Due its horrific role in the history of the United States the concept of slavery has an extremely negative connotation in the modern mind. This association leads to an entirely justified denouncement of all slavery, including that of the ancient world. However, the ancient world was a much harsher reality than our modern society and to view both systems of slavery through the same lens would only lead to a misinterpretation and false judgment of ancient culture and practices. Slavery in the ancient world was based on entirely different principles than it is today and helped form the basis of their basic economic system. Not only was slavery an efficient system in the ancient world, it was at the time one of the only options for establishing
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Modern slavery is based on the idea of one human being as the property of another. The slave trade in the 1800’s, for example, was a matter of selling abducted humans as goods. Conversely in the ancient world slavery was a result of invasion and conquest. Rather than kidnapping people and selling them in a marketplace prisoners of war were forced into slavery as an alternative to being killed. The ancient Greeks did not view slaves as their own “property”. Instead, they saw slaves as people over whom they had dominion, a dominion established on the battlefield. As Kostas Vlassopoulos wrote in The Journal of Hellenic Studies , “Douleia (slavery) for them was not a relationship of property… rather it defined a situation in which an individual or a community was under the power of another individual or community.” Slavery in the ancient world was essentially a power dynamic where one party had established command over another and thus controlled the actions and freedom of the weaker party. Slaves were viewed as fully human but were simply in a lesser position than their masters. Plato taught that “the difference between ruling over a state, a kingdom, an estate, and over slaves is merely one of scale”. Because the ancient world was so socially stratified slavery was less an issue of race than it was an issue of status. Once both are understood modern and ancient slavery simply …show more content…
The integration of slaves into culture provided a unique opportunity for ideas and techniques to spread. “‘Slavery forced people with diverse technical skills and education across linguistic and cultural boundaries’ and thus was ‘perhaps the main agent of technology transfer and innovation’ in the ancient Mediterranean.” Slavery forced assimilation and that assimilation bred innovation and sparked the creation of new ideas. Many slaves developed very specific skill sets which lead to specialization. Slaves would work permanently at jobs that free men would only work at for brief periods of time, leading the slaves to become highly skilled in those specific areas. Specialization led to the development of more efficient methods, including new technologies and techniques which advanced the society as a whole. Slavery also helped the spread of cultures and stories. Stories like the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid are still available today because they were so widely known throughout ancient culture. The promulgation of these legends and myths was a byproduct of slavery. Slavery allowed for the culture and technology of the ancient world to grow and blossom in a way that would not have been possible without the culture synergy it
Modern slavery is based on the idea of one human being as the property of another. The slave trade in the 1800’s, for example, was a matter of selling abducted humans as goods. Conversely in the ancient world slavery was a result of invasion and conquest. Rather than kidnapping people and selling them in a marketplace prisoners of war were forced into slavery as an alternative to being killed. The ancient Greeks did not view slaves as their own “property”. Instead, they saw slaves as people over whom they had dominion, a dominion established on the battlefield. As Kostas Vlassopoulos wrote in The Journal of Hellenic Studies , “Douleia (slavery) for them was not a relationship of property… rather it defined a situation in which an individual or a community was under the power of another individual or community.” Slavery in the ancient world was essentially a power dynamic where one party had established command over another and thus controlled the actions and freedom of the weaker party. Slaves were viewed as fully human but were simply in a lesser position than their masters. Plato taught that “the difference between ruling over a state, a kingdom, an estate, and over slaves is merely one of scale”. Because the ancient world was so socially stratified slavery was less an issue of race than it was an issue of status. Once both are understood modern and ancient slavery simply …show more content…
The integration of slaves into culture provided a unique opportunity for ideas and techniques to spread. “‘Slavery forced people with diverse technical skills and education across linguistic and cultural boundaries’ and thus was ‘perhaps the main agent of technology transfer and innovation’ in the ancient Mediterranean.” Slavery forced assimilation and that assimilation bred innovation and sparked the creation of new ideas. Many slaves developed very specific skill sets which lead to specialization. Slaves would work permanently at jobs that free men would only work at for brief periods of time, leading the slaves to become highly skilled in those specific areas. Specialization led to the development of more efficient methods, including new technologies and techniques which advanced the society as a whole. Slavery also helped the spread of cultures and stories. Stories like the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid are still available today because they were so widely known throughout ancient culture. The promulgation of these legends and myths was a byproduct of slavery. Slavery allowed for the culture and technology of the ancient world to grow and blossom in a way that would not have been possible without the culture synergy it