A (Very Brief) History of Slavery

Comments are invited.

In general, primitive hunter/gatherer societies do not have slaves,
although some nomadic societies do. Primitive hunter/gatherer
societies consisted of small bands of individuals, usually members of
a family related by blood or marriage. Such groups were similar to
the troops or bands of other, non-human primate societies like
chimpanzees. Having slaves would be of no particular economic or social
benefit to them. Animals who were hunted were also seen very differently
from domestic animals in later societies, often given considerable
respect and even reverence, and regarded as equal to, and similar to,
humans.

Ownership of both humans and animals evolved along with ownership of
land in the case of settled communities, and is found in the earliest
civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt, once slaves and domesticated
animals had become economic assets. One theory is that slavery grew
out of capture of prisoners in war, and this was the main source of
human slaves through most of ancient history. Because their children
also began with the status of slaves, a certain number of human slaves
were also bred, especially on large estates. Most societies had
mechanisms whereby human slaves could become free, either by being
granted freedom by masters, or by collecting enough money to buy
themselves free (i.e., to own themselves). The status of such freedmen/
women varied with the society. In some societies, only the children
of citizens could be citizens, and even freed slaves could never
become full members of the society (as in most ancient Greek cities).
Over time, societies such as ancient Rome did develop some "welfare"
legislation which protected slaves from irrational cruelty on the
part of the master (such as the Lex Petronia in ancient Rome) -- laws
similar in intent and function to our welfare laws to protect domestic
animals from cruelty.

The philosophical foundation for slavery in later societies was
Aristotle's assertion that some humans were "natural" slaves. The
great respect for Aristotle in the medieval period meant that slavery
continued to be legal in Europe through the Middle Ages. In practice,
chattel slavery was largely replaced by serfdom, in which the serf
was attached to a land grant, rather than sold separately. The changes
in production in medieval Europe made slavery largely uneconomic,
however. After Christianity became the major religion, the Biblical
passages recognizing slavery ("Slaves, obey your masters" in St. Paul)
reinforced Aristotle, and became the standard justification for
slavery in post-medieval societies, including the United States.

Once European countries began to expand into colonial areas, and
especially when large-scale plantations and estates under European
ownership developed in the Americas, Africa, and the East, slavery
became economically rational once more. The first beginnings of a
racial (as opposed to cultural) justification for slavery began in
this period. The first racial group to be defined as "natural"
slaves in the Americas were the Native Americans. Native Americans
continued to provide most of the slaves in the areas under Spanish
control, such as what is now California and the American Southwest,
up through the 19th century. The Native Americans were largely
exterminated or driven out of the areas along the Eastern coast
under control of the British, and they were replaced by slaves
captured in Africa. The idea that slaves were African or "black"
was a very recent phenomenon in the English colonies and the
United States which replaced them, although black slaves had been
among those found in ancient Egypt, the Roman empire, the Islamic
areas of the Middle East, and among the African tribes themselves.

Most people are fairly familiar with the development of
abolitionism in England, Europe, and the U.S.from the 18th century
on.

Slippery Slope wrote:
> Karen Winter slopped around:
>
> >
> > Comments are invited.
>
> Off-topic.




Slavery of animals is ON TOPIC you witless poof.