Question VIII: Whether men can be reduced to slavery, and sold

I SUPPOSE first, that men can sell their slaves, as the Doctors commonly teach with D. Bonaventure, in 4. dist. 36. dub. 2. litt., where he says that they can sell them even in foreign lands, yet not to the prejudice of the faith, for instance to infidels, as the S. Doctor notes, 4. dist. 36. dub. 2. litterali.

I SUPPOSE secondly, that parents can sell their children in grave necessity; indeed, even themselves.

That fathers can sell their children is proved by D. Bonav. loc. cit. dub. 3. ex 2. Esdrae 5., where such a thing is narrated to have been licit in a time of famine. He notes, however, that the consent of the mother also is required.

That anyone can sell himself is proved from law; on which see Molina Tomo 1. disp. 33., Fagundez in septimum praeceptum, l. 7. cap. 12. num. 18.

Yet a married man ought not to sell himself to the prejudice of the debt he owes his wife, for he would commit an injustice, as the S. Doctor says, dub. 4.

I suppose also, from the same D. Bonaventure, in 2. dist. 44. art. 3. quaest. 1., that infidels captured in a just war can be sold. Thus the King of the Negroes was accustomed to do, and also other Christian Kings.

It is asked therefore: whether certain peoples, such as the Portuguese, may licitly travel through Angola and Guinea, and seize slaves by hunting, and carry them off into their kingdoms to be sold.

Many learned men indeed gravely condemn that hunting. So especially Mercado tract. 5. cap. 15., Caspensis Tract. 18. disp. 5. sect. 1. num. 11., who at once does not dare to condemn this trade, because many men, and most learned and most pious Prelates in the kingdom, do not condemn it; nor does Fagundez decline it, l. 7. cap. 12. num. 15., if they are received in good faith.

To me, however, this hunting and trading must altogether be condemned, even if (as they relate) the Sobae have houses of slaves, in the manner of cattle, for trading; for since they are free, and no title is had over their lives, I do not see by what reason they can be sold. For the excuse of leading them to the faith is rotten, as I showed, Tract. de fide, disp. 2. quaest. 3. et seq. Moreover, similar subjections, which the S. Doctor calls captivity in speculo animae, cap. 1., he cries out, after the middle of the way, are mortal.