The life or death of Indian slaves depended upon either the council or the women.[87] The captives were apportioned by the council to different individuals of the tribe, usually at the request of the women, who often preferred to adopt captives into their families to replace lost husbands and sons, rather than to revenge themselves for the loss of relatives by demanding the torture and death of the slaves.[88] After such distribution, the life or death of a slave depended entirely upon the will of the owner. Among a barbarous people, a slave’s life naturally had but little value. Sick and useless slaves were often put to death,[89] and trivial faults might be punished in the same way. The Jesuit missionaries said of the Iroquois: “When a barbarian has split the head of his slave with a hatchet, he says, ‘It is a dead dog—there is nothing to be done but to cast it upon the dung hill’.”[90] On the other hand, the Jesuits record certain instances of kindness shown to slaves by the Iroquois and other tribes.[91] One important difference existed between the Indian slavery as practiced by the Indians themselves, and that in existence among the whites. Among the Indians the question of social equality did not determine the relation of the slave to the master. The Indian slaves were always considered eligible for adoption into the tribes as actual members, in order to replete the numbers reduced by war, famine, disease or other cause.[92] Among the Iroquois certain chosen slaves married into the tribe and became heads of families after the death of their owners. They led a tolerably easy life, but were still considered as slaves, and had no voice, either active or passive, in the public councils.[93] Still others, who had been the richest and most important in their own villages, received no reward from their masters except food and clothing.[94] A certain amount of liberty seems to have been accorded these slaves, for the Jesuits were allowed to work among them sometimes as openly as among the members of the tribe.[95] Bartram found that among the southern Indians the slaves were dressed better than their owners, and were allowed to marry among themselves; but they remained slaves for life.[96]