Historical Tales

Shaping the Idea: A Comparative Discussion Of Roman Slavery and Slavery in the American South

By Ryan Stephens

Broaden Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol.4 (2011)

Introduction: institution of slavery existed within some of the earliest human civilizations, and was arguably one of the most important elements involved in forming human thought and opinion. Robert Fogle wrote, “Slavery is not only one of the most ancient, but also one of the most long-lived forms of economic and social organization.” Slavery forced cultures to collide and intermingle, without slave labor many monuments or technological innovations might never have been realized. Despite its age and importance, slavery was not a single, unchanging system; rather, it morphed to fit the situation that implemented it. Time, economics, and other forces that drove slavery caused it to fluctuate in importance and change in its cruelty. David Turley, a prominent twenty-first century scholar on the subject explained that religions like Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have, at different times, justified attaining slaves. He used the divides in time and culture of those examples to base his idea that, “This glimpse of the variety and malleability of slavery indicates one of the difficulties  in writing a synoptic account of the institution.” The objects of research in this work, slavery in Rome as well as slavery in North America, were just as varying as Turley claimed.

There existed striking differences in the importance of slavery to each of the two societies in question. Turley coined the distinct phrases, “slave society” and “society with slaves,” to help his readers understand the emphasis varying peoples put on slavery. The former described cultures that almost entirely depended on or were very reliant on slavery. The latter addressed peoples who did not necessarily need to continue slavery for profit or well-being. There seemed to be, within slavery, some interesting side effects caused by the institution’s implementation in a slave society, and slavery itself seemed to become a different entity. Cultures not reliant on slaves, like the Roman Republic, were often kinder to workers, and people in the lower class retained considerable dignity. Through careful comparison, it can be understood that slave labor became cruel and mechanical when it became a necessity, such as the case of late North American slavery or the late Roman Empire.

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