(May 20, 2015 at 2:13 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote:(May 20, 2015 at 1:50 pm)Freedom4me Wrote: I think that in biblical times, slavery was quite often the most obvious and practical alternative to something far worse. ... So, although I wouldn't want to put a smiley face on slavery even in those days, I can understand that in ancient times there were often no good alternatives to slavery.
Do you really think this case was in the majority, rather than a minority of cases? What makes you come to the conclusion that the creation of slaves through spoils of war was "quite often" other than the desire to explain away the undesirability of slavery? Did the Romans not make slaves of both male foreigners in their conquests, even where they weren't attempting to acquire land, but merely to acquire the spoils of the land, food and precious items, in addition to slaves. It seems clear that in ancient times, slaves were 'goods' sought for their own value, not simply the leftovers from war. What makes you think the majority of them were leftovers rather than the goods to be sought in and of themselves?
I'm not a historian and I really don't have any opinions on these matters. I was only suggesting one possible scenario as an example in which slavery might have provided a way of avoiding something far worse than slavery. I'm certainly not convinced that the scenario I mentioned was more common than the existence of slavery for its own sake.
