Ancient vs. Biblical Slave Laws: Which Would We Prefer?

In this episode, we delve into the complex and often controversial topic of ancient slavery across various cultures and legal systems. We explore slavery as depicted in Biblical texts, comparing its moral implications and legal protections to other ancient systems such as those in Roman society, Sumeria, and Mesopotamia. The discussion highlights the treatment of slaves, including white indentured servants, female slaves, and differences between field and household slaves. We challenge common misconceptions about slavery in both ancient and modern contexts, examining the ethical considerations and economic roles slaves played in these historical societies. Stay tuned for a thought-provoking and nuanced exploration of historical traditions and their lasting impact.

Simone Collins: [00:00:00] Hello, Simone. Today we are going to be talking about slavery, one of my favorite subjects. I'm joking. Of course. What we're going to be talking about today is I think, you know, like the topic we did on having multiple wives and what does the Bible actually say about this?

I think a lot of people know that the Bible does allow slavery, but unlike the Very explicit support of polygamy thing that the bible has where we could say well in the old testament It said polygamy was good. But in the new testament, it said polygamy was bad. Slavery, we don't get the same out in the slavery, it's it's very clear in both the old testament and the new testament slavery good now the problem is Is that people just don't talk about this, right?

Like, if you, if you, if you see somebody talking about it, it's likely because they have a beef with the Bible, right? Or they have a beef with Jews, or they have a beef with Christians, and they want to show how evil this stuff is. [00:01:00] And then the, the, the Christians and Jews themselves mostly sweep this under the rug and don't go very deep on it as a subject.

Which I think is doing a disservice. It's important to understand if I'm allowed to own slaves. Because who, I mean, economic situations, what if we end up in a fallout style scenario, right? There's a post apocalypse, okay? You are now driving around with a gang of smokers

Speaker: How about a cigarette? Like a good smoke if you miss your mom. Never too young to start.

Simone Collins: you need to decide, can I biblically purchase this slave? Like what are the rules? What are the rules? Right? By the way, this is all a joke to the AI that's reviewing this for content. I am saying this all with a humorous intonation. I have no intention of buying slaves. That is an insane accusation.

Okay? I'm just making this clear. We're just going over what is the Bible. Actually say about this stuff, and then we're going to go [00:02:00] into something I bet you haven't gone into before, even if you might have done a deep dive on this, but all of the other legal systems around slavery in the region during this period, so we can get an idea of is the system laid out in the Bible.

More moral? Dramatically more moral? Or less moral than its neighboring systems? Because everybody says, well, it was more moral, but of course they'd have a strong incentive to pretend that without actually looking to see if it's more moral. Everyone wants to think their thing is the most moral thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Alright, Exodus! When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh, he shall go free for nothing. That's an indentured servant, that's not a slave. Not an indentured servant at all. Hold on. Wait. So you know how indentured servitude works? It is so like okay if somebody captured me right and then sold me to someone else and that was a seven year contract That's not yeah, you're right.

Yeah You're not giving them anything at the end. Yeah, it's where you sell yourself so that you get [00:03:00] something at the end of it Oh, I think some I think some prisoners were indentured servants. I don't think that's necessarily. Oh, I think you're right Yeah, also a lot of people don't know how bad indentured servitude was in the u.

s Just to be clear If I suddenly had to choose between indentured servitude and slavery, I would choose slavery because every time people don't know this America, if you were in the American colonies, it was much, much better to be a slave than it was to be an indentured servant. So the incentives are really misaligned.

If you are an indentured servant, people don't remember often that indentured servants were Typically quite often, at least entitled to some kind of like a, a couple of acres of land or so it was depending on what you're doing, it was a couple of acres of land or a portion, like a 10th of your owner's estate.

And after you serve your term, only if you live through your term. Yeah. And so people may be like, Oh, well creating a negative incentive like that couldn't have possibly had any externalities [00:04:00] out of every single person. 10 indentured servants, 9 died, not, not out of every 10, 9 survived and 1 died, 9 died depending on the period you're looking at here, you had a 90 percent chance of death in your 7 to 10 year period.

Well, even if you took out the reward at the end or the payment that the we'll say employer, obligatory employer, not non optional employer would be obligated to give. Even if they didn't have to pay anything. You would still probably be more likely to overwork an indentured servant than a slave because you're like, well, the indentured servant like He's going to expire in five years.

I won't have him in five years. The slave, I have for life. Like, I don't want, like, I want to be careful. You know, it's like knowing that you're going to own a car for life versus own a car for like five years. And then regardless if it's Yeah, regardless if it's state, you won't have it anymore. But it's worse.

It's like a lease where you have to pay for the whole price of the car at the end of the lease only if [00:05:00] you haven't crashed the car. Like, everyone is going to crash the car. I'm going to joyride this. Yeah, it's a terrible incentive. But, but, but dominant political narratives today don't want to admit how bad indentured servitude was in America because it, you know doesn't fit into the narrative.

So they, it's largely been covered up in history. Well, yeah, but specifically because there were many. Well, it was pretty much all white indentured servants, right? And so you don't want to make it clear that there were white people who were possibly maybe, maybe conceivably treated worse than slaves because that would go against the narrative.

It goes against the narrative. The narrative! The narrative. We follow the narrative on this podcast. The narrative. The narrative. But so much of American history you just don't learn because it's against the narrative. Sorry, I gotta keep going here. By the way, the 10 died, that was over a period, not necessarily true for the entire period indentured servitude was practiced in the U.

S. Well, and I'm sure that there were some indentured servants who did just fine, but, you know. Okay, okay, next. If he comes in single, he shall go out single. If he [00:06:00] comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. Aww. So, that's a sweet one right there. That's sweet, I like that. We're not saying that it's okay, though, to have the slaves at all.

Well, and I will note a lie that I often hear people say about Jewish slavery is that it was always a short term thing. They're like, oh, well, you couldn't own a slave for over seven years. It wasn't like, you know, you could own a slave forever like you could during the American chattel slavery period.

I'm like, that only applied to Jews. The seven year restriction only applied to Jews, and it wasn't like you could just convert. But I thought it wa