Slavery: What if slaves were the lucky ones?

I want to preface this article by stating that I know human slavery to be utterly abhorrent in every form in which it does, has, and will ever, exist. I am, however, a total layman on the subject of slavery. I have no ancestry that was affected by slavery (to my knowledge), and I have never studied the subject outside of casual reading, viewing and discussion. This article is merely the musings of someone who finds the history of slavery interesting as a case study of human psychology, society (past and present), and the presence of racial discrimination in the modern world.

The purpose of this article is to look at slavery through a lens that may not be utilised in many discussions on the topic in recent times (the working title of the article was "On slavery: an omission of interest"). It is a lens that considers the possibility that slavery, for some unfortunate few, may have actually been an improvement upon the circumstances in which they found themselves, or at the very least, not the worst possible fate to befall them. This article does not justify slavery, but it may skirt perhaps uncomfortably close to doing so for some readers. I want it known in advance that my intention is not to offend anyone, nor is it to discount or disrespect the slavery-related suffering of any people, past, present, or future.

Recently, I have been watching the series on Netflix called Norsemen. Set in the 8th century, the show is about the adventures of a small village of Vikings raiding their way to glory and riches without a single care in the world for the immorality of their deeds. And to add to their horribly unethical way of life, they own a small contingent of slaves.

One feature of the Viking slaves' circumstances that I found to be most interesting, was that they actually seemed to have found themselves in conditions that appeared to be vastly superior to those of a free person who was not a member of any community. Don't get me wrong, these people were slaves. They lived in the stereotypical lodgings of a slave, which is to say: they lived alongside animals, as the lowest members of those communities. Nonetheless, they were actually members of those communities, and at least one of the slaves actually held his slave status in extremely high regard, considering himself a truly lucky man indeed to have a community, a bed, even a home to call his own (although his home was, admittedly, a chicken coop). 

This got me thinking: What if slavery was once preferable to being free when an individual didn't have any secure place to call home?

I wonder if perhaps there was once a time and a place in history in which being a slave may have actually been an enviable position for someone who was not a member of any community; in which taking a slave may have been akin to saving that person from almost certain death in the wild; in which slavery could be equivalent to taking a poor, sodden, outcast soul under your wing, and giving them food, shelter, and protection in exchange for labour (albeit forced labour). To be clear, that time is clearly not now, and that place is clearly not here, nor anywhere else on earth, but I do wonder if such a time and place did find its suitable home upon some point in human history, and whether slavery may have filled an important void left by the collapse of communities due to human violence, natural disasters, disease, and any number of other destructive forces to which ill-equipped human societies would have been regularly subjected. It doesn't make it right, nor ideal, but it may make it a kinder act than outright murder or abandonment; though, admittedly, this is quite possibly the lowest imaginable standard by which to measure an act of human decency.

I picture a man being left homeless and community-less after his village was ravaged by raiders. His family and friends are all dead. His village is a ruin of smoldering rubble, charred corpses, and desiccated farmland. He has no reasonable prospect of survival in the wilderness; he is alone, homeless, desperate. The raiders decide to take him as a slave; to give him a place to sleep, food and water to sustain him, and clothing and shelter to prevent exposure. However, these privileges (today known as 'Human Rights') come with a hefty cost: he cannot leave, he cannot resist, he must work as instructed, and his term of servitude is indefinite. Despite these incredible hardships, surely this downtrodden man would consider himself far luckier than his freshly butchered family and friends; he is, at the absolute least, alive, fed, and sheltered. Perhaps he is not overwhelmingly happy nor contented, but he is a member of a community, and is afforded at least some of the benefits of such a position, not least that he has a place to call home.

Of course - and it barely needs saying, but I shall state it clearly anyway- it would have been vastly preferable had those slavers simply adopted those poor abandoned folk into their communities as equal members; understanding the horrific immorality involved in partaking in or even abiding slavery. Who knows, perhaps they had their reasons, and perhaps their motivation was based on ensuring the survival and prosperity of their communities, at the seemingly inevitable detriment of everyone else; values to which any business, community or political leader can surely relate. This in no way justifies their barbarism, but it may just go some way towards helping to making sense of how something so clearly inhumane by any point on the yardstick of our modern sensibilities could have been such a widespread practice in human civilisation's nowhere-near-distant-enough past.

I want to finish this article, which I do hope has not caused a shred of offence to any reader, by saying that I sincerely hope that today's 'Black Lives Matter' movement, and any subsequent movements within the same vein, bring about widespread sustainable positive change with regard to the treatment of members of the Black community in the United States, as well as all other oppressed, marginalised, discriminated against, or segregated groups across the world. Any failure to achieve total equality for all members of the human race will only serve to prolong the unnecessary suffering of countless individuals well into the future, and do absolutely nothing to further the long term prosperity of our species. My belief is that all human beings are born entirely unequivocally equal, that we all deserve the same rights as one another, and that we all deserve to be treated with a reasonable level of respect, dignity, and kindness as often as humanly possible.