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They defended the legal enslavement of people for their labor as a benevolent, paternalistic institution with social and economic benefits, an important bulwark of civilization, and a divine institution similar or superior to the free labor in the North. [1]: 58, 480 [2]
Slaves in Indian Territory across the United States were used for many purposes, from work in the plantations of the East, to guides across the wilderness, to work in deserts of the West, or as soldiers in wars. Native American slaves suffered from European diseases and inhumane treatment, and many died while in captivity. [32]
Nonetheless, pro-slavery Europeans defined the "non-Israelites" of Leviticus 25:44-46 as non-Christians and later as non-white people. Watts suggested that they used the Bible's two-tier model to justify enslaving Africans and Native Americans while limiting white forced laborers to indentured servants and prisoners. [113]
People unable to pay back debts could be sentenced to work as slaves to the people owed until the debts were worked off, as a form of indentured servitude. Warfare was important to Maya society, because raids on surrounding areas provided the victims required for human sacrifice, as well as slaves for the construction of temples. [114]
Northerners also purchased slaves, though on a much smaller scale. Enslaved people outnumbered free whites in South Carolina from the early 1700s to the Civil War. An authoritarian political culture evolved to prevent slave rebellion and justify white slaveholding. Northern slaves typically dwelled in towns, rather than on plantations as in the ...
Various interpretations of Christianity were also used to justify slavery. [76] For example, some people believed that slavery was a punishment that was reserved for sinners. [76] Some other Christian organizations were slaveholders.
Greek philosopher Aristotle claimed that some people were slaves by nature, and as a result of this belief, he argued that their enslavement was the only way to serve their best interests. However, what Aristotle meant by the word "slavery" is regarded by some political philosophers today to be a subject of controversy. [ 3 ]
Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a slave or an enslaved person (see § Terminology). Photograph of a slave boy in the Sultanate of Zanzibar. 'An Arab master ...