this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
79 points (79.3% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27240 readers
2159 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Full blown de jure chattel slavery? Yes, I would be surprised.

Slavery didn't end because people realized it was bad. They always knew that. It ended because of the industrial revolution.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The industrial revolution gave the common person more power and leverage over those that governed them.

The common person knew the evils of slavery. It is covered in the bible and the least educated would still have some knowledge of the bible. Many religious people in slave states started arguing that slavery was just and the right order of things but this was a newer idea.

Slavery impacted the commoner as it pushes labour prices down. So even without the moral argument there was a economic one.

Slavery hasn't ended. American slave plantations did, but slavery didn't. There are more slaves now than ever. We could end it but cheap consumer goods keeps it going.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The Bible condones slavery. And many slave holders invoked the Bible to justify slavery.

From Frederick Douglas' first autobiography:

Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Which dovetails well with the famous quote from C. S. Lewis:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

A lot of Christian slaveowners "justified" themselves as helping their slaves by "saving" them, or whatever. White man's burden and all that rot.

load more comments (1 replies)