Opus 2016-280: New Terms: Anachronistic

I continually read and hear people making a case that American slavery was worse than slavery in other cultures.  They point out that slaves had certain rights in ancient cultures and were often better off than free servants.  The ones making the case are usually Progressives who hate America and want to turn us into a workers paradise that approach slavery this way.  The slavery they describe has a lot in common with the nanny state they want to push us into.  We should all be servants of a government that wants to keep us safe and harmless.

The problem is that this is saying that slavery was acceptable in every other culture but ours because the masters were humane.  I am sorry.  That doesn’t wash with me.  A slave was still a slave.  Slaves may have had some rights but none of the ones that make you a free man.  They tell us that slaves in Rome were often highly educated and wealthy.  That may be true but they could still be executed by their master if he was unhappy or having a bad day.  Serfs had some rights but they were not free.  Keep in mind that slavery was not an American phenomenon.  It didn’t start here and it ended here before it ended in much of the world. 

Try to understand the world of the past.  In all cultures the great mass of people were in that class that made them nothing but servants.  Even the nobility often lived knowing that the monarch could demand their head or property any time they were in a bad mood.  The “free servants” of Rome were treated so badly that being a slave could be an advantage.  Neither was free in the modern sense.  It is a false comparison given by people trying to make America look bad instead of being honest.

Was slavery a bad situation?  Of course.  Was it an American evil?  Don’t be foolish.  Does it still exist?  Definitely.  Try not to take the standards of today and impose them on the past.  It is called anachronistic. 

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