| |
A mode of production within which labour is controlled through non-economic compulsion. The individual slaves, plus other members of their households in many cases, are privately-owned \'commodities\' denied any control over either their own labour or their own reproduction (i.e. there is no civil society under slavery); this complete control differentiates the slave from the condition of the serf under feudalism. The Greek and Roman empires provided the paradigm exemplars of slavery, but many other societies have contained elements of it, such as the American South prior to the Civil War: the legal and cultural systems that have regulated and legitimated slavery have varied considerably both historically and geographically, however. (RJJ)
Suggested Reading Hindess, B. and Hirst, P.Q. 1975: Pre-capitalist modes of production. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. |
|
