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Premodern Slavery

Premodern Slavery. Modes of Acquisition Sources of slaves Status in society Roles in Society Economic Function Patterson: social death, cut off from history Davis: dehumanization and coercion. Pre-Modern Slavery. Ancient: Babylon Hebrew Slavery Egypt. Hammurabi’s Code

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Premodern Slavery

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  1. Premodern Slavery Modes of Acquisition Sources of slaves Status in society Roles in Society Economic Function Patterson: social death, cut off from history Davis: dehumanization and coercion

  2. Pre-Modern Slavery • Ancient: Babylon • Hebrew Slavery • Egypt • Hammurabi’s Code • Scriptural Sanctions • Public Works The number of spoil taken in them ..... of vile Naharina who were as defenders among them, with their horses, 691 prisoners, 29 hands [of slain], 48 mares ... in that year 295 male and female slaves, 68 horses, 3 gold dishes, 3 silver dishes, .....Report from the 42nd (?) year of the reign of Thutmose IIIW.M.F. Petrie A History of Egypt  Part II p.122

  3. Premodern Slavery • Ancient Greece Aristotle: natural subordination: “He who is by nature not his own but another's man, is by nature a slave.” Slaves worked in agriculture, mines, crafts, and as domestics. Most Families had one or two. Plato owned five. Large scale holdings were rare. Small agricultural holdings were the norm. Spartans had a class of workers, helots, akin to serfs, and they also had some designated as slaves.

  4. Greece • The common ground was the deprivation of civic rights. • Citizens had • right to own property • authority over the work of another • power of punishment over another • Slaves had • restricted legal rights • restricted familial rights and privileges (marriage, inheritance, etc.) • possibility of social mobility (manumission or emancipation, access to citizen rights) • religious rights and obligations • military rights and obligations (military service as servant, heavy or light soldier, or sailor)

  5. Premodern Slavery • Ancient: Rome • “All slaves are enemies” Free urban population: 7M Slave urban 1.3-1.9 M Free rural: 42M Slave rural: 3.5-6.5 Slaves represented between 7-13% of population. The raw numbers would average between 5-8M slaves. Sources: war and reproduction

  6. Rome • Familiarustica • Familiaurbana

  7. Premodern Slavery • African slavery • Internal and External • Kinship and assimilation • Privileges • Disabilities • Arab/Islamic • Female to male 2:1

  8. Concepts • Captive • Chattel • Commodity • Dehumanization • Coercion/Punishment • Dishonor

  9. Summary Premodern Slavery • Justifications: captives in a just war, judicial (penal or debt), social (voluntary self-sale, poverty) • Slaves can sometimes exercise administrative/social power/status (Babylon, Rome, Egypt) • Many forms of limited duration (set terms, manumission was frequent, though not necessarily full freedom) • Commodification: some, e.g. Saharan trade, but not large scale market (warfare was sporadic)

  10. Summary Premodern Slavery • Enslavement: typically an “other,” tribe, ethnicity, religion, nationality, but often indistinguishable, i.e. need for branding and/or other identifiers, sometimes internal, e.g. Greek adoption of abandoned infants. • Assimilation: African kinship assimilation, subsequent generations in Mediterranean cultures. • Slave labor: domestic, craft production, civil works, managerial, agricultural (though not for industrialized production for export)

  11. Origins of Racism • Chicken or Egg ? • Subhuman (Genetics) • Blackness/Labor • Childlike (limited intelligence, knowledge) • Animalistic (instinctive and lascivious, not rational) • Bible: Noah’s Curse (sin) • Blackness (evil) • Darkness, Danger, Evil, the Devil, Chaos, Witches • Uncivilized (pagan, literacy, technology, custom)

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