Great post. Great to put the relative humanity of some slave situations, like Turner's, into perpective.
To think of it as either cruel or barbaric was not possible up to and through the 18th Century, except at the fringe, and this view only developed wider currency in the 19th. Up to the mid 18th Century, slavery was overwhelmingly viewed as normal, neither especially cruel nor barbaric.
There are many reasons for this gradual change in view. Some have to do with the surrounding history of class relations, and also of the existence of other degrees of servitude, in many cases almost as bad, such as indentured servitude,criminal transportation, and serfdom in Eastern Europe.
By the 19th Century, indentured servitude, and transportation, had also come to be seen as cruel and barbaric institutions, and gradually died out, but they had by then affected enormously more people both in the North America, and in the West Indies, all white people, than black slavery ever did in North America alone.
1 comment:
Great post.
Great to put the relative humanity of some slave situations, like Turner's, into perpective.
To think of it as either cruel or barbaric was not possible up to and through the 18th Century, except at the fringe, and this view only developed wider currency in the 19th. Up to the mid 18th Century, slavery was overwhelmingly viewed as normal, neither especially cruel nor barbaric.
There are many reasons for this gradual change in view. Some have to do with the surrounding history of class relations, and also of the existence of other degrees of servitude, in many cases almost as bad, such as indentured servitude,criminal transportation, and serfdom in Eastern Europe.
By the 19th Century, indentured servitude, and transportation, had also come to be seen as cruel and barbaric institutions, and gradually died out, but they had by then affected enormously more people both in the North America, and in the West Indies, all white people, than black slavery ever did in North America alone.
Thanks for this publication.
All the best
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