| > ...At least since the Roman empire, there has been no form of slavery in the Western world anywhere near as brutal as American slavery. (not to exclude the East or the Arab world, I just don't know enough to comment on them) So, you launch a massive generalization, and attempt to walk it back by opting out most of the world (Asia, the middle east/Arab World, but making no mention of Africa, or Oceania). While we broadly view slavery as a despicable practice, please don't practice selective historical revisionism to minimize the barbaric suffering experienced to this day in some countries, and the astronomical death rates in the sugar plantations. Examples from Historical Context: American Slavery in Comparative Perspective [1] "Death rates among slaves in the Caribbean were one-third higher than in the South, and suicide appears to have been much more common. Unlike slaves in the South, West Indian slaves were expected to produce their own food in their "free time," and care for the elderly and the infirm."( "The largest difference between slavery in the South and in Latin America was demographic. The slave population in Brazil and the West Indies had a lower proportion of female slaves, a much lower birthrate, and a higher proportion of recent arrivals from Africa. In striking contrast, southern slaves had an equal sex ratio, a high birthrate, and a predominantly American-born population". "Slavery in the United States was especially distinctive in the ability of the slave population to increase its numbers by natural reproduction. In the Caribbean, Dutch Guiana, and Brazil, the slave death rate was so high and the birthrate so low that slaves could not sustain their population without imports from Africa. The average number of children born to an early nineteenth-century southern slave woman was 9.2—twice as many as in the West Indies." Additionally, you have ignored that slavery is still active in a number of countries [2], [3], [4], [5] Slavery is a practice worthy of contempt, still practiced, and modern. [1] Historical Context: American Slavery in Comparative Perspective https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teaching-res... [2] https://www.mic.com/articles/82347/the-world-s-worst-countri... [3] https://face2faceafrica.com/article/slavery-africa-today/3 [4] https://www.theclever.com/15-countries-where-slavery-is-stil... [5] https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2013-oct-17-la-fg-wn-sl... |
My knowledge of world history outside the West is scant. That's why I restricted my statements to the Western world.