[ExI] The Catholic Impact (was Re: Origin of ethics and morals)

[Kelly Anderson]

On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 6:30 PM, Mirco Romanato <painlord2k at libero.it> wrote:
> In the past slaver society obtained the bulk of their slaves from
> external wars (if they won) and raids. If this source dried up, the
> number of slaves in the society dropped.

US slaves came primarily as a result of inter-tribal warfare in
Africa. One tribe would capture slaves from another tribe in a raid,
then sell them to the white slavers at the coast. This would of course
perturb the tribe losing members, and a reciprocal raid would likely
soon follow. The whites didn't have to get their hands dirty going
inland and capturing slaves on their own, for the most part, as this
internal squabbling provided ample manpower. Had the Africans fully
realized what was going on, and how they were being manipulated, and
managed some level of internal cooperation, I can't imagine the slave
traders would have survived long.

> In the Ancient Rome a common slave could cost 2 years of pay of an
> unskilled worker. So they were use with care and well maintained when
> possible.

This was also true in the US where Irish workers were used to mine
coal (deep mines) rather than employ slave labor. It was too dangerous
to expose a valuable slave to the rigors of the mine, but the Irish
were abundant and cheap and easily replaced. An Irish worker was
cheaper than a slave when the life expectancy of a miner was less than
the amortized value of the slave over that period. (If I'm saying that
right, not an accountant). Aside from that, there was an expectation
that slaves would be cared for to some extent in their old age (think
black lung) and the Irish could simply be forgotten.

-Kelly