[Wittrs] Re: The Institution of Slavery and the Concept of Free Will
- From: "SWM" <swmirsky@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 01:37:02 -0000
You make a good point about native Americans, especially since many tribes even
in North America were known to enslave and keep slaves (although there were
differences, naturally, between those practices and the institution of chattel
slavery that grew up in the states, particularly the south after the
Revolution).
On the other issue though, "that until quite recently any western concept of
free will applied only to adult males," I think you are confusing issues of
freedom with those of free will. A slave can have free will just as much as a
non-slave, even if his or her opportunities to exercise it are more
constrained. The notion of free will is not equivalent to the notion of freedom
(which, itself, may have several different meanings, e.g., political freedom,
economic freedom, personal freedom).
SWM
--- In Wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Martha Sherwoodpike <wittrsamr@...> wrote:
>
> On 4/22 JL Speranza wrote:
>
> Native Americans, for example, possibly lacked the notion of "free" (or
> "slave" for that matter).
>
> I am continually amazed about the sweeping statements made by educated people
> about what "Native Americans" did or did not do. Even if you restrict the
> term to those tribes that whose historical territory lay within the the
> boundaries of the United States, you are talking about thousands of different
> tribes with widely varying cultures, only a few of which are well enough
> documented to be able to make meaningful statements about their cultural
> values. Extend your scope to central and South America and you encompass
> highly stratified civilizations where slavery, feudalism and nested levels of
> autonomy were very much the norm.
>
> It is worth remembering, also, that until quite recently any western concept
> of free will applied only to adult males. The degree of freedom and autonomy
> enjoyed by women differed much less from culture to culture and did not
> necessarily mirror the degree of freedom enjoyed by adult males of a certain
> social class.
>
> Martha Sherwood
>
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