Have you noticed how all human civilisations have been built by taking advantage of other people?

Question

The ancient egyptians used slaves. I'm sure the greeks, romans and aztecs used slaves. And of course, america was built with the african slave trade.

Therefore, shouldn't people be grateful for slavery, despite of course the obvious hardship

Answer 1

Um, no. Your reasoning is flawed. Slaves should be grateful for what? Having a chance to toil and build monuments for the elite ruling class? People should be gratedful for an historical legacy of human subjugation which continues to handicap societies long after slavery is abolished? Cities, temples, and public works could have all been built on a wage; slavery was just a cheaper option for elites.

Answer 2

The term slave is a loose definition when used with the ancient cultures. Where yes, they did do manual labor and were often treated poorly, they were generally captured warriors/soldiers and considered spoils of victory.

Others are also right that slaves would not have done much of the work it was previously thought they did. Building pyramids and other monuments would have been a high honor in many civilizations, therefore slaves would not have been good enough to do the work. Many pyramid workers had their own "towns" set apart from the city so they could focus on their work because that is what they were paid to do, and it was such a high honor. So to say slave labor built the ancient world would be wrong, although it was a part and did help.

To say America was built on slave labor would also be wrong. The building you're talking about tends to be in the agricultural sense. And then yes, it did greatly increase the ability of farmers to mass produce crops and have huge farms. However, America is not built solely on agriculture. Many Germans, Irish, Chinese, and other nationalities helped build the railroads, which linked the nation from coast to coast. So it would be better to say America was built on Immigrant labor, as these were not slaves, but workers or indentured servants who had a debt to repay. And although working conditions and compensation might have been poor, not only did the workers tend to choose to do that job (even if there was little to nothing else available, they could have chosen to go back home), many jobs were poorly paid and compensated for no matter where you were unless you were the owner.

Answer 3

Ouch that's going to get you some thumbs down friend.

Here is the thing, yes almost all civilizations have been built on the backs of of others. However in the modern PC world it is hard to understand that Slavery was a universal concept, and more often than not the conditions we prescribe to slavery were not as brutal as we assume.

Now I know that comment alone is going to garner a lot of thumbs down but it is true.

You can not use people for hard labor if they are broken or weak, you need to feed them you need to rest them, you need to allow them some freedoms so that they are able to perform the tasks they are needed to do.

now this is not true of all cultures, some held no value for slaves. but many did and realized it was better to have a happy well fed slave than an angry hungry one.

Mayans for example had a system, a farmer who was captured as a slave had to give x amount of time or supplies to his captors a year. Now he may still be in the service of his original master as well, so he may slit his time between two rival factions because both had claims to him as a slave.

Romans also used slaves, slaves were capable of moving out of slavery in to freedom by buying their way out or by working for it.

i don't know if we should be grateful, but we should understand the role of slavery in the role of human development for better or for worse.

Answer 4

The US wasn't built on direct slave labor. In fact slavery by the time it was abolished in the US was almost impractical. The invention of the cotton gin had made it economically inefficient. Instead virtual slave labor which was what built the railroads and ran the sweatshops was more economically feasible. Paying very low wages then soaking them up with the company store creating essentially servitude was almost free labor without the responsibility and overhead of slavery.

Rome was not built by slave labor. Rome was built primarily by paid craftsmen. Slaves were used for entertainment and domestic work and not prevalent until Rome had already started to ascend. When Rome started depending more and more on slaves for it's labor it was already in decline.

Egypt used many slaves but again it's skilled workers were paid craftsmen. At one point slaves (the Moors) wound up sitting as Pharoahs in Egypt.

I cannot think of a single culture where slave labor was essential that was not a culture in decline or just rising. China for example uses slave labor to produce cheaper goods. Still even with China slave labor is a minor part of their total labor force.

You will find in history many shifts between open slavery and economic servitude. You'll see it in Rome, Greece, Europe, the US, Asia. Supposedly free peoples who were not all the free economically. Generally in the past this has been more efficient than slavery.

Slavery is wrong on a moral basis. Once you take the point of view of what if you personally were the slave. After that you cannot justify it. Slave labor is often quite inefficient. Many of the laborers at the pyramids were paid craftsmen. Greece, US, and all the other examples. A paid employee even if the wages are a joke is going to be more motivated and less prone to sabatage. Paid workers require less supervision thus less overhead.

Throughout history slavery has generally been a punishment and a form of genocide. Why just execute them when you can work them to death and get some value in return? In Rome as well as England debters were enslaved to work off debts. Of course while enslaved they'd incur fake debts to lengthen the term of slavery essentially becoming a life as a slave.

Conquered peoples were enslaved for several reasons. The first was to intimidate future potential foes. It was cheaper and easier to make a kingdom pay tribute than to conquer them. With tribute you have the taxes without the overhead of providing governing. It was used to empty conquered lands so that those lands could be given to natives of the conquering nation. It was used to prevent revolts. If the warriors of a race grew up in chains to live short hard lives they were unlikely to revolt. Ultimately is was used to erase whole peoples off the face of the earth. Others had their numbers greatly reduced by slavery. The Celts for example used the natives of Spain as slaves. The Peons were what they were called. We know little about them since the Celts had no written language and by the time the Romans arrived in Spain the Peons had centuries of subjegation and were already disapeering as a seperate people. The Romans continued to keep the remaining Peons in servitude and subsequent rulers of Spain did the same.

So in general slavery was a loss for the world. Unique cultures have been smashed. Art work destroyed as it was considered "slave" art. Languages gone. Great volumes of knowledge gone such as the Spanish destruction of Mayan written records.

Answer 5

Many well thought out and researched answers. Here's just a bit of literary graffiti:
The Hellenistic Greeks did have the Spartans, a warrior society. Militarism is a form of slavery in my opinion.
They were the strong arm that protected the brain, though they sometimes fought Athens as well as the Persians.
Yes, civilization makes uses for people and makes people for uses.
To quote CR. Mudgeon; " Slavery hasn't been abolished, it's merely been outsourced."
There are many forms of oppression, it may be political as in the traditional definition, but also geographic and economic.
Welcome to the world of passive dissidence, we're glad to have ya.

Answer 6

That's a really bizarre and intriguing statement - damn interesting.

But I'm certain the nations who have perished due to the slave trade wouldn't be very grateful for slavery at all. If you don't believe me, check out the brutality the Europeans and Americans metted out in the Congo and go from there in any direction you please because it doesn't get any better.

Answer 7

Plenty of slavery still going on today, but not all of the owners are in process of building new civilizations. And I don't reckon the slaves should feel grateful that they are able to contribute in this way. Having leisure time, once freed from the sheer necessity of going out and labouring to wrest a living from the environment, has certainly enabled mankind to progress, but even though we now have machines to labour for us, man's inhumanity to man still persists. We could try co-operation as a substitute for co-option. It does exist, but it needs to become the norm.

Answer 8

Not all of them. There were some peacefull civilizations but they became slaves of those who were grateful for slavery.Althought the Minoan civilization who was based on the trading of their goods and not on slavery,lasted hundreds of years. And just thing that they were neighbors with the ancient Egyptians!!

Answer 9

Slavery continues...

Ancient civilisations used slaves. But also you should see that all of them built in the geographically difficult zones.

It is always the same. Today it continues. US and Europe continues to steal from the third world. We don't call it slavery but it's now imperialism...

As a marxist theory says, 90% of the community does not have a kind of production tool. 10% steals their right...

Answer 10

If I read your question correctly you are not asking those who were enslaved or come from a background of slavery to be grateful but should not people in general be grateful for slavery. Maybe your question is ill put. Rephrased as should not those civilisations and countries be grateful to the people they enslaved it makes more sense. If this is what you meant then I agree with you and that gratitude should be expressed more in terms of assistance to those who suffered as a result of our forebears. In many cases this is happening but the human race is slow to recognise the error of its ways