Were there slave plantaions in antiquity Flashcards
Aristotle Politics (6.1323a5-6):
The poor are forced by necessity to use their wives and children as servants, because they do not have slaves.
the argument that only elite have slaves really that slavery is not that common and is more middle-class
Like how in Northern America houses have 1 slave
(Thucydides 3.17.4-5 - end of the 5th century BC).
“It was this, with Potidaea, that most exhausted [Athens’] revenues Potidaea being blockaded by a force of hoplites (each drawing two drachmae a day, one for himself and another for his slave)”
shows that hoplites got paid the same amount as their slave
Lysias (24.6):
My father left me nothing , and I have only stopped supporting my mother on her decease two years ago; while I have no children to take care of me at the moment. I possess a trade that can give me but slight assistance: I already find it difficult carrying it on myself, and currently I am unable to procure someone to relieve me of the work li.e., to buy a slave]. I have no other income besides this dole, and if you deprive me of it I might be in danger of finding myself in the most grievous plight.
This example suggests slavery was widespread, as this man is saying he is so poor he cant even afford a slave, something that sounds like its meant to be shocking
Menander Dyskolos 328-33):
“This property of his is worth about two talents, and he farms is still all by himself, without a man to help — no slave, no hired hand from the area, no neighbour — it’s all done by him, and him alone.”
Another example of a man who doesnt have a slave and it is seen as weird i think? especially because he has such a lot of land
[Demosthenes] (45.86):
“Therefore, I’ll tell you how I think pu all would best form a notion of the enormity of the wrongs I have suffered: just think to yourself of a slave you left behind at home, and then Imagine yourself treated by him as I have been by Phormion. It doesn’t matter if yours is “syrus” or “Manes” or whatever name each has, While this fellow is “Phormion.” No, the circumstances are the same: they are slaves and this fellow was a slave; you are masters and I was master”.
this man is suing a freedman and he tries to get jury’s sympathy by highlighting the fact the other guy used to be a slave, thus it is wrong and offensive they are being put against him
either he is really out of touch with society, thinking everyone had a slave
or he is right and everyone did
Rosivach
Nor were slaves used in either regime for the sake of efficiency or profit, as there is no evidence that agricultural goods produced by slave labor were either cheaper or better than those produced by free labor. We should certainly not underestimate the prestige value of slaves as visible symbols of wealth and status, but from a strictly economic point of view, apparently the only reason why subsistence farmers in both regimes used slaves was because other forms of dependent labor were not available in short supply.
Rosivach
Nor were slaves used in either regime for the sake of efficiency or profit, as there is no evidence that agricultural goods produced by slave labor were either cheaper or better than those produced by free labor. We should certainly not underestimate the prestige value of slaves as visible symbols of wealth and status, but from a strictly economic point of view, apparently the only reason why subsistence farmers in both regimes used slaves was because other forms of dependent labor were not available in short supply.
claims people had slaves to show off wealth and that they were used because other forms of dependent labor were not available in short supply
i dont think this is right
Kopytoff, l. and S. Miers ‘African “slavery” as an institution of marginality’
Slavery in Africa: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives
‘The personal element came most often into play when the outsider served in a small household rather than on a large estate’.
Supports Rosibach argument that slavery in North America had better treatment etc due to the paternalistic aspect of working in the house, simialr to Athens
Whitman, S. “Diverse Good Causes: Manumission and the Transformation of Urban Slavery”, Social Science History 19 (1995), 333-370.
“[Manumission’s] appeal as a strategy for securing bound labor was unquestionably greatest among small slaveholders, to whose economic well being slave malingering or flight posed a greater threat”
Manumission was good incentive was small slaveholders as they were more liekly to be able to escape
law from Crete in the 5th century BC:
and if a female slave should bear a child while separated, (they) are to bring it to the master of the man who married her in the presence of two %htnesses. And if he do not receive it, the child shall be in the power of the master of the female slave; but if she should marry the same man again before the end of the year, the child shall be in the of the master of the male slave (Gortyn Code, Column IV).
Basically using families to keep slavery going, seen in US too- here child of slaves is property of masters
(Berlin 1998).
Instead, like other rural workers, slave farmhands were reduced to near invisibility by being stuffed into garrets, back rooms, closets, and outbuildings. An inventory tor one Long Island estate described the main house as having a parlor, two bedrooms, and an adjoining “room of 14 by 16 foot for white servants, over it lodging rooms and a back stairs; behind it a kitchen witn a room fit for negroes: Occasionally, large slaveholders designated a particular structure for their slaves, generally a small outbuilding distant from the main house. But most made no special provision, and, like Sojourner Truth’s owner, packed their slaves away in a cellar where, Truth remembered, the “inmates, of both sexes and all ages” slept on “damp boards, like the horse, with a little straw and a blanket.” such dismal quarters afforded slaves neither comfort nor privacy.
shows how slaves in America had rubbish living conditions and no privacy, much like in antiquity, helps keep them under control, demoralised and visibly differnt
Slavery in Lysias 1 (On the Murder of Eratosthenes)
Early 4th century BC
This speech was delivered for a court case revolving around a relatively middling Athenian family with a single young slave woman who lives with them. This enslaved domestic servant “goes to market” for the family helps her mistress have an affair behind her husband’s back (a good degree of freedom of movement). The speech also describes the house the family live in and there is no specific room for this young woman (where did she sleep? In a corridor? In some small cupboard?)_
this example shows how slaves in antiquity would have a level of freedom in society, maybe even hard to identify in a crowd etc
Major-General Putnam’s slave
Wearied with such fruitless attempts (which had brought the time to ten o’clock at night) Mr. Putnam tried once more to make his dog enter, but in vain; he proposed to his negro man to go down into the cavern and shoot the wolf: the negro declined the hazardous service. Then it was that their master, angry at the disappointment, and declaring that he was ashamed to have a coward in his family, resolved himself to destroy the ferocious beast
This example shows how he calls the slave a family member basically
interesting slave says no and refuses him
shows how unclear it was!
