its simplicity and resemblance to the liturgical Greek uncial (while the Glagolitic is based chiefly on the cursive minuscule), displaced the earlier alphabet. With some modernization under Peter the Great, it is still the alphabet of Great and Little Russian, Bulgarian, and Servian, while the Croatian, Slovenian, Slovakian (Horvatian), Czech, Lusatian-Servian, and Polish use the Latin alphabet. In Slavic philology Church Slavonic plays much the same part as Gothic in Germanic philology. It has the advantage of having received a fixed literary form three hundred years earlier than any other dialect, and uses an alphabet extraordinary for its fine phonetic discriminations. Slavo'nia, territory of Austria-Hungary, bounded N. by the Drave, S. by the Save, and E. by the Danube; area, 9,106 sq. m. See CROATIA. Slavs, a race of Indo-European relationship, characterized chiefly by their speech and constituting three tenths of the population of Europe, and divided into three main branches -Eastern, Western, and Southern. To the first belong the Russians and Ruthenians; to the second the Poles, the Czechs, the Slovaks, and the Wends; to the third the Bulgarians, the Servians and Croatians, and the Slovenes. Sleep, a normal and periodical condition of the organism in which there is more or less unconsciousness with loss of power of voluntary motion. The lowest forms of animals, as the amoba, do not show any rest resembling sleep. Among the theories of the cause of sleep are that it is due to (1) a periodical anemia of the brain; (2) a numbing of the brain by exhaustion products accumulated during the day; (3) a shrinking of the nerve elements in the brain so that temporarily they do not interlace. During sleep the circulation is slower. The heart beats with more regularity, but with less force and frequency. So the blood is not distributed so thoroughly and rapidly as during wakefulness, and the extremities readily lose their heat. The nervous system continues in action during sleep, though generally with somewhat diminished power and sensibility. The reflex functions of the nerve centers are still maintained, and thus various movements may be executed without consciousness being awakened. Somnambulism is a condition of exaltation in the functions of nerve centers with out the controlling influence of the cerebrum being brought into action; but aside from this rather abnormal phenomenon, there are others SLEEP OF PLANTS which are entirely within the range of health. Thus, if the position of the sleeper becomes irksome, it is changed; if the feet become cold, they are drawn up to a warmer part of the bed; and cases are recorded in which individuals have risen from bed and performed many complicated and apparently volitional acts without awaking. The extreme of this condition is known as somnambulism, or sleepwalking. That the imagination may in its flights during sleep strike upon fancies which are subsequently developed by the reason into lucid and valuable ideas is probable. It would be strange if, from among the absurdities and extravagances to which it attains, something fit to be appropriated by the mind should not occasionally be evolved, and there are many instances of the starting point of important mental operations having been taken during sleep. The clarifying effect of "sleeping over a complicated mental problem is well known, thoughts being found to be rearranged and coördinated when waking life is resumed. Yet there are many instances on record of knowledge which had passed out of the mind being reacquired during sleep. During sleep judg ment is suspended. We do not actually lose the power of arriving at a decision, but we cannot exert the faculty in accordance with truth and reasoning. An opinion may be formed during sleep, but it is more likely to be wrong than right; and no effort that we can make will enable us to distinguish the false from the true, or to discriminate between the possible and the impossible. Deprivation of sleep-a form of punishment in China-produces death in a few days. Continued insomnia demands medical treatment, as it too often leads to mental deterioration, insanity, and suicide. Hypnotics should be taken only upon prescription, and after outdoor exercise, bathing, and proper hygiene have proved ineffectual. An infant may sleep twenty hours out of every twenty-four; a child may sleep twelve hours; as age advances sleep becomes less profound. The deepest sleep occurs in the first two hours after retiring. Sleep'ing Sick'ness (Trypanosomiasis), also called AFRICAN LETHARGY, a disease prevalent in Africa, particularly in the Uganda and the Kongo district. Although white men are by no means immune, it occurs mainly among the negroes. It is believed to be due to an animal parasite, transmitted to its victims by means of the tsetse fly, and causes, specially, cerebral disorder and nervous disorganization. The symptoms are headache, pains in the chest, dullness of faculties, loss of mental and physical energy, apathy, lassitude, and increasing desire for sleep. Some cases reach their fatal termination in two or three months, others not for years. Coma appears in the final stage, and death usually follows from starva tion. Sleep of Plants, the nocturnal condition of many plants. Many leaves assume a particular position at nightfall or in a darkened room, as is the case with certain sorrels (Oxalis), clovers (Trifolium), sensitive plants (Mimo SLICK sa), and other Leguminosa. Many flowers close at night and open in the morning, as of species of Portulaca and Oxalis, the dandelion, and other Composita. Slick, Sam. See HALIBURTON, THOMAS CHANDLER. Slidell, John, 1793-1871; American statesman; b. New York; settled at New Orleans; U. S. District Attorney, 1829-33; member of Congress, 1843-45; minister to Mexico, 1845, but not received by the Mexican Govt.; U. S. Senator, 1853-61, but withdrew upon the secession of his state, which he had done much to promote. Sailing from Charleston as commissioner of the Confederate Govt. to France, he and his associate, James M. Mason, embarked at Havana on the British steamer Trent. On November 8, 1861, Capt. Wilkes, of the U. S. frigate San Jacinto, stopped the Trent, seized the commissioners, and brought them to the U. S., where they were impris oned at Fort Warren. Bitter denunciations of the seizure appeared in the British press, and the attitude of the British Govt. was threat ening, but the U. S. disavowed the act of Wilkes and released the prisoners January 1, 1862. Slide Rule, an instrument for solving arithmetical problems where approximate results are satisfactory. The form invented by William Oughtred (1573-1660) is best known, and the more precise one introduced by Edwin Thacher in 1885 is much used. The principle is that of logarithms, the divisions on one scale being those of the logarithms of numbers from 1 to 100, or from 1 to 1,000, while the numbers themselves are marked at the divisions of the other; by sliding one scale along the other the products and quotients of two numbers may be read off by inspection. Sli'go, country of Connaught, Ireland; area, 721 sq. m. Agriculture is the principal occupation, especially cattle breeding and dairy farming. Pop. (1901) 84,083. Principal town, Sligo, 137 m. NW. of Dublin; pop. (1901) 10,862. Sling, a small disk of leather pierced by a hole and suspended by one, two, or three strings, say a yard long. A stone was placed upon the disk, and then whirled rapidly about, when one of the strings was dropped from the hand at the proper instant and the missile sent with force through the air. A sling was used by David in his encounter with Goliath. The Greeks used the sling, often with a plummet of lead. The Persians, Archæans, Acarnanians, and especially the Balearic islanders, were famous slingers. Slo'cum, Henry Warner, 1827-94; American military officer; b. Pompey, N. Y.; graduated, West Point, 1852; appointed second lieutenant of artillery; first lieutenant, 1855. After a brief campaign against the Seminoles, he resigned to practice law. On May 21, 1861, he was colonel of the Twenty-seventh New York Volunteers, and led at Bull Run, July 21st. He was engaged in the siege of Yorktown and action of West Point. At Gaines's Mill, June | SLUGS 27th, his command rendered important service; at Glendale, June 30th, it held the right of the main line, as at Malvern Hill, July 1st. He was made a major general of volunteers July 4th, and engaged in the second battle of Bull Run, at South Mountain, and at Antietam. In command of the Twelfth Corps, he led at Chancellorsville and at Gettysburg, where he commanded the right wing. He then served in the Department of the Cumberland and the District of Vicksburg. In command of the Twentieth Corps, he was the first to occupy Atlanta, Ga., September 2d. In Sherman's march to the sea he commanded the left grand division. In September, 1865, he resigned, and resumed the practice of law; was member of Congress, 1870-72 and 1884-86. Sloe, fruit of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), a small thorny plum tree of Europe, sparingly naturalized in the E. U. S. The black austere fruit is used for preserves, for making a factitious port wine, and for dyeing black. The unripe fruit yields German acacia, a substitute for gum arabic, and the wood is haps the original form of the plum. made into walking sticks. The sloe is per Sloth, any one of several species of the form resembles that of the Primates (man Bradypodidae, notable for sluggishness. The and monkeys) in the freedom of the members from the common abdominal integument, the length of the limbs, and especially of the fore reduced numbers, two or three (fully develones, and the atrophy of the tail. oped) in front and three behind. The species differ considerably. All are confined to S. and UNAU OR TWO-TOED SLOTH. Toes in Central America. Numerous peculiar characters are exhibited by the skeleton. The species are ill adapted for progression on the ground, the feet being bent inward, but are fitted for life in trees. Unlike all other mammals, they cling to the branches by their feet with the back downward, and thus they progress, feed, and sleep. They rarely or never voluntarily descend to the ground, but when one tree is denuded of its leaves proceed from it to a contiguous one by means of interlocking boughs. Sloyd. See MANUAL TRAINING. Slugs, naked terrestrial molluscs, mostly of the family Limacida. The name is sometimes SLUGWORMS applied to other molluscs, and, wrongly, to certain insects which occur as pests in gardens. Slug'worms, incorrectly called SLUGS, larvæ of sawflies, belonging to the Hymenoptera. They are sluglike in form. In the U. S. the pear, rose, vine, raspberry, walnut, linden, and other trees are infested with similar larvæ, which are very destructive. Decoctions of tobacco or quassia, whale-oil soap, a weak solution of carbolic acid, and petroleum are recommended for shrubs and trees infested with slugworms. For small trees and shrubs handpicking is generally sufficient. Small Arms, the projectile arms which since the invention of gunpowder have replaced the bow and arrow and crossbow. The original firearms, bombards, were not portable, but in the fifteenth century lighter pieces came into use; even these required the service of several SMALL ARMS | small arms were obtained, including nineteen varieties of breech-loading carbines and eight of rifles, those of Burnside, Sharps, Maynard, and Henry (the latter a magazine arm) being the best known. FIG. 3-REMINGTON LOCKING RIFLE, MODEL, 1871. Since 1885 there has been a great improvement in small arms, the most important being the substitution of magazine arms for single loaders, the decrease in the caliber of the barrel, and the use of smokeless powder. The penetration of the bullet has been increased by the alteration in its shape, by its harder surface, and also by its more rapid initial movement. At the shorter ranges, 200 to 300 yds., FIG. 1.-HALL'S BREECH-Loading Musket, Patented, 1811. men, and were fired from a tripod. Of such guns the Duke of Orleans possessed 4,000 in 1411; in 1414 they were employed at the siege of Arras, and in 1471 were introduced into England. These hand cannon could be carried by two men, had a straight stock of wood about 3 ft. long, and were fired by a match. In Italy and Spain improvements received the names of hacquebutte, arquebuse, and mousquet; the FIG. 4.-MARTINI-HENRY (BRITISH). protection is now obtained by 0.2 in. of steel plate and about 0.3 in. of wrought iron, and the penetration into earth at these distances is about 25 in,, into pine about 30 in. Their effect upon the living human body is yet to be fully determined; probably if striking no bone the bullets will inflict wounds on three or four men in file, but wounds less serious than those from the heavier lead ball. Knives FIG. 2.-SPRINGFIELD RIFLE. stock was made curved, permitting aim to be taken from the shoulder instead of firing from the chest, and the weight was reduced to 15 lb. The tripod had now been replaced by a forked rest which the soldier carried as a cane. At the battle of Pavia the Spanish had 2,000 arquebusiers and 800 mousqueteers, whose fire determined the issue of the battle, the balls penetrating the best armor of the knights. In the flintlock the weight was greatly reduced, and without material improvement remained during one hundred and fifty years the arm of the infantry, until in the nineteenth century the percussion cap was invented and rifles were substituted for smooth bores. The needle gun used by the Prussians in the war with Austria, 1866, demonstrated the superiority of the breech-loading over the muzzleloading rifle. The blunderbuss was a short, heavy, large-bored gun, used to discharge a heavy load of slugs or small bullets at short range. During the Civil War nearly 4,000,000 Slidell, John, 1793-1871; American statesman; b. New York; settled at New Orleans; U. S. District Attorney, 1829-33; member of Congress, 1843-45; minister to Mexico, 1845, but not received by the Mexican Govt.; U. S. Senator, 1853-61, but withdrew upon the secession of his state, which he had done much to promote. Sailing from Charleston as commissioner of the Confederate Govt. to France, he and his associate, James M. Mason, embarked at Havana on the British steamer Trent. On November 8, 1861, Capt. Wilkes, of the U. S. frigate San Jacinto, stopped the Trent, seized the commissioners, and brought them to the U. S., where they were impris oned at Fort Warren. Bitter denunciations of the seizure appeared in the British press, and the attitude of the British Govt. was threat ening, but the U. S. disavowed the act of Wilkes and released the prisoners January 1, 1862. Slide Rule, an instrument for solving arithmetical problems where approximate results are satisfactory. The form invented by William Oughtred (1573-1660) is best known, and the more precise one introduced by Edwin Thacher in 1885 is much used. The principle is that of logarithms, the divisions on one scale being those of the logarithms of numbers from 1 to 100, or from 1 to 1,000, while the numbers themselves are marked at the divisions of the other; by sliding one scale along the other the products and quotients of two numbers may be read off by inspection. Sli'go, country of Connaught, Ireland; area, 721 sq. m. Agriculture is the principal occupation, especially cattle breeding and dairy farming. Pop. (1901) 84,083. Principal town, Sligo, 137 m. NW. of Dublin; pop. (1901) 10,862. Sling, a small disk of leather pierced by a hole and suspended by one, two, or three strings, say a yard long. A stone was placed upon the disk, and then whirled rapidly about, when one of the strings was dropped from the hand at the proper instant and the missile sent with force through the air. A sling was used by David in his encounter with Goliath. The Greeks used the sling, often with a plummet of lead. The Persians, Archæans, Acarnanians, and especially the Balearic islanders, were famous slingers. Slo'cum, Henry Warner, 1827-94; American military officer; b. Pompey, N. Y.; graduated, West Point, 1852; appointed second lieutenant of artillery; first lieutenant, 1855. After a brief campaign against the Seminoles, he resigned to practice law. On May 21, 1861, he was colonel of the Twenty-seventh New York Volunteers, and led at Bull Run, July 21st. He was engaged in the siege of Yorktown and action of West Point. At Gaines's Mill, June | SLUGS 27th, his command rendered important service; at Glendale, June 30th, it held the right of the main line, as at Malvern Hill, July 1st. He was made a major general of volunteers July 4th, and engaged in the second battle of Bull Run, at South Mountain, and at Antietam. In command of the Twelfth Corps, he led at Chancellorsville and at Gettysburg, where he commanded the right wing. He then served in the Department of the Cumberland and the District of Vicksburg. In command of the Twentieth Corps, he was the first to occupy Atlanta, Ga., September 2d. In Sherman's march to the sea he commanded the left grand division. In September, 1865, he resigned, and resumed the practice of law; was member of Congress, 1870-72 and 1884-86. Central America. Numerous peculiar characters are exhibited by the skeleton. The species are ill adapted for progression on the ground, the feet being bent inward, but are fitted for life in trees. Unlike all other mammals, they cling to the branches by their feet with the back downward, and thus they progress, feed, and sleep. They rarely or never voluntarily descend to the ground, but when one tree is denuded of its leaves proceed from it to a contiguous one by means of interlocking boughs. Sloyd. See MANUAL TRAINING. Slugs, naked terrestrial molluscs, mostly of the family Limacida. The name is sometimes |