It is argued that Slavery Was Rather a Means to Save Slaves From Backwardness.
Specific Purpose: To define, trace slavery, and the dangers slavery poses to the dignity of persons taken as slaves and those who take persons into slavery. Slavery is the procuring, transporting, and selling of human beings as slaves, in particular the former trade in black Africans as slaves by European countries and North America (bing.com).
Thesis Statement: Rather than “saving”, slavery has profound effects on how human beings can contribute to social structures which in turn affects their very existence. However, slavery has been condoned because it profits some who get so rich that they make laws to protect this form of trade. There are consequences!
Introduction:
Human beings have universal and essential rights such as dignity, sanctity to life, pursuance of happiness, express ideas, enjoy access to opportunities, and be provided facilitation to enjoy a quality life. The opposite is despicable.
There are two terms that come into play here: slavery and enslavement. They describe the state and condition of being a slave.
Slavery has a first-tier called chattel slavery. It is the system by which the enslaved person is rendered personal property. This leads to exploitation and giving up citizenship.
Slavery has a second-tier called de jure human bondage. Here the legal principles of property law are applied to a human being to reduce him or her into an object; that form of dehumanization allows slavers to buy and sell and own people as personal property. This leads to degradation.
Slavery has a third-tier called de facto slavery describes the conditions of unfree labour and forced labour, wherein people either are forced or compelled to work against their will. This leads to economic slavery/bondage and disenfranchisement.
Slavery facilitates cheap labour-force, the interests, and benefits of those who continue making profits out of slavery precede and are prioritized at the expense of slaves. This undermines the pursuance of happiness of the ones on slavery. It makes the impression that slaves are not deserving of human dignity.
There are two reasons why I am writing about this:
I am a black man who is understanding how Blackness contributed, facilitated and in turn, it has been the raw material of slavery.
The second reason is this topic has raised intense emotions and is dividing narrators at economic, social, cultural, religious, and political levels. Any talk of slavery brings up heated debates on all sides. Those who cannot shout so loud (meaning they are not economically, politically, or socially connected) have been forced out of the narrative.
Slavery has its consequences besides it being a despicable treatment of other humans. It is currently driving emerging thoughts for reparations. According to the New York Times, “While some doubt that slavery was a great wrong, the challenge before us is how to make things right through financial restitution. But just how would we devise a practical formula to determine who gets what?" For more see: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/15/opinion/the-cost-of-slavery.html#:~:text=Most%20assessments%20start%20with%20the%20notion%20of%20payment,after%20slavery%27s%20demise%2C%20such%20approaches%20present%20serious%20difficulties.#:~:text=Most%20assessments%20start%20with%20the%20notion%20of%20payment,after%20slavery%27s%20demise%2C%20such%20approaches%20present%20serious%20difficulties.
slavery denigrates humans:
Slavery is a complex process that involves various stages that could all pose negative effects on human dignity.
The trafficking in people, uprooting people from their homestead communities, and denying people their dignity could all negatively affect the way humans can figure out what matters to them other than leading a life of exploitation.
Now that you have some knowledge of how slavery affects human dignity, I will explain to you why it is dangerous socially, politically, religiously, economically, and culturally.
- There are quite many narratives around slavery. There are those who argue that slavery occurred in all cultures; that there was no actual slavery in the USA ( I restrict this write up to the USA); others who argue that it occurred but it was to save the Blacks from backwardness, and there are those who argue It did occur at all in the USA.
According to The Root, the bottom line is that slavery in all its forms whether done by Europe, USA, or African potentates is despicable. In The Root article “Boynton wrote about meeting Redoshi and contrasted the peaceful life she enjoyed as a child in West Africa with the horrors of how she was treated by white men. Boynton also unearthed the fact that Redoshi’s captors forced her into becoming a child bride during the voyage on the Clotilda.” For more see: https://www.theroot.com/erased-from-history-meet-redoshi-the-last-survivor-of-1833784143
-The United States is looked at as a great democracy but it is yet to reconcile how it deals with slavery, exploitation and how it can make restitution for those who were slaves over 500 years of the making of the USA. This still affects its birthright and the evolution of proper rituals of naming and belonging. According to the New York Times, “perhaps the issue needs to be looked at differently. One way is to recognize slavery as an institution upon which America's wealth was built. If we take this view, it is not important whether a white family arrived in 1700 or in 1965.” For more see: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/15/opinion/the-cost-of-slavery.html#:~:text=Most%20assessments%20start%20with%20the%20notion%20of%20payment,after%20slavery%27s%20demise%2C%20such%20approaches%20present%20serious%20difficulties.#:~:text=Most%20assessments%20start%20with%20the%20notion%20of%20payment,after%20slavery%27s%20demise%2C%20such%20approaches%20present%20serious%20difficulties.
-The basis for the theme of Human Dignity, the bedrock of Christian Social Teaching, is that humans were created in the image and likeness of God. Regardless of any factors or reasons we can think of, individuals have inherent and immeasurable worth and dignity; each human life is considered sacred. For more see: https://www.catholicsocialteaching.org.uk/themes/human-dignity/.
Having looked at slavery and the slave trade, I am going to talk to you about what we can do to embrace dignity affirmation:
-The US needs to take lead in building the institutions that promote dignity affirmation by enacting laws that reverse the effects of slavery as well as denounce such despicable acts. Recall, “after the Revolutionary War, the new U.S. Constitution tacitly acknowledged the institution of slavery, counting each enslaved individual as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of taxation and representation in Congress and guaranteeing the right to repossess any “person held to service or labor” (an obvious euphemism for slavery).” For more see: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery.
- There is need for the entire world to put in practice the resolution that called for the establishment of an outreach programme to mobilize educational institutions, civil society, and other organizations to inculcate in future generations the "causes, consequences and lessons of the transatlantic slave trade, and to communicate the dangers of racism and prejudice." For more see: https://www.un.org/en/observances/decade-people-african-descent/slave-trade
To sum it all up:
Conclusion
I have talked to you about slavery and how it affects essential rights.
All lives matter, no human being should be subjected to slavery because it demeans, denigrates, and dehumanizes.
Let us promote dignity-affirming cultures. Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law, and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable rights. The term may also be used to describe personal conduct, as in "behaving with dignity".
I have shown you how some argue that slavery never occurred.
I have also shown you how some others argue that slaves are “saved” from backwardness and hence justify slavery/
I have shown you that slavery abuses the core essentials of humanity, it should be denounced and discouraged.
Check out what you can do on The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
