[Vision2020] On Slavery and biblical justifications

[Donovan Arnold]

Ms. Nisbet,

You have some interesting comments on slavery,
especially regarding slavery in ancient Rome which I
know nothing about other than 1/3 of the population of
Rome at one point was slaves.

To me, the evil of slavery rests in the establishment
of people as property. The treatment of slaves and how
long they were slaves were secondary issues.

Slaves ran away, set their owners property on fire,
and staged violent revolts against their owners. They
did this in an attempt to gain freedom. Because slaves
cost about $20,000 a piece in today's dollars, owners
took to beatings to suppress these actions so they did
not lose their "property".

Slave owners also suppressed literacy efforts of the
slave population as well. This was to keep them from
reading the Bible and planning revolts. In many
southern cities slaves outnumbered non-slaves.

I believe that today slavery still exists but it is
better known as the federal minimum wage and illegal
immigration. 

I was unaware that people were only slaves for 6 years
in Rome. If this was the case, why would so many men
fight and die in the games to earn their freedom?
Would not most people just wait out the 6 years than
fight in games with a 90%+ morality rate?

Donovan J Arnold

  

--- Phil Nisbet <pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Dale
> 
> On a more logical note and from a review of the
> data, you have to admit that 
> a defense of slavery as practiced in the Southern US
> was not indeed an 
> institution concieved in biblical laws.  Slaves in
> Israel were only bound to 
> service for 6 years, not held for life.  Further,
> treating a slave in any 
> manner that would not also apply to the master was
> strictly forbidden.
> 
> The mode of operation of the Southern planation
> system was based upon Roman 
> laws respecting slavery as passed on through the
> offices of the Catholic 
> Church in its use of Roman statutes.  Slaves were
> subject to the rule of the 
> pater familius, who had every right to torture, maim
> and otherwise dispose 
> of a slave that suited him.
> 
> Southerners tried to hide behind biblical law as a
> cover, but they did not 
> follow the law and free their servents at the end of
> the required 6 years. 
> They also felt free to brand, hamstring, whip and
> beat their servents, 
> imposing cruel and unusual punishments on them that
> are indeed strictly 
> forbidden in the law.
> 
> That being understood, I am not sure how you would
> find that slavery as 
> practiced by the American South would be acceptable
> to anyone who is a 
> strict constructionist in terms of biblical law.
> 
> Phil Nisbet
> 
>
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