I was wondering if slavery was all that bad in it’s time; for example, people living in hunter-gatherer societies, different tribes, competing on the same resources, it was common practice as it is proven now (no natural paradise…) that they killed people from other tribes, to keep the numbers low; wars or to prove manhood, etc.
Now there show up some guys who tell them: do not kill those guys but better tie them up and bring them here and I’l pay you etc.
If you take it like this doesn’t look that bad;
Well, if the choice is- starve to death, be killed, or sign up as a slave- then slavery is the best out of several bad options. A lot of people actually sold themselves as slaves, if they were on hard times. It meant they were fed and safe. There is mention too about a freed slave, who might prefer to stay in service.
There is something in Sirach about treating a slave as a brother. Joseph and Daniel were both treated well as slaves. I don’t think we can condemn David and Solomon in retrospect for owning slaves.
But slavery is always bad. There is a kind of slavery going today- where people get paid just enough to cover their living expenses (and possibly indulge in some mind-numbing recreation), doing a job they couldn’t care less about. Sure, for some people it is possible to change jobs, get promoted, etc. But for others, working life is a vicious circle (and not only in developing countries)
On a deeper level, there is a kind of metaphysical slavery attached to being in human, at least while we are in the body. We must eat, and therefore we must work (for most people). As Job says: “Is human life nothing but forced servitude, or hired labour, like a slave sighing for the shade?”
In an ideal world, everyone could chose their own destiny and realise their own vocation. Anything less than that (which is the case for many people) is a kind of slavery.
