Friday, May 8, 2020
We Are Slaves by Another Name
We Are Slaves by Another NameBy some quirk of history and of language, slavery is called something else in our country - 'servitude.' But what is a servitude? And how can we get a brief overview of the same so that one can get an idea about the same?According to Wikipedia, 'The word servitude comes from Latin 'servitus', which means 'servant'. Servitude is a form of slavery in which the slave was sold to another party with no choice but to accept the position. Historically, the meaning of servitude came to be a negative connotation as it meant those who were subjected to servitude, but this was later changed to civil servitude or legal slavery.' Another Wikipedia entry describes slavery in this way: 'Servitude, where people are forced to work for someone else without being given any option to leave and/or prevent their own enslavement.'We're told by many sources that this thing called slavery, which is a form of involuntary servitude which other countries have allowed and which the w hole world views as slavery is a form of illegal activity. Yet we cannot be absolutely sure that we've been keeping up with what's been going on in all the other countries around the world. After all, we still call America's own slavery the 'American System' which we think is a relatively benign thing to do.The word slavery, when it is used in the English language, tends to describe a complete system. Indeed, some of its more cruel practices have come to be known as 'slavery-like.' When we speak of forced labor or slavery in the modern world, we refer not only to the old European-style forms of slavery, but also to modern day forms like bonded labor in India, forced child labor in China, and so on.At times, we may use other terms for slavery. For example, what about slavery in a city or state? In most situations, we tend to think of slavery as something that happens at a national level. So, for example, slavery in some areas of the United States would not be considered slavery.Howev er, as I said before, I do not speak of slavery in America. I am referring to the European-style form of slavery prevalent in several of the European countries that were colonies of the United States of America when it was still a nation. Slavery in the European Union countries, like Canada and most of the European countries that are members of the European Union, is definitely different from the kind of slavery practiced in the United States of America. It is also different from what exists in countries that are not members of the European Union, such as Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.We are learning all the time about all the different kinds of slavery, and we are always trying to learn more about the whole new set of human slavery practices. In this case, a slavery by another name summary research paper is probably in order. As one might expect, slavery is everywhere, and it seems to be alive and well in all of the countries that have adopted the European system of slavery, wh erever in the world you may find them.Why should we look at this in terms of slavery by another name? If you'll remember, slavery in the European Union is called slavery because of the difference in how it is defined in each of the countries. We do indeed need to look at what it means to be a slave, and we do need to know that it is very different from slavery in the United States of America, whether in the continental U.S. or in the entire country.
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