Slavery at Different Times and Places

Abstract

THE TITLE OF THE SESSION at which these papers were originally presented, Looking at Slavery from Broader Perspectives, can refer to at least three different issues. First, slavery has been one of the most ubiquitous of human institutions, and has existed in many places. It has been present in societies dominated by all major religions and ideologies, and had legally lasted in some places into the second half of the twentieth century-if not more informally in places until the present day. Although there are important differences in its economic and legal basis, certain characteristics regarding who could be enslaved or who could be bought and sold had important similarities, and the study of these differences and similarities provides a useful basis for numerous comparative studies related to the understanding of human behavior and social institutions. Second, slavery, when it existed, should not be examined in isolation from other institutions and happenings at that or other times. Thus it is important to trace the various linkages of slavery with the nonslave aspects of different societies. Third, related to the second, the previously sharp line between slavery as the evil and other labor and social systems that are therefore seen as quite different, and thus somehow more acceptable, has now become blurred, pointing to the usefulness of more detailed comparisons of the legalities and actualities of various types of social and labor institutions.' One basic problem that must be dealt with is the precise definition of slavery and, correspondingly, of nonslavery. Definitions are generally a rather dull topic, but, in the case of slavery, they have been central to the understanding of nonslavery or freedom. Any specific definition of slavery has legal, cultural, political, and economic aspects, and it is often hard to know exactly where to draw the line among labor institutions as well as between legal slavery and the use of slavery as a metaphor for any form of human poverty and domination. If slavery is regarded as a unique mode of control of individuals, this would seem to make all nonslavery appear as freedom and, therefore, to be regarded as a progressive and desirable development. If however, slavery is regarded as only one part, or one end, of a spectrum of controls, then some would argue that this makes slavery seem less evil and more benign than it was, compared to other forms of social control. The many past and present uses of the analogy of slavery in describing social and labor systems suggests that few, if any, of slavery's controls are by themselves