# Things that are always wrong vs. things only wrong in a certain era **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 15, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-always-wrong-vs-things-only-wrong-in-a-certain-era/804567 "2017-12-15T15:59:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-always-wrong-vs-things-only-wrong-in-a-certain-era/804567/41 "2017-12-20T18:17:58Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > But the pertinent question is, were they given the choice of not working? Slavery isn’t just unpaid labor. > > That wiki article says officers couldn’t be compelled to work, implying that enlisted prisoners could be. I’d say “forced to work against one’s will” is a pretty fair definition of slavery, taking the broad view and not the more specific “chattel” variety. > > Of course that definition makes many types of prison labor slavery, which is probably why it was specifically exempted from the Thirteen Amendment. However, that makes some people uncomfortable. And it turns being drafted into slavery. And Jury duty. So, “forced to work against one’s will” is a crappy definition of slavery. > **[The Thirteenth Amendment, the Draft, Jury Service, and (Perhaps Surprisingly)...](https://volokh.com/2011/06/17/the-thirteenth-amendment-the-draft-jury-service-and-perhaps-surprisingly-compulsory-road-work/)** > > Occasionally some people ask why the draft hasn’t been found to violate the Thirteenth Amendment, which provides that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall... Casn you be bought and sold? Do you have any legal rights or can your owner beat or even kill you at his whim? Are your children also his property? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-always-wrong-vs-things-only-wrong-in-a-certain-era/804567/42 "2017-12-20T19:46:09Z")
Even in the American South, a slaveowner didn’t have the legal right to kill a slave on a whim. That was murder, according to the law. Sure, it was in practice impossible that any white man would face legal consequences for killing a black person. But it wasn’t legal. Even for beatings, there were laws about what sorts of physical punishments you could legally inflict on your slaves. Whether in practice you would really ever be prosecuted for inflicting inhumane punishments on your slaves is another story. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-always-wrong-vs-things-only-wrong-in-a-certain-era/804567/43 "2017-12-20T20:31:35Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Even in the American South, a slaveowner didn’t have the legal right to kill a slave on a whim. That was murder, according to the law. Sure, it was in practice impossible that any white man would face legal consequences for killing a black person. But it wasn’t legal. Even for beatings, there were laws about what sorts of physical punishments you could legally inflict on your slaves. Whether in practice you would really ever be prosecuted for inflicting inhumane punishments on your slaves is another story. It varied. > **[Slave codes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_codes#Deep_South)** > > The slave codes were laws relating to slavery and enslaved people, specifically regarding the Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery in the Americas. > Most slave codes were concerned with the rights and duties of free people in regards to enslaved people. Slave codes left a great deal unsaid, with much of the actual practice of slavery being a matter of traditions rather than formal law. > The primary colonial powers all had slightly different slave codes. French colonies, after 1685, had the Co... \* Virginia, 1705 – “If any slave resists his master… correcting such a slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction… the master shall be free of all punishment… as if such accident never happened.”\* Previous thread on this: > **[Could a slave owner in the South kill his slaves with impunity?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=725521)** > > I’ve been browsing through William Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities and in the article on slavery I noticed this (foot of the 2nd paragraph): Were there similar laws in the US in the slave states? Of course, the whole institution... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-always-wrong-vs-things-only-wrong-in-a-certain-era/804567.md?page=2)