[146] In the early days non-Arab converts held a position of clientage, but they had never been slaves. In the Ottoman Empire new converts were particularly honored, so that this distinction was lost. A partial enfranchisement was possible, and might sometimes resemble the condition of a Roman freedman. Cf. D’Ohsson, vi. 28 ff. [147] According to D’Ohsson, v. 86, no free-born Moslem could ever lawfully become a slave. [148] D’Ohsson, vi. 24. [149] _Ibid._ [150] _Ibid._ iv. 300 ff. [151] Spandugino, 180. It may be observed that Ottoman slavery bore no slight resemblance to the method of bondage which brought from Europe many ancestors of present-day Americans. “In the year 1730,” says Mrs. Susannah Willard Johnson (in her _Narrative of Captivity_ reprinted Springfield, 1907, pp. 5-6) “my great-uncle, Colonel Josiah Willard, while at Boston, was invited to take a walk on the long-wharf, to view some transports who had just landed from Ireland; a number of gentlemen present were viewing the exercise of some lads who were placed on shore to exhibit their activity to those who wished to purchase. My uncle spied a boy of some vivacity, of about ten years of age, and who was the only one in the crew who spoke English: he bargained for him. I have never been able to learn the price; but as he was afterwards my husband, I am willing to suppose it a considerable sum.... He lived with Colonel Willard until he was twenty years of age, and then bought the other year of his time.” In this account a number of the characteristics of the Ottoman system can be observed. Young boys of Caucasian blood are taken from their native land; they are bought and sold; they are judged like young animals by appearance and physical activity; no taint attaches to their bondage; they may marry into the master’s family. The one noteworthy difference is that the bondage terminates at a definite age. [152] _Tractatus_, “Orario Testimonialis”: “Denique domino meo ita carus eram, ut saepius in collocutione plurium, plusquam filium suum, quem unicum habebat, me diligere assereret,” etc. [153] Postel, iii. 20, says that all the pages were considered children of the sultan, and were truly his adopted sons. [154] Ricaut, 14. [155] Postel, iii. 21. [156] Ricaut, 16. [157] Postel, iii. 21. [158] _Ibid._ 71-72; Ramberti, below, p. 255. [159] Hammer, _Staatsverfassung_, 12. [160] According to Sale’s translation, the Koran says (Sura 2: 257), “Let there be no violence in religion.” Palmer translates, “There is no compulsion in religion.” See D’Ohsson, vi. 59; Schiltberger, 73. [161] Idris, fol. 107, quoted in Hammer’s _Geschichte_, i. 91. [162] Quoted _ibid._ ii. 117. [163] Ricaut, 147-148: “No people in the World have ever been more open to receive all sorts of Nations to them, than they, nor have used more arts to encrease the number of those that are called _Turks_.” [164] _Tractatus_, ch. viii. [165] Ricaut, 46. [166] Bernardo, 369-370, and see also 359.