{"id":34755,"date":"2023-08-05T22:08:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T22:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=34755"},"modified":"2023-08-06T04:29:09","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T04:29:09","slug":"dismantling-the-myth-that-ancient-slavery-wasnt-that-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/dismantling-the-myth-that-ancient-slavery-wasnt-that-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"Dismantling the myth that ancient slavery \u2018wasn\u2019t that\u00a0bad\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chance Bonar<\/a>, Tufts University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As someone who researches slavery in the ancient Mediterranean world<\/a>, especially in the Bible, I often hear remarks like, \u201cSlavery was totally different back then, right?\u201d \u201cWell, it couldn\u2019t have been that bad.\u201d \u201cCouldn\u2019t slaves buy their freedom?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most people in the United States or Europe in the 21st century are more knowledgeable about the transatlantic slave trade, and live in societies deeply shaped by it<\/a>. People can see the effects of modern enslavement everywhere from mass incarceration<\/a> and housing segregation<\/a> to voting habits<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effects of ancient slavery, on the other hand, aren\u2019t as tangible today \u2013 and most Americans have only a vague idea of what it looked like. Some people might think of biblical stories, such as Joseph\u2019s jealous brothers selling him into slavery<\/a>. Others might picture movies like \u201cSpartacus,\u201d or the myth that enslaved people built the Egyptian pyramids<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because these kinds of slavery took place so long ago and weren\u2019t based on modern racism, some people have the impression that they weren\u2019t as harsh or violent<\/a>. That impression makes room for public figures like Christian theologian and analytic philosopher William Lane Craig to argue that ancient slavery was actually beneficial<\/a> for enslaved people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern factors like capitalism<\/a> and racist pseudoscience<\/a> did shape the transatlantic slave trade in uniquely harrowing and enduring ways. Enslaved labor, for example, shaped economists\u2019 theories<\/a> about the \u201cfree market\u201d and global trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to understand slavery from that era \u2013 or to combat slavery today \u2013 we also need to understand the longer history of involuntary labor. As a scholar of ancient slavery and early Christian history<\/a>, I often encounter three myths that stand in the way of understanding ancient slavery and how systems of enslavement have evolved over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
A Roman funerary relief of the Decii, a family of formerly enslaved people from the 2nd century. Husband and wife clasp their hands while their son, holding a dove, stands between them. The inscription names them as A. Decius Spinther, Decia Spendusa and A Decius Felicio. Werner Forman\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Myth #1: There is one kind of \u2018biblical slavery\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The collection of texts that ended up in the Bible represent centuries of different writers from across the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, often in very different circumstances, making it hard to generalize about how slavery worked in \u201cbiblical\u201d societies. Most importantly, the Hebrew Bible<\/a> \u2013 what Christians call \u201cthe Old Testament\u201d \u2013 emerged primarily in the ancient Near East, while the New Testament emerged in the early Roman Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forms of enslavement and involuntary labor in the ancient Near East, for example \u2013 areas such as Egypt, Syria and Iran \u2013 were not always chattel slavery, in which enslaved people were considered property. Rather, some people were temporarily enslaved to pay off their debts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this was not the case for all people enslaved in the ancient Near East, and certainly not under the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire<\/a>, where millions were trafficked and forced to labor in domestic, urban and agricultural settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the range of periods and cultures involved in the production of biblical literature, there is no such thing as a single \u201cbiblical slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Joseph sold by his brothers, 1636-1641. Found in the collection of the Musei Capitolini, Rome. Fine Art Images\/Heritage Images via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nor is there a single \u201cbiblical perspective\u201d on slavery. The most anyone can say is that no biblical texts or writers explicitly condemn the institution of enslavement or the practice of chattel slavery. More robust challenges to slavery by Christians started to emerge in the fourth century C.E., in the writings of figures like St. Gregory of Nyssa<\/a>, a theologian who lived in Cappadocia, in present-day Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth #2: Ancient slavery was not as cruel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like Myth #1, this myth often comes from conflating some Near Eastern and Egyptian practices of involuntary labor, such as debt slavery, with Greek and Roman chattel slavery. By focusing on other forms of involuntary labor in specific ancient cultures, it is easy to overlook the widespread practice of chattel slavery and its harshness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Part<\/a>
A Roman relief portraying an enslaved person being freed. DEA\/A. Dagli Orti\/De Agostini via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, across the ancient Mediterranean, there is evidence of a variety of horrific practices: branding<\/a>, whipping, bodily disfiguration, sexual assault<\/a>, torture during legal trials, incarceration, crucifixion and more. In fact, a Latin inscription from Puteoli<\/a>, an ancient city near Naples, Italy, recounts what enslavers could pay undertakers to whip or crucify enslaved people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christians were not exempt from participating in this cruelty. Archaeologists have found collars from Italy and North Africa that enslavers placed upon their enslaved people<\/a>, offering a price for their return if they fled. Some of these collars bear Christian symbols like the chi-rho (\u2627), which combines the first two letters of Jesus\u2019 name in Greek. One collar mentions that the enslaved person needs to be returned to their enslaver, \u201cFelix the archdeacon<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s difficult to apply contemporary moral standards to earlier eras, not least societies thousands of years ago. But even in an ancient world in which slavery was ever present<\/a>, it is clear not everyone bought into the ideology of the elite enslavers. There are records of multiple slave rebellions in Greece and Italy \u2013 most famously, that of the escaped gladiator Spartacus<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth #3: Ancient slavery wasn\u2019t discriminatory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Slavery in the ancient Mediterranean wasn\u2019t based on race or skin color in the same way as the transatlantic slave trade, but this doesn\u2019t mean ancient systems of enslavement weren\u2019t discriminatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Enslaved people in a stone quarry, detail from an Assyrian relief in the British Museum. DeAgostini\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Much of the history of Greek and Roman slavery involves enslaving people from other groups<\/a>: Athenians enslaving non-Athenians, Spartans enslaving non-Spartans, Romans enslaving non-Romans. Often captured or defeated through warfare, such enslaved people were either forcibly migrated to a new area or were kept on their ancestral land and compelled to do farmwork or be domestic workers for their conquerors. Roman law required a slave\u2019s \u201cnatio,\u201d or place of origin, to be announced during auctions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ancient Mediterranean enslavers prioritized the purchase of people from different parts of the world on account of stereotypes about their various characteristics. Varro, a scholar who wrote about the management of agriculture<\/a>, argued that an enslaver shouldn\u2019t have too many enslaved people who were from the same nation or who could speak the same language, because they might organize and rebel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ancient slavery still depended on categorizing some groups of people as \u201cothers,\u201d treating them as though they were wholly different from those who enslaved them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picture of slavery that most Americans are familiar with was deeply shaped by its time, particularly modern racism and capitalism. But other forms of slavery throughout human history were no less \u201creal.\u201d Understanding them and their causes may help challenge slavery today and in the future \u2013 especially at a time when some politicians are again claiming transatlantic slavery actually benefited enslaved people<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chance Bonar<\/a>, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for the Humanities, Tufts University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chance Bonar, Tufts University As someone who researches slavery in the ancient Mediterranean world, especially in the Bible, I often hear remarks like, \u201cSlavery was totally different back then, right?\u201d \u201cWell, it couldn\u2019t have been that bad.\u201d \u201cCouldn\u2019t slaves buy their freedom?\u201d Most people in the United States or Europe in the 21st century are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":34756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,2450],"tags":[3764,2849,12968,1829,14481,10190,191,1553,6610,8758,1917],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34755"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34761,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34755\/revisions\/34761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}