Social Death - Term Paper Example

Slavery Slavery is a legal ownership of a person just like a property. They are either captured or purchased or born to a slave. The owner has a legal right on his slave to get labor without giving any compensation to the slave except food, clothes and shelter. Slaves do not have any personal freedom and cannot refuse to work or leave their master. In many ancient cultures, the convicts were sold as slaves, sometimes along with their families. Sometimes they were sold as debtor ,sometimes as the only way to survive, like due to famine, as the master would feed them. Agriculture and farming has been the most prevalent use of slaves. Slavery has been prevalent in many civilizations, specially, American, Islamic and Roman. American Slavery: In America, slavery began with the European settlers. From seventeenth century to late nineteenth century, slavery was prevalent in the United States. Most of them were of African origin who were enslaved by whites, American Indians and also by Free blacks. Their treatment was totally inhuman. Violence was considered a legal right of the owner and in many plantations the overseers whipped the slaves if they did not comply. Their movements were restricted, and escapees were brutally punished. Apart from the physical torture, their family members could be sold off anytime as per the master’s wish. There were some incidents where the slaves killed the master or the overseer. Sometimes they retaliated by burning the barns or killing the horses or slowing down the work (Genovese, 1967)1 But these were few isolated incidents. Mostly they were treated as an expensive investment and apart from food, clothes and shelter, they were also provided medical care. From 1750’s, the awareness regarding slavery as a social evil started to spread. Voices were being raised for abolition of slavery. In 1808, the import of slaves was stopped legally, still it continued till 1860. Slaves provided free labor that was a major factor in the growth of industries in the US. Even the fortune 500 companies owe their growth to them and it is said the existence of slaves financed the two world wars. But it had a negative sociological impact on the entire African race. Islamic Slavery: Slavery has been accepted by all major juristic schools of Islam. They supposedly benefitted from the Islamic dispensations and their condition improved as compared to the pre-islamic society. Islamic law covers slavery at length and sees it as an exceptional circumstance. But practically, there was massive import of slaves from non-muslim places to fulfill the deamnd of slaves in the Muslim society. Theoretically Islamic law does not encourage racial discrimination for slaves but that too has not been the actual practice. The capture and transportation of slaves also caused death and suffering of many of them. Islamic law instructs to look after the slaves when they are sick. It also encourages ‘manumission’ or freedom of slaves. According to them a slave can also seek freedom by paying a certain amount to his master. This is called ‘mukataba’ and is a contract between the slave and the master and the slave has to pay the amount within a time frame. But the right to relaese the slave after taking the amount , still lied with the master and he was encouraged to do so as per the Islamic law. According to Al-Hibri, the Islamic law is very strong on asking its followers to treat their slaves well. It believes that both the master and the slave are siblings and expected a humanitarian attitude towards them(Al-Hibri, 2003)2. The Prophet took a reformist approach to an age old existing tradition of slavery and tried to improve the condition of slaves by encouraging humanatarian behaviour towards them.(Gordon, M.,1987, p.19)3 Islam also instructed the induction of slaves only by the prisoners of war and later to infidels captured in a holy war. During the expansion era, there was a continuous inflow of the slaves but it got restricted once it stabilized ( Schimmel, 1992, p.67)4 This gave rise to the import of slaves. Islamic Slave trade is also known as the ‘Arab’ slave trade. This involves Arabs, Persian , Berbers etc and was prevalent in West Asia, North Africa and East Africa. Their slaves were mostly Sqaliba and Mamluk from Slavic Eastern Europeans, and from other neighboring countries of Mediterranean, Persian and Caucasus Mountain region. Majority of the slaves came from East Africa. . Islamic slavery was more focussed on trading of the slaves than using them as cheap labor.In his book, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, . Robert Davis, says that between the 16th and the 19th century, more than one million Europeans were captured and sold as slavesRoman Slavery- Roman slavery has its roots in the war prisoners being sold off by the commanders. They called them Slaves(servi) as they saved thm( servare) instead of killing them (Bradely, 1987)5. Most of the captives were sold directly after their capture to slave traders, and others were given to soldiers as a reward. According to Bradely, there were three sources of slaves- war, trade and breeding. He says that out of the three, breeding was the only dependable source.In 166 BC, Delos was the main slave market in the eastern Mediterranean. The collapse of Seleucid Empire gave rise to a large number of slaves entering in Italy where they were bought by the landowners to work on their estates. Slaves provided cheap labour for cultivation and their value can be gauzed by the slave revolts in Sicily in 135 and 104 BC, that caused shortage in grain production and thus a price rise. This resulted in the urban poor becoming poorer and the rich, richer. According to Dr. Hopkins, Italy’s wealth depended on land investment and agriculture.( Hopkins, 1978) 6The growth in the population increased the demand for food products and it developed into a market economy. This further pushed away the small farmers by the wealthy farmers who grew cash crops. Usage of slaves also led to depletion in soil because of poor agricultural practices. According to Hopkins, the political structure could not manage huge increase in nummber of people and resources and eventually the traditional society broke down. As per Moses Finely, the slaves never became the major source of labor in Italy and also their number depended on the demand. Actually, the presence of slaves in large numbers, freed some of the poor from farming but mostly it resulted in displacement of the poor workers who moved to the cities for work. This created problems related to overpopulation like shortage of food and housing, violence etc.7 more slaves were brought in to work in the farms to replace the natives who had left for the cities. These slaves came in huge numbers and many of them were employed in the city also. The condition of the slaves was below human dignity, as they were coninuously beaten and made to wear chains around their ankles8 Still they were employed in so many areas of work that it created a job scarcity for the alredy displaced population. The greatest political problem was shortage of men in army as the Roman military was based on land ownership. With their numbers reducing, the army was also reducing. Later, a large colony was eastablished for them and war veterans and peasants were given land pieces. Roman slavery not only had economical and political impacts but it is speculated that it had a role in spreading Christanity. Comparison We find that slavery in all the three civilizations has its social and economical roots. The priviledged or wealthy or powerful people dominated over the weak in the society. Most of the slaves as we see above were bought or captured. In other words the capables took advantage of their economic condition, when they were sold as debtors or physical weakness when they were captured in a war. It is like an exptension of the “survival for the fittest” theory. Since the masters considered themselves superior to the slaves, they did not hesitate in treating them like animals because they did not consider them at par with humans. Even when they provided medical care or clothes and food to them, it was to maintain their ‘property’and not on humanitarian grounds. Islamic slavery seems to be the most considerate towards them, but even there the Prophet could not ask for abolishing it. All he could do was to encourage the masters to behave in a better manner. "Social death" theory In his book, “Slavery and Social death: A Comparative Study”, Orlando Patterson discusses the elements and structure of slavery that make it different from other forms of subordination. He studies different societies and tribes where slavery flourished. The point he wants to make is that the status of a slave makes him a socially dead person. Patterson is known for his original thinking and extensive research. And it is clear from the above study as well that the slaves were never treated as human beings. Patterson has discussed the status of slavery in sixty-six societies. He argues that this system kept a person in captivity against his will and forced him to work as per his master’s will till manumission or death. But he rejects the theory of ‘slaves as property’. He stresses more on the cultural milieu, political and psychological elements. HE shifts the focus from materialistic and racial factors and brings up the issue of the ‘elite’ slaves, and also eunuchs and treats them as par with the farm workers. Patterson tackles slavery from the very basics. He redefines power or authority. He quotes Siegfried Lauffer to say that “power relationship that formed the basis of slave relationship had to become a rights relationship.”9 This meant that people had to accept it as a ‘normal order of the things’. He disagrees with Weber, who is considered as authority on the subject, on the definition of authority. According to Weber, authority depends on- law, charisma and tradition. Patterson agreees only on tradition and rejects the other two as . He quotes British anthropologists, to say that symbols, both private and public, constitute a major instrument of power when used directly or indirectly. He explains further that people who are in power, if they are able to transform it into a ‘right’, then they must first control the symbolic instruments. He considers slavery as a symbol and emphasizes that it was the slave’s isolation and strangeness that made him most valuable to his master. The act of natal alienation is the base of the social death of the slave. His logic is that if the slave did not belong to a community and had no social existence, then he was a socially dead person. He is uprooted from his society through violence and and ‘desocialized and ‘depersonalized’ and introduced into his master’s society as a non-being.10(Patterson, p. 37, 38) Conclusion Patterson’s theory seems to hold good in many contexts. Alienation has been the basis of slavery as we see in the above discussion. But we also find slaves by reproduction. While some of them might have been sold off many of them may have been retained by the same master or in the sam surroundings, thus making them non-alien. But he is correct when he talks about the slaves being non-beings. They were treates as non-beings by the master’s society but when there were so many slaves from same race or origin in one place, we cannot rule out the existence of some kind of society within their group. This is further strengthened by the abolition movement. Initially the slaves must have been the alienated beings but over a peoriod of time they seem to have developed some kind of identity and awareness that led to these kind of movements. In conclusion we can say that Patterson’s theory is apt in many ways and is applicable in most of the situations in most of the societies but we cannot say that it is the ultimate truth. There are many perspectives to the history of slavery and it is also one of the approaches that needs to be appreciated. Reference: Primary Sources 1. Slavery: A Social Death, A comparative Study, Orlando Patterson 2. Davis,R.,Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800. Secondary sources 3. Apuleius, The Golden Ass 9.12, as translated by Jo-Ann Shelton. 4. Economic Slavery in Islam, Religions and Ethics; http://www.bbc.co.uk/ Retrieved on May 30, 2007 5. Genovese, E.D.,Materialism and Idealism in the History of Black Slavery in the Americas." Journal of Social History 1968 1(4): 371-394. ISSN 0022-4529 6. Genovese, Eugene D. The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society of the Slave South (1967) 7. Keith Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), p. 6 8. K.R. Bradley, Classical Slavery (London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1987) p. 44. 9. K.R. Bradley, Classical Slavery (London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1987) p. 44. 10. Lewis, Bernard Race and Slavery in the Middle East (1990) p.9-11 11. Moya K. Mason, Roman Slavery: The Social, Cultural, Political, and Demographic Consequences 12. Murray Gordon, “Slavery in the Arab World.” New Amsterdam Press, New York, 1989. Originally published in French by Editions Robert Laffont, S.A. Paris, 1987, page 28. 13. Murray Gordon, “Slavery in the Arab World.” New Amsterdam Press, New York, 1989. Originally published in French by Editions Robert Laffont, S.A. Paris, 1987. Page 19 14. Schimmel, Annemarie (1992). Islam: An Introduction. US: SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-1327-6.  15. Waldron H. Giles, Ph.D. ;Slavery and the American Economy, http://www.nathanielturner.com/ Retrieved on May 30, 2007 Read More