What do slaveholders think?

Re:What do slaveholders think? by mafribe on Saturday March 25, 2017 @04:04AM (#13954571)

   distortion of your ethics

It's interesting to reflect on the fact that there were many slave revolts in antiquity, but the revolting slaves did not seek to abolish slavery, they merely wanted to stop being slaves and have their own slaves. In other words, even slaves had no problem with slavery as an institution.

We also should always be aware that every serious discussion of slavery must begin with the question: what do you mean by "slavery", for the term is used in wildly different ways.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What do slaveholders think? by yardie on Saturday March 25, 2017 @09:54AM (#13955637)

Could you give examples of this. Of the slave revolts I can remember in recent history none of them wanted to replace their masters. They just wanted out.

But pondering further. If you have a successful revolt what do you believe the punishment for the perpetrators should be. Would death be a just punishment? What if the empowered slaves offered enslavement of their former masters as an alternative?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What do slaveholders think? by mafribe on Sunday March 26, 2017 @09:49AM (#13960767)

   Could you give examples of this.

Example of what? The standard text on the subject [1] says there are no known instances of slave revolts in antiquity that sought to abolish slavery as an institution. If you know counterexamples, I'd be interested to learn about them.

   Would death be a just punishment?
   What if ...

I can't see either being particularly productive. It's really very simple -- albeit unpleasant: there is a reason why some small group of people manage to enslave a large number of people: slavers are better than slaves. Better at cooperation, better at conflict avoidance, better at socially organising violence, better at dividing-and-conquering their enemies, better at science, better at engineering, better at teaching their children, better at forming and maintaining society. Slaves should learn from slavers, not kill them. But learning is hard, and not immediately emotionally gratifying.

The Haitian slave revolution of the late 18th, early 19th century lead to immediate genocide of the remaining whites and and mixed race inhabitants [2]. Haiti, which was once the wealthiest Caribbean island has been a basket case ever since.

Coincidentally, after the successful revolution, the black leadership reinstituted slavery, albeit symbolically abolishing the whip [3].

The Haitian slave rebellion teaches us a large number of lessons about humanity, most not very palatable.

[1] Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realencyclop%C3%A4die_der_clas...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_Haiti_massacre

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution#Free_republ...

[ Parent | on HN ]