“Consider, that if captured enemies could NOT be sold into slavery, that there would be no incentive to take prisoners.”
Unless they planned on cooking the captives for supper once they got back to the mud huts. The ones sent off on slave ships by the neighboring tribes would at least avoid being the main entree on the nightly menu.
The following case, though relating to savages, is well worth giving from its curiosity. Mr. Winwood Reade informs me that the Jollofs, a tribe of negroes on the west coast of Africa, "are remarkable for their uniformly fine appearance." A friend of his asked one of these men, "How is it that every one whom I meet is so fine-looking, not only your men, but your women?" The Jollof answered, "It is very easily explained: it has always been our custom to pick out our worse-looking slaves and to sell them." It need hardly be added that with all savages, female slaves serve as concubines. That this negro should have attributed, whether rightly or wrongly, the fine appearance of his tribe to the long-continued elimination of the ugly women is not so surprising as it may at first appear; for I have elsewhere shewn[4] that negroes fully appreciate the importance of selection in the breeding of their domestic animals, and I could give from Mr. Reade additional evidence on this head.