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S.S. Bartchy offers this important summary of the differences between ancient and American slavery: "Central features that distinguish 1st century slavery from that later practiced in the New World are the following: racial factors played no role; education was greatly encouraged (some slaves were better educated than their owners) and enhanced a slave's value [so, the Jeeves-and-Wooster conventions of Plautus were not far off the mark - PJL]; many slaves carried out sensitive and highly responsible social functions; slaves could own property (including other slaves!); their religious and cultural traditions were the same as those of the freeborn; no laws prohibited public assembly of slaves; and (perhaps above all) the majority of urban and domestic slaves could legitimately anticipate being emancipated by the age of 30." He points out also that some would voluntarily become slaves of Roman citizens, because slaves of citizens had a good chance of being manumitted into citizenship or buying their way to citizenship. If only the Christian slaveholders of the South had taken their cues from pagan antiquity.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 02:54 PM
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