The Ownership Of Mankind

There is a great deal being argued on the subject of the history of the slave trade, largely in the limited context of the British involvement of between 1603 and 1833. It is said that in the schools the subject should be taught usually meaning only that small part.

Since Homo Sapiens, that is us, began to increase in numbers and occupy the various territories of the Earth; at some stage this began to entail warfare, claims to owning land and rivalries. In turn came social stratification and changing systems of rule and the way people related to people.

The consequence was that the ownership, servility and oppression of mankind came to take many forms. They might be distinctive but represent layers of domination that often arise from force but also from the structure of society, its economic foundations and related belief systems in religion and law.

The existence of one form does not exclude others and there is the contingent risk of lower level forms becoming more servile as a result of events, policy or radical change. Below is a summary of forms of control or ownership of humans by humans.

Slavery

Persons are taken, used at the decision of owners or their representatives, bought and sold and counted as assets. In slave based societies some levels of work at high levels might have slaves, for example Greece and Rome. Very many societies in history have been slave based.

Contract Labour Slavery

Persons forced or induced to enter contracts that entail loss of personal freedom and decision. They might expect to be able to fulfil the contract but the nature of payment means this may be cancelled by charges and failure by the contractors to observe their part which then entails forced labour which cannot be escaped. In the 19th and 20th Centuries this form became common after the abolition of full slavery.

Debt Slavery

Debt slavery may result from Contract Slavery but there are many ways where a person may take on debt at levels greater than they can afford. In particular, the charges and rates of interest may be at levels, little understood, which mean it is impossible to repay. It exists in modern times.

Social obligation and standing.

This might be family, inherited and in the forms of bound labour or laws of land holding and requirements. The terms of bound labour may in effect amount to a condition of slavery, for example when a whole family is bound.

Captive

Persons captured in conflict or interned politically and used as slave or forced labour.

Institutional

Societal, such as feudal, picture above, or similar systems, or the precepts of religious faith. Also, there can be structural in business or trade, for example some types of apprenticeship, job requirements etc.

Governmental

Governments may enact laws or put in place organisations that require types of servility of those affected or employed that take various forms.

Accidental                                                      

Localisation, servants, unintended consequences and lapsed political or social systems or absence of the rule of law.

Expansion

Demand exceeds supply.

Note

We can only theorize as to how and where any began. Over the whole of known history one form or another can be found. It exists today and the question is will any of these forms of stratification become greater or less.