If you were living under slavery, what would you have done?

Just a little hypothetical here, did not really know which section in this forum to put it under.

Imagine you were a slave, living under an oppressive society. You are forced to do hard work, and lack basic freedom to go about where you please, or to cook your own food. Living conditions are not good, but they are not entirely inhumane either. You always have to be in a group so the overseer can watch over all the slaves at all times.

So what would you do, if you found yourself in such an oppressive situation? Would you go along with it and try to make the best out of a bad situation, or would you try to lead a rebellion (doomed to failure most likely) ?

The Soviets created work camps (basically slave camps) and arbitrarily threw people into them for periods of between 5-15 years. Political dissidents, or anyone suspected of opposing the Soviets would be ordered to go into a work camp. It is still potentially possible something like this could happen again in the future somewhere in the world, so it is not entirely necessarily just a historical scenario.

 

Was I born into this slavery, or was I captured and forced into it? If the latter, from where was I captured, and what were my living conditions there?

 

I suppose that could be a relevant question. Suppose you were already living under a fair amount of oppression, but at least you had a fair amount of freedom before. I think that basically describes many people living under the Soviet government, in the early years. They had to get permission to leave their local area. And they had to fulfill their work quotas.

Just look at the quote in your own signature, I think what that describes is very relevant here:

A little bit of hyperbole, but really describes the Soviet system to a tee. The basic necessities were all provided for, but there was not really any way to independently obtain things for oneself.

 

Probably would depend on if I had family with me. If not I would probably have run (in US slave times). As far as the soviet work camps, I think they were so isolated, running alone was a death sentence. You wouldn't outrun the Siberian winter, so there I would probably kill myself.

 

Yes, that is the obvious choice.
That is what is so scary now, in the modern world there is not really any place fugitives can run to. The country will just issue an international arrest warrant and the person, no matter where in the world they are, will just be arrested and automatically sent back to the country they fled from.

Just some modern examples to show what I mean:
The country of Malaysia arrested and deported a Saudi Arabian citizen back to his home country to face charges of "insulting Islam" just because of a single post made on Twitter. The man was sentenced to 2 years.
In the E.U. people in the U.K. have been arrested and sent off to Eastern European countries, spending many months or years in prison under terrible conditions. Basically, citizens in one country are made to face the injustices of the court systems in a different country.

 

i would find a way to slit the throats of my captors in their sleep, one by one,... starting with the overseer, and ending with the grandchildren of my 'master'. 99% chance I will not survive, so be it....but I'll take as many with me as I can. I'll not forget the 'Uncle Toms', they will get theirs too.

hey... you asked....

 

I am inclined to believe that given the number of fugitives we have in the US, they have more a "we will catch them eventually attitude". I think if you were on the run, you would have to change all your habits completely, never use the internet or a cellphone, and steal a valid ID from someone while still avoiding the cops just to have a chance to escape capture.

 

Yes, that is the other obvious choice. But it would not benefit you one iota.

And then there is the question of whether it would be morally/ethically right to kill your oppressors. Sometimes it is just an evil oppressive system, but the people in the system are not really evil, even if they are playing an active role in the oppressive system.

I think that might be why Peter in his letters tells slaves to submit to their masters (1 Peter 2:18 ).

It's actually much more complicated than just "They're evil so I'm going to kill them".
Sometimes, under oppressive governments, those hunting down fugitives are just doing their job, they do not really know the real reasons their government is seeking to catch the person in question. The government will just issue an arrest warrant like it does for any other criminal. In other cases, the oppressive government will set up a special secret force (this happened in Chile) which pretends to be ordinary police, makes an arrest, and then the person is never heard from again. What are the people supposed to do in this situation?

 

if i was living under slavery, back in the 1850s, I would have killed my master or joined an anti-slavery uprising.

but yes, if my master let me go, I would not kill him.

 

I answered the question of what I would do. You want to pontificate... have a ball. I would benefit because I would be free and several evil people will have paid the price for enslaving me. Given the horrible things they did to slaves... I'd say they got off too easy.

 

I thought about this as well. But only a few of the low paid underlings would be paying the price. There is always scum to be found, willing to do evil for a little money. The ones truly responsible, the ones who paid the slave catchers to do their dirty work, would probably get away with it. If you had killed those coming after you, what would that really accomplish?

I agree. If they knew that they were promoting slavery, it would be their own fault if they ended up dead.
But a thought crossed my mind. What if someone higher up had lied to them, told them you were a terrible low-down negro who had stolen money, raped a white woman, etc. And those pursuing you actually thought they were catching a bad criminal rather than just catching an escaped slave? In other words, if those pursuing you actually thought they were doing the right thing, but in actuality were unwittingly doing evil ?

 

What if your master was one of the "good" ones, a merciful slave master, who treated all his slaves better than other slaves got treated?
Some masters would let their slaves freely go into town, sometimes even get a part-time job, or paid them a small allowance. They might be allowed to build their own little house on the property and plant a little garden.

 

if he let me go free, he would have no reason to worry.

 

Would you really kill him though? In many cases the slave master would not actually be the one going after the slave. He would tell his slaves "If you don't like it here, the road is over there". But then he would make a report to the police that one of his slaves had escaped, and the professional slave catchers would hunt the slave down. The punishment for an escaped slave would be whipping and then imprisonment, basically locking them in a tiny little cell for a few months and not given adequate food. Then the slave would be returned to his master.

Not really that hard to catch a slave. Where would you go? Every town was small and everyone knew each other. If there was a stranger roaming around (especially an African person) they would be reported to the sheriff. It would be difficult to find food. In the Old South the property owners used guns to keep trespassers off their property. But if you stayed along the roads, the slave catchers would be sure to find you.

 

i would do anything i needed to do to ensure my freedom and possibly the freedom of my fellow slaves.

 

Keep in mind that I included slitting the throats of the master and all his family. They are the consumers of the slave trade. Put the fear of God in them and it would make a significant difference. Granted, our world today would have such an uprising go viral in minutes. Back then it would take months, but I suspect the impact would be similar.

Also, back then the 'negro' you specify was looked as at less than human. Whites would create whatever excuse they wanted to hunt you down. Even in death I'd still be free.

 

True indeed. Many are still sold into slavery although it's illegal in every country in the world.

I studied that subject a little bit, and I believe I would adapt and do like others would. I doubt there would be a rebellion or something I'd be interested in, because historically there were very few considering the amount of slaves. I guess you would just try to survive like all the others who are in the same situation like you...

 

You are 100% right, gulag was slave driven enterprise. Stalin and his dogs did not even try to hide it. What I'd do, much like most of my men did, I'd stay with upa, wood breathers, black cats, in order to stay as a human and destroy the system

 

Slavery isn't illegal in the US. It's just been nationalized.

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.".

Rebellions were viciously put down. While the most common ways to kill a slave would have been simple hanging, or beating them to do death, rebellion was often treated as something to be dealt with in far more painful ways. There's a story of slaves in New York being covered in pitch and slowly roasted alive. They took days to die in what has to be one of the most painful ways imaginable. And, rebellions were not all that uncommon, it's just that they often didn't get very far and word of them would not be allowed to spread so that slaves in other places would not also engage in rebellion.

 

It is still illegal to own someone. The government cannot own people either, nor can they purchase or sell, or trade their "stock" (to keep the expression from that time) with other countries...

 

You are referring to chattel slavery. There are a variety of forms of involuntary servitude.

 

If I had somebody I loved, I'd probably bear it for their sake. If not, I'd probably run away after killing the masters in their sleep, and ambush any pursuers if I could get a weapon. Then if possible I'd undermine them by subterfuge and smuggle slaves away from slavery. Subterfuge would include things like burning docked slave ships, assassinating key pro-slavery figures (esp if they went to West Point), detonating armories. Chances are I'd die but I'd call it a success if I took at least 2 with me.

 

I'd try to become an overseer. I have read many of them were slaves themselves. I'd try to become the co-owner of the plantation, like Sidney Poitier did in one movie. Being a slave was a crappy life but some slaves did become successful using that route. ( I think, I doubt if Poitier would make a movie that was COMPLETELY ahistoric.) OTOH if I saw a chance to kill my master, steal all his money and take an express to Canada I'd be swigging good Canadian booze before anyone knew what had happened. Being able to kill someone who had done you a lot of kindness with a clear conscience is about the only thing I can think of that would make being a slave worthwhile.

 

If I were like one of the millions thrown into a Soviet work camp----I'd try to escape.

If I was a Black slave 150 years ago, caputured and shipped to the USA or CSA, then I'd still escape, go back to Africa, set up my own tribe and kingdom, then enslave my own people with new knowledge and technology.

 

I'd probably do what I'm told to do. It's probably not going to be easy to escape even if you managed to kill your capters. And I'm not particularly that bold to try and make a run for it. I'd probably be too scared of the consequences of getting caught.