The institution of slavery was the basis of the economy of antiquity and antiquity. Forced labor has produced goods for many hundreds of years. Egypt, the cities of Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome - slavery was an important part of all these civilizations. At the turn of antiquity and the Middle Ages feudalism replaced it.
Education
Historically, the slave state was the first type of state that emerged after the decomposition of the primitive communal system. The society fell into classes, the rich and the poor appeared. Because of this contradiction, the institution of slavery arose. It was based on bonded labor for the master and was the foundation of the then power.
The first slave states arose at the turn of the fourth and third millennia BC. These include the kingdom of Egypt, Assyria, as well as the cities of the Sumerians in the valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris. In the second millennium BC, similar formations were formed in China and India. Finally, the first slave states included the Hittite kingdom.
Types and forms
Modern historians divide the ancient slaveholding states into several types and forms. The first type includes oriental despotism. Their important feature was the preservation of some features of the former primitive community. Patriarchal slavery remained primitive - a slave was allowed to have his own family and property. In later ancient states, this feature has already disappeared. In addition to private ownership of slaves, collective slavery existed when slaves belonged to the state or temples.
Human labor was mainly used in agriculture. Eastern despots formed in river valleys, but even so they had to improve agriculture through the construction of complex irrigation systems. In this regard, the slaves worked in a team. With this feature of the eastern despots, the existence of the then agricultural communities was connected.
Later ancient slave states formed the second type of such countries - Greco-Roman. He was distinguished by improved production and a complete rejection of primitive remnants. Forms of exploitation developed, merciless suppression of the masses and violence against them reached its peak. Collective property was replaced by private property of individual slave owners. Sharp became social inequality, as well as the dominance and lack of rights of opposing classes.
The Greco-Roman slave state existed according to the principle that slaves were recognized as things and producers of material wealth for their masters. They did not sell their labor; they themselves were sold to their masters. Antique documents and works of art vividly testify to this state of affairs. The slaveholding type of state suggested that the fate of a slave was equal in importance to the fate of animals or products.
People became slaves for various reasons. In ancient Rome, prisoners of war and civilians captured during campaigns were declared slaves. Also, a person lost his will if he could not pay off his debts with borrowers. This practice was especially common in India. Finally, a slave state could make a criminal a slave.
Slaves and half-free
The exploiters and the exploited were the basis of ancient society. But besides them, there were third-party classes of semi-free and free citizens. In Babylon, China and India, these were artisans and community peasants. In Athens, there was a class of metecs - the Hellenic strangers who settled in the country. Also among them were freed slaves. The estrus class that existed in the Roman Empire was similar. So called free people without Roman citizenship. Columns were considered as another ambiguous class of Roman society - peasants who were attached to leased plots and in many ways resembled the enslaved peasants of the period of medieval feudalism.
Regardless of the form of the slave-owning state, small landowners and artisans lived in constant danger of ruin by usurers and large owners. Free workers were unprofitable for employers, as their labor remained too expensive compared to the work of slaves. If the peasants took off from the earth, sooner or later they would replenish the ranks of the lumpen, especially large ones in Athens and Rome.
By inertia, the slave-owning state suppressed and infringed on their rights along with the rights of full-fledged slaves. So, columns and peregrins did not fall under the full effect of Roman law. Peasants could be sold along with the site to which they were attached. Not being slaves, they could not be considered free either.
Functions
A complete description of the slaveholding state cannot do without mentioning its external and internal functions. The activity of the authorities was determined by its social content, tasks, goals and the desire to maintain the old order. The creation of all necessary conditions for the use of the labor of slaves and devastated free people is the primary internal function performed by the slave state. Countries with such a device were distinguished by a system for satisfying the interests of the ruling social class of the aristocracy, large landowners, etc.
This principle was especially clearly reflected in ancient Egypt. In the eastern kingdom, power completely controlled the economy and organized public works in which significant masses were involved. Similar projects and “construction projects of the century” were necessary for the construction of canals and other infrastructure, which improved the economy operating in adverse environmental conditions.
Like any other state system, a slave system could not exist without ensuring its own security. Therefore, the authorities in such ancient countries did everything to suppress the protests of slaves and other oppressed masses. This protection included the protection of private slave property. The need for it was obvious. For example, in Rome, the uprisings of the lower strata took place regularly, and the uprising of Spartacus in 74-71. BC e. and became legendary at all.
Suppression tools
The slaveholding type of state has always used instruments such as the courts, the army, and prisons to repress the discontented. In Sparta, the practice of periodically revealing mass killings of state-owned people was adopted. Such punitive acts were called cryptias. In Rome, if a slave killed his master, the authorities executed as punishment not only the killer, but all the slaves who lived with him under the same roof. Similar traditions gave rise to mutual responsibility and collective responsibility.
The slave state, the feudal state and other states of the past also tried to influence the population through religion. The enslavement and lack of rights was proclaimed godly orders. Many slaves did not know free life at all, since they were owned by the master from birth, which means they could hardly imagine freedom. The pagan religions of antiquity, ideologically defending exploitation, helped the servants to strengthen their awareness of the normality of their position.
In addition to internal functions, the exploiting authorities also had external functions. The development of a slaveholding state implied regular wars with neighbors, the conquest and enslavement of the new masses, the defense of their possessions from external threats, the creation of a system for the effective management of occupied lands. It should be understood that these external functions were closely linked to internal functions. They were reinforced and complemented by each other.
Protecting established practices
To perform internal and external functions, there was a wide state apparatus. At the early stage of the evolution of the institutions of the slave system, this mechanism was characterized by underdevelopment and simplicity. Gradually he strengthened and grew. That is why the administrative machine of the Sumerian cities cannot be compared with the apparatus of the Roman Empire.
Armed forces were especially strengthened. In addition, the judicial system expanded. Institutions overlapped. For example, in Athens in the VV centuries. BC e. The policy was managed by the Boule — the Council of Five Hundred. As the state system developed, it was supplemented by elected officials in charge of military affairs. These were hipparchs and strategists. For management functions were also responsible for individuals - archaeologists. The court and departments connected with religious cults became independent. The formation of slave-owning states took shape approximately along the same path — the complication of the administrative apparatus. Officials and the military might not have been directly related to slavery, but their activities somehow defended the established political system and its stability.
The class of people who found themselves in the public service was formed only according to class considerations. The highest posts could only be occupied by nobility. Representatives of other social classes at best found themselves on the lower steps of the state apparatus. For example, in Athens, detachments were formed from slaves that performed police functions.
An important role was played by the priests. Their status, as a rule, was enshrined in law, and their influence was significant in many ancient powers - Egypt, Babylon, Rome. They influenced the behavior and minds of the masses. The ministers of the temples deified power, imposed a cult of personality of the next king. Their ideological work with the population significantly strengthened the structure of a state such as slaveholding. The rights of the priests were extensive - they occupied a privileged position in society and enjoyed universal respect, inspiring awe of others. Religious rituals and customs were considered a shrine, which gave worshipers the inviolability of property and personality.
Political system and laws
All ancient slave states, including the first slave states on the territory of Russia (Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast), established the established order with the help of laws. They fixed the class character of the then society. Vivid examples of such laws are the Athenian laws of Solon and the Roman laws of Servius Thulius. They established property inequality as a norm and divided society into strata. For example, in India such cells were called castes and varns.
While the slaveholding states in our country did not leave behind their own legislative acts, historians around the world are exploring antiquity according to the Babylonian laws of Hammurabi or the “Book of Laws” of Ancient China. This type of document has developed in India. In the II century BC e there appeared the laws of Manu. They divided the slaves into seven categories: donated, bought, inherited, slaves as punishment, captured in the war, slaves for maintenance and slaves born in the owner’s house. What they had in common was that all these people were completely lawless, and their fate depended entirely on the grace of their master.
Similar orders were recorded in the laws of the Babylonian king Hammurabi, drawn up in the XVIII century BC. e. This vault stated that if a slave refused to serve the lord or contradicted him, he should have cut off his ear. Helping a slave to escape was punishable by death (this was even true for free people).
No matter how unique the documents of Babylon, India or other ancient states are, the laws of Rome are rightfully considered the most perfect laws. Under their influence, codes of many other countries belonging to Western culture were formed. Roman law, which became Byzantine, affected slave states in Russia, including Kievan Rus.
In the Empire of the Romans, the institutes of inheritance, private property, collateral, loan, storage, sale and purchase were developed to perfection. The subject in such legal relations could also be slaves, since they were considered only as goods or property. The source of these laws was Roman customs, which originated in ancient times, when there was no empire or kingdom, and only a primitive community existed. Based on the traditions of past generations, lawyers much later formed the legal system of the main state of antiquity.
It was believed that Roman laws were valid, since they were "ruled and approved by the Roman people" (plebs and the poor did not enter into this concept). These norms controlled slave relations for several centuries. Important legal acts were the edicts of the magistrates, which were issued immediately after the assumption of office of another major official.
Exploitation of slaves
Slaves were used not only for agricultural work in the village, but also for servicing the manor house. Slaves guarded the estates, kept order in them, cooked in the kitchen, served at the table, bought food. They could fulfill the duties of escort, following their master on walks, work, hunting, and wherever he was brought to business. Obtaining respect due to his honesty and intelligence, the slave got a chance to become a teacher of the owner’s children. The closest servants conducted business affairs or were appointed overseers of new slaves.
Hard physical work was entrusted to slaves for the reason that the elites were busy defending the state and its expansion in relation to neighbors. Similar orders were especially characteristic of aristocratic republics. In mercantile powers or in colonies where the sale of rare resources flourished, the enslavers were engaged in profitable commercial transactions. Consequently, agricultural work was delegated to slaves. Such a distribution of powers has developed, for example, in Corinth.
Athens, on the contrary, retained its patriarchal agricultural customs for quite some time. Even under Pericles, when this policy reached its political peak, free citizens preferred to live in the countryside. Such habits persisted for a long time, even despite the enrichment of the city with trade and its decoration with unique works of art.
Slaves owned by the cities performed work on their improvement. Some of them were involved in law enforcement. For example, in Athens there was a corps of thousands of Scythian riflemen serving as police. Many slaves served in the army and navy. Some of them were sent to the service of the state by private owners. Such slaves became sailors, took care of ships and equipment. In the army, slaves were mostly workers. They were made soldiers only with immediate danger to the state. In Greece, such situations developed during the Persian wars or at the end of the struggle against the advancing Romans.
Law of war
In Rome, the cadres of slaves were replenished mainly from the outside. To this end, the so-called right of war acted in the republic, and then in the empire. The enemy, captured, was deprived of any civil rights. He was outlawed and ceased to be considered a person in the full sense of the word. The prisoner's marriage was dissolved, his inheritance was open.
Many foreigners enslaved were slaughtered after a triumph. Slaves could be forced to take part in fights for Roman soldiers, when two foreigners had to kill each other in order to survive. After the capture of Sicily, decimation was used on it. Every tenth man was killed - thus the population of the captured island overnight decreased by a tenth. At first, Spain and Cisalpine Gaul regularly rebelled against the Roman authorities. Thus, these provinces became the main suppliers of slaves for the republic.
During his famous war in Gaul, Caesar sold 53,000 new slaves from among the barbarians at one time. Sources such as Appian and Plutarch mentioned even larger numbers in their writings. For any slave state, the problem was not even the capture of slaves, but their retention. For example, the inhabitants of Sardinia and Spain became famous for their rebellion, which is why Roman aristocrats tried to sell men from these countries, rather than keep them as their own servants. When the republic became an empire, and its interests spanned the whole Mediterranean, the eastern regions became the main suppliers of slaves instead of the western ones, since there the traditions of slavery were considered the norm for many generations.
The end of slave states
The Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century A.D. e. She was the last classical antique state, uniting almost the entire ancient world around the Mediterranean Sea. From it remained a huge eastern fragment, which later became known as Byzantium. In the west, the so-called barbarian kingdoms formed, which turned out to be prototypes of European national countries.
All these states gradually moved into a new historical era - the Middle Ages. Feudal relations became their legal basis. They supplanted the institution of classical slavery. The dependence of the peasants on the more affluent nobility persisted, however, it took other forms that markedly differed from ancient slavery.