Ancient Slavery

As ever, with our Pub Theology presentations, the following is meant to engender discussion and not in any sense to be an exhaustive exploration of the topic. Cheers.

ANCIENT SLAVERY

In the Bible and Surrounding Societies

Enslavement in the Roman World

As Rome expanded across the Mediterranean, first under the Republic and then as the Empire, it became a slavocracy of the sort that the West would not see again until the antebellum American South. Each newly conquered swath of territory brought in new populations of enslaved peoples from the far reaches of the known world.

As a direct result, the plantations of the wealthy replaced smallholder farms, and the poor thus were driven either to service in the Legions or to the dole: bread and circuses. In first-century Rome, some 30-40% of the population was enslaved, and another 20% dependent on the Cura Annonae. Noble Romans honored public service but scorned employment almost as a form of prostitution, selling one’s body.

Am I Not Merciful?

Romans believed enslavement to be a form of mercy, with “servant” deriving from the same root as “conserve.” Ancient armies, as they say, had no stun setting: victory often wrought total annihilation of the foe. Enslavement, so the argument went, saved lives. Slaves were integrated into every aspect of society, considered part of the paterfamilias’ household. Some provided unskilled labor, while others were highly educated. Greeks were especially prized as pedagogues—clever, yet effeminate, opined the Romans.

There were three ways to become a slave: military conquest (or piracy); being born to an enslaved mother; or selling oneself into debt servitude. Service to a powerful man, such as the Emperor, could be seen as beneficial. Many enslaved owned other slaves.

Household Codes

The smallest unit of Roman governance was the household. The Empire was considered one big household, under Caesar, and each household was considered a little empire, under the dominus (lord) or paterfamilias (family-father). This was all very hierarchical. The husband ruled the wife; the father ruled the children; and the lord ruled the slaves, in that order. The paterfamilias had absolute authority over life and death for all his descendants and slaves—but he had to find a half-decent reason to kill his wife.

Slaves had no right to bodily autonomy. They “belonged” to their masters, and served their sexual needs. Some masters freed their slaves in order then to marry them. And some of those same newlyweds promptly ran away, “stealing” their own children.

Manumission

Roman slavery was not racial. Most slaves, however, originated in foreign countries, and Romans certainly had their prejudices. A slave could be granted freedom by a magnanimous slaveowner, or could be allowed earnings sufficient to purchase his freedom. Such funds could then go toward the price of a new and younger slave.

Freed slaves were not free; they occupied a middle ground, still beholden in many ways to their previous master, now their patron. Manumission, mind you, was more an exception than the rule—a carrot used to motivate the enslaved to serve more willingly.

Jews and Slavery

Like all ancient societies, Israelites practiced enslavement. Unlike ancient Rome, however, the Torah provided for certain rights, especially if the slave were Hebrew. Slaves should be treated as family, or at least as hired servants; they should enjoy the sabbath rest. The Talmud later ruled that Hebrew slaves ought to wear the same clothing and enjoy the same food and drink as the rest of the family.

But the big difference, at least on paper, between slavery as found in the Hebrew Bible and that found in surrounding societies, was the commandment that any slave should be liberated every seventh year—provided for liberally as they left—and that all slaves ought to be freed on the Jubilee every 50th year. This, then, is more indentured servitude than slavery. The problem, alas, is that these commandments seem rarely, if ever, to have been observed, raising the ire of many a prophet.

Christians and Slavery

Christianity spread most rapidly amongst the marginalized: women, the poor, the enslaved. Slaves were members of churches and often even clergy. When households were baptized, the enslaved in those households were baptized as well. The New Testament declares that in Christ there is no longer slave nor free; but the New Testament also includes Christian variants of the household codes, in which slaves are to be treated well, yet are also expected to serve as good and faithful slaves. For in Christ, all are free, while we all are slaves to God. But how literal is this spiritual freedom?

Many in the early Church had trouble imagining any sort of earthly society without slavery. They also likely feared a return to the Servile Wars; remember what happened to Spartacus. The clerics’ primary concerns, radical for their day, were that slaves (a) not be abused, (b) not be raped, and that (c) no-one possess an “excessive” amount of slaves; i.e., one or two as opposed to hundreds or even thousands. This offended certain wealthy Romans: “May I not do what I want with my own?”

Some Christians, especially in Syria, refused to own slaves, and preached manumission by purchase to be a work of mercy. Some bishops, in response, worried about congregational funds being rapidly depleted by paying “above market value” for slaves. St Paul’s Epistle to Philemon divides people to this day: is Paul returning a runaway slave to his master, or is he ordering said slave’s manumission? I believe the latter.

Christianity must reckon with a divided tradition. Many self-proclaimed Christians, especially in the Americas, were terrible slavers. Yet only countries explicitly motivated by evangelical Christian conviction—Great Britain and the United States—have waged war in order to abolish slavery altogether. Repent of the former. Rejoice in the latter.

Additional Notes

Exposure of infants

Sacral manumission

Greek vs Roman manumission

Slavery vs serfdom

“Slave of Christ/God”

Iron collars and facial tattoos

Obsequium et operae