DrDeth
December 20, 2017, 6:17pm
41
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.
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...
Est. reading time: 6 minutes
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?
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.
DrDeth
December 20, 2017, 8:31pm
43
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.
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...
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