Inspirational?

On one hand, going to the SJ Games forums to read about what others think of the 4eR rules is actively hurting my brain.

On the other hand, it's really good for stuff to blog about.

On the gripping hand, stupider mek my Brian.

Thanks to the, "Slavery's bad m'kaaay." page in the new book, p. B2 Rectification, there's a couple threads talking about historical slavery.

There are, certain, historical instances where being a slave is not a bad deal.

They are noteworthy, as in they don't occur very often.

Being a slave in almost every instance is a shitty deal and is basically manual labor under harsh or dangerous conditions without a lot of regard to the health or happiness of the laborer.

But this invariably leads to someone trying to prove that one culture's version of slavery was worse than the 19th century version in America; with the resultant reply of someone trying to prove that 19th century slavery in America was uniquely worse than all other kinds of slavery.

The thing is, Uncle Tom's Cabin has as much factual and scientific basis as Silent Spring.

What makes slavery in the US such a "unique" institution is its recency and how well it was documented.  Lots of slavery happens in history without much more mention than how many amphora of olive oil were traded in a year.

And there's the rub.

Slavery was not really noteworthy for centuries, it simply was.

The United States was not the last nation to make slavery illegal, nor was it the first.

The US lagged behind Europe, but the people trying to make the US seem worse than the rest of the world fail to mention how recent Europe's bans were too.

Though it was defacto banned in England in 1772, it was not de jure banned until 1833 in England and the rest of the British Empire.

France banned it in 1848.

Spain waited until 1886, though they banned trading in slaves in the 1820's.

Italy banned it in 1866.

So the US banning it in 1865 doesn't put us too far behind the "far more enlightened" Europe.

It's also worth mentioning that slavery in the British American Colonies is British slavery and shouldn't be counted against the US ledger.  Our continuing it after a rebellion sold on a sales pitch of "all men created equal" and liberty...  Yeah, pin that one right on our chest.

I think something unique about the US is we fought a war over the issue.  A significant portion of the population had to be forced to stop owning people.  Most other places really just made a disappearing practice illegal as it faded so that it wouldn't return. 

One needs to mention indentured servitude while discussing slavery in America too.  Limited term slavery is still slavery and there's so many mentions of people "surviving" to the end of their indenture that it's clear it was just as harsh as any other kind of slavery.

But was it really worse to be a slave than an Irish immigrant working in a sweat-shop?

Were the conditions on a plantation worse or better than a textile or steel mill?

Or laying track for the railroad?

Or many kinds of mining done by supposedly free men who "owed their soul to the company store?"

Is being in debt peonage any better than being a slave?  Is it easier to escape from?