Racism In Mesopotamian Slavery

Prior to Atlantic slavery, slave-owning was composed of Old World slavery. Slaves consisted of people who had to either pay off debt, were captives of war, or they were criminals. The workload of an Old world slave didn 't even resemble the one of Atlantic slavery. Evidently, this was not racism because it directed no isolation of one particular group to uphold the title of a slave. Slavery in Mesopotamian times showed no correlation to racism. There was more freedom and the workload was more egalitarian with help from their owner. Their general appearances where similar, and slaves were allowed to buy their freedom with the permission of their owner. Kagan illustrates this point by revealing, "Slavery in the ancient world differed from one

Slaves were prisoners of war, criminals, and indebted people who were punished for their "ignobleness". Kagan declares, "Fully developed Chinese slavery resembled the slave systems of the other ancient civilizations. The slave population included captives in war; victims of kidnapping and slave trading; and defaulted debtors and poor men who sold themselves, their wives, and their children into bondage. Slaves were used in a wide range of occupations. "(151). " In the earliest dynasties, evidence suggests that slavery was punishment for criminal behavior." (151). This also pointed away from the use of racism to classify slaves. Romans captured slaves from Africa, Asia, and Europe there was no evidence of racism that directly pointed to the way they captured their slaves, it even states in the Unified World reading that, "Ethnic stereotypes changed as the Romans drew their slaves from different ethnic groups. With the Roman conquest of Gaul (France) and Britain in the first century B.C., the Roman stereotype of slaves more closely resembled the light-skinned, blond Gauls and Romans."(46) Old world slavery had no direct result of racism in their forms slaves. Slaves were classified on crimes, debt, poverty, and human trafficking and more, but not on

One of the main reasons for the slave trade was money and profitability. There was no need to pay slaves which allowed owners to gain full profit. Standage reads,"Its immediate significance was as a currency, for it closed the triangle linking spirits, slaves, and sugar. Rum could be used to buy slaves, with which to produce sugar, the leftovers of which could be made into rum to buy more slaves, and so on and on" (Standage, 110). Not only did slaves allow owners to gain full profit on their companies, the actual slaves were profitable. Through the slave trade owners were able to buy slaves for cheap and sell them off for expensive prices, contributing to their riches. High demand for sugar was another factor that leads to the growth of Atlantic slavery. In an illustration by E.T Paris titled " the sugar hogshead" depicts a community where everyone had gathered together to get some sugar." This is followed by a caption on 3B, which states, "The increased consumption of sugar, and increasing demand for it, exceed all comparison with any other article, used as an auxiliary, in food: for, such is the influence of sugar, the once touching the nerves of taste no person was ever known to have the power of relinquishing the desire for it. " (407). With the