Slavery is a major topic in Utopia. I have researched and found that slave ships were an interesting form of human transportation. This transportation was not a violation of law during this time, however in my opinion it was at that time, nevertheless, a violation of human rights. European countries such as France, or Spain took to the sand and jungle of Africa where they came across kingdoms of Africans. These African kingdoms often willingly sold their own people into slavery for much needed revenue. African people were sold to work mainly for other civilizations such as in Rome or Muslim cultures where slaves were essential during this ancient time period. Carthage is a civilization which is a good example that comes to mind. Carthage makes me think of rhinos and elephants, gold or ivory. I think of white men with jet black hair coming to Africa with their metal guns and their advanced equipment to cull the labor needed to fortify their European homes and to expand their drive for empires.
In
Utopia Book II, slave buyers spoke to a few natives or kings and asked for a
few relatives or anyone that needed to be dealt with or was a threat or a problem.
People that they could take off their hands or buy easily. The sellers earned
their little bit of gold. They were selling everyone they could into slavery
and sometimes the sellers were even brutally forced into servitude. Slave
traders bound and gagged people with fabric or tied wool over their heads then
chained together those who were overtaken and enslaved. Newly trapped slaves
were forced onto ships with cargo holds with multiple levels on which layers of
slave body next to slave body was laid down. There was a lot of disease and
illness that spread rapidly throughout the ship. This disease ripened and
spread to the ships destination where the disease spread quickly to native
populations in America. The natives lacked immunities to these foreign borne
diseases and often native American populations were wiped out. If disease
didn’t kill the slaves, then it was the sun where slaves were forced to do
backbreaking labor where most slaves died.
So,
what do we do with slaves in Utopia? Who was in control of the slave population
if violence was a threat without teeth? You couldn’t kill your slave since you
had money invested in that slave. How did farmers working every daylight hour
fit into this slave society? Some farmers do not own the food they produce, so
maybe a slave does not own his body. You don’t actually own that house because
you still have to pay taxes or it’s confiscated. With taxation, you don’t
really own anything at all either. Ultimately, utopia was a brutal dystopia
based on complete slave labor. So who owns what or whom? In death, you don’t
own anything at all.
Utopia
to me is a modern socialized democracy where government is a very happy
organism. It passes law after law to protect its people humanely from other
countries. It passes law after law to protect its people from themselves. The
whole question is what is humane, or what is not humane? I mean you could think
like some sixteenth century philosopher who stayed in bed all day and slept
around the clock because he could not survive without his pillow and cover. How
many pillows did he have? I’m talking about De Cartes who was found dead in his
bed all very suddenly. This was only after he had counted his pillows a couple
hundred times or folded his sheets every possible way like he was folding the
flag or making paper animals out of linen. He just sat and thought. Now the
whole idea of this book was to establish a Utopia or perfect society. Did everyone
believe this was a Utopia? Was he just keeping that name around to rationalize
dystopia? It is all wrong to me. Yes. It is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. No one
should actually over intellectualize a society. This means no society can or
should title themselves by history’s definition as perfect. There is nothing
perfect about slavery or farming, or using heathens for a military. It makes a
mockery out of the art of manliness.
I affirm that I “have neither given
nor received any unauthorized aid on this paper”
Alex
Cooper
Alexander
Stephen Cooper 2016 10 18
http://www.gradesaver.com/utopia/study-guide/summary-book-one
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