Slavery

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The touchy subject of

Race

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Key concepts
Racism and racists
Whenever I hear anyone arguing over slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
Abraham Lincoln
Slavery in the United States in 1860:
1. Blue/Blue-green: outlawed.
2. Red/pinkish: legalized in some form. (Wait, why does this look familiar?)
3. New Jersey (purple) abolished slavery in name in 1846 and had a weak gradual emancipation plan in place since 1804, but there were still 18 "apprentices for life" by the start of the Civil War.
4. New Hampshire never abolished slavery but its legislature did ratify the Thirteenth Amendment.[1]
5. Prior to the Dred Scott decision, slavery had been illegal in the unorganized territory next to Minnesota.

Slavery is an institution in which one human being claims ownership of another, usually for the purposes of the "economic enrichment" of the owner through the forced labour of the slave. Slavery has a long and ignoble history dating back to the earliest days of humanity.

Contents

[edit] The Atlantic slave trade

The most infamous incarnation of this practice was the Atlantic slave trade, in which Africans sold other Africans (often people captured in war, or stuck in debt peonage) to Europeans, who transported said people to work plantations in the Americas. The Atlantic slave trade was outlawed by the British in 1807, and the practice of slavery tapered out across the Americas over the next several decades. The last country in the Western Hemisphere to emancipate its slaves was Brazil in 1888.

This slave trade was by no means the first use of slaves in the world. Slavery had existed long before in Africa (and these slaves were the first to be sold to Europeans for working in America and elsewhere) and in other parts of the world, although often going by different names, such as "indentured workers." The practice of owning and treating people as property is thought to date back to Ancient Egypt and undoubtedly a less formal version has existed throughout the history of human civilization. Most ancient cultures (Egyptians, Romans, Greeks etc.) had one form of slavery or another. Ancient Rome was thought to have a massively high population of slaves, with the numbers being so high that they could be thought of as an ancient working class, although the estimates vary. In ancient Greece, the situation was slightly more complex due to the presence of several levels of slave.

One of the advantages of capitalism is that it requires the participation of free labor. In 1945, the Trindadian historian Eric Williams argued that the European abolition of slavery in the 19th century was undertaken not in the name of compassion for the enslaved, but in order to meet the demands of new capitalist economies.[2]

[edit] Slavery in the United States

Slavery in the United States started out as indentured servants, primarily of Irish descent.[3] As crop yields increased, so did the demand for labor. Anthony Johnson, a former indentured servant of African descent, filed a lawsuit to keep his indentured servant for the remainder of the servant's life, officially legalizing slavery in the Virginia Colony. Soon, many Europeans bought and sold Africans across the Atlantic to keep up with demand. Many historians believe that although race was not a causative issue, it was an important one, as non-African slaves were indebted or criminals whereas Africans were kidnapped.[4]

The three fifths clause in the Constitution (Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3) was about congressional representation as legally black slaves were regarded as having 0% rights, not even 60%. Southern states initially advocated that their slaves be counted as a full person so that they would have more representation in congress, while the North did not want them to count at all,as they were not legal citizens and could not vote. So they could settle and form a nation, The North suggested slaves count as half a person, while the south wanted them to be 3/4th; they settled on 3/5ths.[5]

Areas in the United States where slavery was most common have unusually strong levels of race-based economic disparity, implying a direct heritage of modern economic problems among American Blacks due to slavery.[6]

[edit] Slavery in the Bible

See the main article on this topic: Slavery in the Bible
Slavery was established by decree of Almighty God. It is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation. It has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts.
—Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, head stuck up his ass

Slavery is an excellent example of a social institution that is regarded as normal and acceptable in the Bible, but which is regarded today as an abomination. An interesting example of Christian and Jewish moral relativism, eh?

[edit] Slavery today

It is estimated that there are still upwards of 27 million people enslaved today.[7] This number is higher than at any previous time in history, but abolitionists hope the practise can be wiped out in 30 years.[8] This depends on the definition of slave, as some often count sex workers as slaves, particularly if they are immigrants that have been forced into the work to pay off debts to their contacts that helped them move country.

The income tax is not slavery, despite what some whiny Teabaggers would have you believe.

[edit] Slavery in nature

Slave-making ants practice a form of brood parasitism, abducting the young of other ants during raids, to increase the worker force of their own colony. It has been suggested the term be renamed pirate ants, which attempts to suggest impressment is somehow not just a specific type of slavery limited to the enslavement of sailors to serve on an enemy vessel.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. In 1857, it passed an act that said "No person, because of descent, should be disqualified from becoming a citizen of the state." However, the act does not refer to one's status.
  2. Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery, UNC Press Books, 1944.
  3. http://www.ushistory.org/us/5b.asp
  4. http://www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk/5/hicks.html
  5. http://hauensteincenter.org/slaveholding/
  6. 2013 Heather A. O'Connell http://sf.oxfordjournals.org/content/90/3/713.abstract
  7. "Modern-Day Slavery", The New York Times. 2000 September 9.
  8. A tipping point in the fight against slavery?
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