Slavery

(From Gr. sklabos, prisioner). Age-old institution entailing absolute dependence of one human being (the slave) on another or others (the slaveholder). The slave is regarded as a thing, a living instrument that can be bought, sold, inherited, etc. Initially, prisoners of war, women and children of conquered tribes were made into slaves by their conquerors. Later, with the development of mercantilist relations, creditors began to convert debtors and their impoverished neighbors and relatives into slaves. In this way, great slave markets developed, with slaves working not only in domestic chores but also in agriculture, mining, crafts, as galley slaves on ships, gladiators in public spectacles, etc. The children of slaves were also considered slaves. S. and the slave trade eventually developed into a highly lucrative branch of the economy. Some slaves belonged to the State, as for example the Helots in Sparta. Slaves frequently rose up against their oppressors, as in the famous slave wars of Ancient Rome in the years 135, 105-102 BCE, and the uprising of 73-71 BCE, this last led by the renowned Spartacus. In Haiti, Toussaint Louverture led a slave insurrection against the French slaveholders from 1796 to 1802, which culminated in island’s independence. The productivity of slaves was always quite low in comparison with the work of free persons, but was compensated by the very low cost of slaves obtained in innumerable wars and pirate operations. The slave trade was one of the most important sources of the wealth used to finance the empires of Rome, England, Holland, Portugal, Spain and others. S. was abolished in Europe as a result of the French Revolution of 1789; later in Latin America during the wars of independence; in British India in 1833; in the French colonies in 1848; in the United States in 1865; in Paraguay in 1870; and in Brazil in 1888. However, s. resurged in the empires of Hitler, Stalin and Mao in the form of concentration camps and the use of mass forced labor. S. still survives today in various countries in Africa, Asia, in some states of the Caribbean, Central America, and republics formed following the collapse of the USSR, sometimes reappearing in disguised forms. S. contradicts the legal and moral conscience of today’s humankind, as reflected in the UN Charter . Humanism has always condemned and continues to condemn s. as a shameful institution, opposed to the freedom and dignity of the human being.