- Ancient History
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"Stop me if I escape and return me to my owner" reads the plaque hanging from the necklace that the slave wore.
When persons are not subject to law they are converted into cargo, considered as the absolute property of their lords, their owners, and as such used as a productive labor force for economic flourishing.
Since the Ancient Age slavery has been commonplace in all civilizations, coming mostly from wars, acquired as a reward in the form of prisoners, as slaves for life. In classical Rome, they refined the process, and the slave in his various forms could acquire certain rights, and even have his own business, although they would never become entirely free men, as borrowed citizens, the stigma would always accompany them.
The Libertos were citizens from slavery who had been liberated (manumitidos). When they did not keep the bonds of fidelity to their houses they were called Ungrateful Libertos. And if they did not defend their patrons (since they still had certain rights over them), they could be condemned to the mine and sold again as slaves, remaining therefore always tied to the knot of servitude.
Spartacus, condemned to slavery after deserting the auxiliary troops of Rome, would start the most famous rebellion to achieve freedom of slaves. Mauritania, a country on the African continent, was the last country to abolish slavery. Unfortunately, real emancipation has been a slow process, of centuries, the end of which has yet to be written.
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