Historic Replicas

Writing about the Civil War weapons and the Civil War replicas on our site has gotten me thinking about slavery and the larger role it’s played in human history.  Slavery is nearly as old as humanity itself. It is the ownership of one human being by another, the antithesis of the basic human rights guaranteed by the United States and other modern nations.  It is one of the most oppressive, horrific institutions ever devised, and, tragically, one that appears frequently in our history books.  Slavery was not invented in one place and imported elsewhere, to be foisted upon innocent native peoples like alcohol on the American Indians.  Nor was slavery a fluke, a detestable byproduct of one people’s excessive cruelty or pride.  Rather, the subjugation of others appears to have been a basic human impulse indulged all over the world, and one that’s only recently been curbed by compassion and collective reason.  Today, of course, individual freedom and the equality of all people are central to our culture, and the idea of slavery often fills us with disgust.  But different times had different ideals, and when slavery was the norm, many otherwise decent people probably thought it was the natural order of things, and never questioned it.  We’re all products of our environment, and as such, it’s important not to judge past generations too harshly.  Slavery has been justified in a variety of ways, and taken many forms over the course of history.  Let’s explore some of them and try to understand it a little better.