Ok, so I was reading the Mosaic Law and saw that it justified having slaves if they are treated well, you can only import slaves from other countries/kingdoms/nation states, and if they become unruly you can beat the to near death. So, how does Judaism and Christianity (more specifically the Catholic Church)justify/reconcile this?
Suppose you’re a member of a tribe of ancient antiquity. Your tribe has been subjected to repeated attacks from another, nearby tribe. You mobilize and go to war, defeating the enemy in open battle, killing their leaders. But, problem: you now have several hundred, maybe even thousand, civilians left over. Women, children, the sick and disabled, the elderly, etc. What do you do with them?
(A) You can kill them all. But that’s pretty bad, no?
(B) You could let them go. But, leaderless, they might simply be destroyed by the elements or picked off by other tribes. Worst case, they might regroup under a new leader and come back looking for vengeance.
(C) You could “imprison” them.
Option (C) is the only really humane one. But, note, resources are scarce enough as is: if they’re going to survive, they’re going to need to do their share of work. Since you don’t and can’t trust them, you need to put people over them to keep them in line, to punish those who object to this arrangement, etc.
Boom. You have slavery.
Given these circumstances, slavery is a natural, rational, and humane institution. Therefore, the best that can be hoped for is making sure slaves are treated reasonably decently. Obviously “reasonably decently” doesn’t mean “like kings.” They’re still prisoners, after all, and if the prisoners riot, you send in the SWAT teams with guns and gas and clubs to beat them back into submission.
Obviously those circumstances no longer exist today, so slavery is no longer natural, rational, or humane.
