Part of the problem with slavery in particular is that it’s taken vastly different forms in different times and places. Roman style slavery wasn’t that different from the “wage slavery” we have today. I remember when I was taking Latin one of the things we translated was the diary of a slave that worked for an aqueduct designer, in his diaries he complained that his owner really needed to get a wife because many of the demeaning wife work was falling to him.
American slavery though was pretty obviously wrong. Way too much violence, way too much reliance on racial prejudice and pseudo justification. Any time you have to regularly beat your workers and forbid them from gaining skills that could potentially benefit you you know you’re on the wrong path.
Oh, you're right. I remember once the United Food and Commercial Workers Union tried to strike at Safeway for a $.35 raise and government's response was to crucify thousands of grocery sackers along the I-35 corridor. In retrospect, it makes me wonder what that whiner Spartacus ever had to complain about.
I remember when I was taking Latin one of the things we translated was the diary of a slave that worked for an aqueduct designer, in his diaries he complained that his owner really needed to get a wife because many of the demeaning wife work was falling to him.
I guess the slaves mining out the Sandaracurgium mountainside don't count because they were too busy dying to write to you.
American slavery though was pretty obviously wrong.
Well, it's nice to know that, somewhere between gladiatorial combat and splitting rail, you're willing to draw a moral line in the sand.
Way too much violence...
Do you actually imagine there was more violence practiced against slaves in America? The ancient pater familias had unrestricted power of life and death over even his own children, no less his slaves. In America there were laws against harsh treatment or neglect of slaves.
Any time you have to regularly beat your workers and forbid them from gaining skills that could potentially benefit you you know you're on the wrong path.
Many people these days would be shocked to learn that corporal punishment was really quite common in the workplace of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. Factory workers were probably as frequently beaten by foremen as plantation labourers were by overseers. Sailors were CERTAINLY beaten more frequently and severely.