Korean Nobi and American Black Slavery: An Essay in Comparison

Abstract

This paper puts Korean nobi in international perspective–first–in comparison to the American black slavery, to capture their characteristics fully. Comparing Choson nobi-system prevalent in the 15th to the 17th centuries and the black slavery in the antebellum southern United States, we found common features such that the two kinds of coerced labor had about one–third share in population; both were legally owner’s chattel as subject to sales and inheritance; most black slaves and a part of the nobi were fed and worked by their masters, indicating they were of “true” slave status. On the other hand, although the average size of nobi-holding by Choson yangban (literati) was smaller than that of the American planters, the scale of ownership by some royal families and bureaucrats was beyond comparison. The larger the scale of ownership, the peasant-like enterprising nobi became more independent with property rights, legal entities and civil rights. In cultural aspects, the crucial difference lay in the origin of the two institutions. The fact that they were recruited from the alien land, together with religious and secular prejudices against their unerasable skin color, isolated black slaves from the free people to the last. Choson nobi were internally expelled, obscure in origin or in collective memory, and intermingled with the free people other than yangban without a clear dividing line. These differences, in turn, dictated the process of emancipation. While the moral and the religious reform was important in recognition of the ‘pure soul’ of black slaves in the United States, in Choson, there was no substantial change in the perception of human nature. The disruption in the political structure of yangban society, which counterbalanced the power of king, was a key factor. Balancing overall similarities and differences, we conclude that it is inappropriate to call the Choson nobi slaves in general sense.