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An Archive of Fugitive Slave Ads Sheds New Light on Lost Histories
- abraae 10y agoI find these pretty disturbing. I like to think I'd never have stood by while someone enslaved someone else. But the banality of these ads makes it all seem quite commonplace and acceptable. Wicked times.
- exit 10y agowith a couple hundred years distance we could also recognise the early 21st century as an appalling nightmare.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- hoodoof 10y agoWays to contribute to stop 21st century slavery here: http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/30/charities-country-by-country/ http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/30/chariti...
- cloudjacker 10y agoI found the one that doubled as an ad comical "Please return him to my house on Fouche St., which is next to Julie St. WHO HAS FOR SALE one woman" I read it in Stewie's voice
- spraak 10y agoRight. Slavery. Comical. No..
- walterbell 10y agoThe modern prison-industrial complex is also disturbing if you look at the relative representation of different population segments.
- hamana 10y agoWhy is that labeled as 'wicked' ? Are slave-making ants[1] wicked as well? > [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave-making_ant
- ben_jones 10y agoSlavery is still going on. All the scandals in England? A lot of that was sex slavery. For the life of me I don't get how society honestly thinks "Oh ~50-200 years ago humanity was evil but now we're enlightened and good"...
- peteretep 10y ago> All the scandals in England? > A lot of that was sex slavery. What?
- duncan_bayne 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploit...
- peteretep 10y agoConflating child abuse and the subsequent government cock-up in to investigating it, with an institutionalised implementation of slavery with the full weight of the judiciary behind it, requires quite some imagination.
- duncan_bayne 10y agoSure; I'm not agreeing with his position, just supplying the background.
- Hondor 10y agoHere's recent labor slavery in Scotland http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/28/slavery-human-trafficking-hotel-workers-bangladesh-scotland http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/28/sl... The victims feared being killed if they escaped back to their homes, so I'd say it's more than just "wage slavery".
- monort 10y agoTaxes are involuntary and people are locked in prison for not paying them, that is resembling a slavery. Some rationalization for slavery was similar too, e.g. people thought that it's not possible to have prosperity without enslavement. Probably in the future present times will be seen as wicked too.
- pvg 10y agoSomething being involuntary does not make it 'resemble' chattel slavery. It takes a fair bit more than simply not paying your taxes to end up in prison. Your children don't go to prison if you don't pay your taxes.
- monort 10y agoYes, it's more similar to a forced labor slavery, than chattel slavery. The forced labor convention (which for some reason wasn't ratified by US) specifically makes exception for civic obligations and compulsory military service because they are fitting the definition. Children in this analogy forced to go to prison too, when they reach 18 years and refuse their taxes.
- pvg 10y agoIt's still not much of an analogy unless you believe that, say, driving on the wrong side of the road, uninsured and without a license is somehow comparable to any form of slavery.
- monort 10y agoAm I correct that you invoke a social contract as a justification for involuntary actions? 1) You are forced into this contract without your consent. 2) You can't quit this contract with your property intact. This conditions wouldn't be enforceable if they were between ordinary parties, especially when there is inequality of bargaining power, why do they hold between a state and a person?
- afarrell 10y ago
- hnhire_me 10y ago> But the banality of these ads makes it all seem quite commonplace and acceptable. Yeah. Many bad things are commonplace and acceptable until progress marches on unfortunately. The majority has a bad habit of lacking empathy for those more vulnerable than themselves. Slavery. Equal rights for minorities. Even the War on Drugs or providing access to proper care for women's health has abuses that are largely ignored because most people aren't regularly impacted in ways that motivates them to action. The system has always been pretty wicked to those powerless to resist it.
- pitay 10y agoOne thing to note, the same types of people who were slave drivers are still here. They have as little respect for another humans life as they always have, judging other peoples well being as worth nothing. You can see it when they make statements similar to 'I earned what I have so I deserve it, poor people deserve nothing, especially not from my pocket.' They are willing to let people die, although they may try to paper it over with statements like 'the dignity of work' to enforce slave like conditions.
- Hondor 10y agoNearly all professionals in the west are in that position. They could give away most of their income to save desperately poor people, but they feel that they deserve it for themselves. It's a very broad blurry line between evil and respectable. Mostly dependent on whatever popular culture tells us it should be.
- pitay 10y agoYes, good point. I think the best way to go around it is supporting systems that prevent people having unnecessary horrible positions in life, starting at country or even state wide, and hopefully worldwide systems in the future. Also to help this, getting people to identify what sort of arguments value another persons life as nothing, is a great way of diffusing harmful ideas. It is that obvious that it has been mentioned in ancient times, such as the biblical "You will be judged as you have judged others". Putting an emphasis on the value of a persons life other than what can be taken from them, should support these better systems. Back to what you have put forward, yes, it is very easy to forget the people who you just don't see.
- foreigner 10y agoConsider - what are we doing now that future generations will look back on and express the same sentiment?
- falsestprophet 10y agoI like to think I'd never have stood by while someone enslaved someone else. You do standby while millions are enslaved. The United Nations estimates that roughly 27 to 30 million individuals are currently caught in the slave trade industry. For context there were 3,950,528 slaves in the US in 1860.
- hoodoof 10y agoSome of the ads have a little icon that shows a slave running away. Like it's a particular category of classified ad.
- hamana 10y agoI have a very different view on this (ready to be downvoted into oblivion). What was done to slaves of homo sapiens species in the recent past is being done today with dogs, cats and many other slaves of different species. Have you seen the ads where 'owners' of creatures who escaped offer financial reward to anyone who finds them? People who are against slavery of members of homo sapiens species show no critical thinking or introspection. Since you grew up in the environment where having pets(slaves of other species) is considered normal and acceptable, you are not against it. But, because you happen to be born in a particular part of history where human slavery is though of as bad, you also join the herd in talking against 'evil' of human slavery. Have you analyzed the issue of animal slavery in a critical way or asked yourself why you believe what you believe? Most importantly, have you asked yourself whether anything(any movement of matter and energy) is objectively right or wrong?
- jklinger410 10y agoDid you just put evil in quotation marks when referring to human slavery?
- hamana 10y agoNo, I put 'Coca Cola'... Can you read?
- jklinger410 10y agoHow edgy to you have to be to try and argue about the morality behind slavery. When you prove that animals are self aware and conscious to the level of humans you can start to try and make half of this point but you're taking it way too far with this whole energy molecules thing. What's next, comparing the Holocaust to fish farms?
- hamana 10y ago"How edgy to you have to be to try and argue about the morality behind slavery." How brainwashed do you have to be to mimic the beliefs of people around you? "When you prove that animals are self aware and conscious to the level of humans you can start to try and make half of this point" What do vague labels like 'conscious' and 'self-aware' have to do with slavery? "...but you're taking it way too far with this whole energy molecules thing." Are members of homo sapiens species not clusters of elementary particles? Have you studies physics or chemistry at all? "What's next, comparing the Holocaust to fish farms?" Absolutely. Why is it fine to enslave bio-chemical processes known as 'fish', but not okay to enslave 'humans'? Is it objectively wrong to enslave members of homo sapiens species? If aliens came to Earth and used humans the same way humans use fish, what would be wrong with that?