File:Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner - Slavery.jpg

Stand on Zanzibar - Slavery

"The classical slave system survived for a long while despite the paradoxical discontinuity of pan-human identity which is implicit in any such social pattern. The American slave system was already breaking to pieces before the Civil War. Why? The answer is in the Code of Hammurabi, among other places — the first truly elaborate legal code we have any record of. It lays down fines and other punishments for personal injury. Although it's true that the penalty for injuring a free man is heavier than for injuring a slave, the slave is always there. Under the Romans, a slave had a certain inalienable minimum both of property (NB!) and of civil rights, which not even his owner could infringe. It was thinkable for a debtor to sell himself into slavery and pay off what he owed, in the rational — maybe far-fetched, but not lunatic — anticipation of recouping his fortunes. The first successful banker we know about was a Greek slave called Pasion who made himself a millionaire, bought his freedom and went into partnership with his former bosses.

"In the case of the American negro slave this possibility was not inherent in the system. The slave had the same human rights as a head of cattle — nil. A good master might conceivably manumit a slave who'd done him a good turn, or pension him off with his freedom as a favourite horse would be put out to pasture to spend his declining years in peace. But a bad one might decide to maim the man, brand him, or flog him to death with an iron-tipped cat-o'-nine-tails, and there was no one to call him to account."

—John Brunner, "Stand on Zanzibar"

• Post @ Twitter (28 June 2023)

• Post @ Twitter (28 June 2023)