The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #81798 Message #2182766
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
30-Oct-07 - 01:51 PM
Thread Name: BS: Slavery and Indentured Servitude
Subject: RE: BS: Slavery and Indentured Servitude
Not too much point in league tables of historical atrocities, but I think it's important to be aware of the different forms that servitude can take,in the way that Lisa's post there reminded us.
There is a real danger of falling into the way of thinking that, just because one particularly unpleasant variety of servitude is gone, that means slavery is all ancient history. It isn't - human beings are quite capable of dreaming up some new version. (After all, look what happened in the States in the century following Abolition.)
And it is very clear that many aspects of the globalised economy is built on various forms of servitude which in many cases amount to a more economically efficient version of slavery.