'Talking Animals' (Dictio Grex): A Primer on the History of Slavery

Harve E. Rawson

mar. 2010 · AuthorHouse

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"If you want to know what a slave looks like, look in the mirror!" Thus begins this rather unique primer on world slavery that was written by a psychologist (rather than a historian) who has visited many places in the world where historically slavery was a fact of life - from the ancient Babylonians to Nazi Germany. As such, there is considerable emphasis on how slaves were controlled physically, psychologically, and socially; how slaves dealt with their lack of freedom; the psychological price of their slavery; and why most slaves' attempts to free themselves failed. This book was designed for anyone interested in the topic of world slavery (especially as a supplemental reading for a world history course) and mankind's continual attempts to totally control others to the point of actually owning them. In addition to reviewing other disciplines's viewpoints of holding humans in bondage, the book aspires to give a more psychological view of slavery, attempts to view slavery from a slave's perspective, examines various myths about slavery that have arisen over the years, and separately addresses slavery as related to world religions, race, economics, and humans' latent needs to control others. Also briefly reviewed are sources of slaves, types of slaves, uses of slaves, etc. The author emphasizes that he makes no attempt to cover all aspects of slavery or offer the typical scholarly thoroughness on the subject. It is simply a primer on world slavery to give the reader an quick overview of man's worst crime against humanity - slavery - and how the system worked. It is a quick, but fascinating read about an important part of our history that most people know little about.