Slavery: Evil or Good?

Many argue that slavery is an awful way to treat others and maybe even a mistake made by our ancestors. However, I recently listened to a podcast, Addicted to Bondage, an episode of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History series that challenged the evilness of slavery. Two quotes were supported by this podcast; one, "slavery retarded technology" and the other, "slavery was an advance in human morality."

"Slavery retarded technology" helps support the idea of slavery being undeserved or terrible, but also unhealthy for our world. Dan Carlin stated that slavery stops some technological developments because slaves present people with reasons to not find a way around problems. He gives the example that during the times the southern parts of the United States struggled with slavery, some slave holders did not put in water systems because they had slaves to do those types of jobs for them. This thought then also creates the question of how far our world could have come today if we had not had slaves in past times and also certain slaves, or "forced workers" today.

I began agreeing that slavery was definitely a mistake made by our ancestors until the next quote arose. "Slavery was an advance in human morality" backs up the idea of slavery being helpful and beneficial. Carlin again gives an example to suppose this statement. During the gladiator times when fighting was a popular past time, the living people from the losing side would be put to death. One person, or maybe more than one, soon realized that these people would be worth more dead than alive, therefore, turning the survivors of the losing side into slaves. Another example mentioned was the Hebrews of biblical times. Many are familiar with the story of Moses leading the Hebrews out of slavery from the Pharaohs. Some scholars believe that the reason the Hebrews were first sentenced to slavery was because they were starving and the Pharaohs made the deal that they would feed the Hebrews if the Hebrews in return would do chores or work for them. Looking at this side of slavery compares the choices of the life of slavery to death.

Although I could never decide which statement I agreed with more, it will make the think before I "bad mouth" our ancestors who were involved in slavery and question their decisions.