On owning slaves (a short illustrated essay)

Although abhorred by modern, so-called civilized nations, slavery has been a widespread form of relationship between worthy men and their inferiors in most societies for more than 10,000 years. Yielding their own freedom and offering their full submission in exchange of protection, food, and health, seems only too natural for the vast majority of men who, by the inherent limitations of the human kind, are unable to secure a really dignified way of life. In turn, a man who -because of his physical, social, or economic power- prevails over those limitations, is legitimately entitled to profit his advantageous position and take under his custody as many slaves as his means allow, as part of his property, using and disposing of them as he sees fit.   

   Using slaves

Taking a man's freedom -the pivotal circumstance of enslavement- not only means that he looses his history, his name, his possessions, his will, and all his rights. The crucial fact is that he ceases to be a person. Many otherwise well-informed people, including some experienced slave owners, wrongly consider that slaves are not humans. However, bearing the human condition is a biological accident, that cannot be modified by enslavement.  Becoming a slave entails the much more denigrating transformation from person into thing or, more precisely, into an owned thing. Many proprietors do not accept to give their slavestock the rank of animals, just because they refuse to put slaves at the same level as, for instance, their favorite dogs or horses -which they of course prefer, fully in their right. From a strictly technical viewpoint, however, due their status of animated things, slaves are animals by definition. Although not so precise, the term beast is frequently employed as a fair compromise between those different opinions.

Choosing unprocessed slaves

Training -on whose details I will not elaborate here- is the process by which full submission is imposed upon a slave. Experience tells that there are three main factors related to the transformation into an enslaved subject. First, the slave assimilates the appropriate combination of devotion and obedience, and of love and fear, for its owner. It learns that its owner's mind and hand have become the only instruments that stir and give sense to its existence. Second, it is dispossessed of any kind of privacy. This is essential for a satisfactory performance as a servant, taking into account that the slave remains naked at all times and is continuously exposed to the inspection of free people. Finally, the slave is forced to grasp that each and all parts of its body and mind now belong to its owner, who can employ them at will. This includes all forms of alteration and amputation, in the cases where this is needed for the body to become more useful in specific labors. It also implies the obliteration of any clue of sexual orientation, as the body must be available for the most variegated carnal purposes.

Slaves in dormitory

Owning a stock of well-trained obedient slaves is always a source of pride and satisfaction for an exacting but benevolent man. The generous act of possession, reciprocated by full submission and docility from those lesser creatures, brings fulfillment and gratification well beyond the enjoyment of the material advantages of being unconditionally served at the proprietor's will and pleasure. The realization that, under broad circumstances, a human being can (and deserves to) become part of the property of a worthy man (who, in turn, deserves to become the  owner) is so natural to the human mind itself that it passed unquestioned across millennia. In this sense, as many sociologists maintain, the current centuries constitute a kind of strange interim in the continuity of widespread slavery. Hopefully, days are soon coming where, all over the world, inferior men will belong to their superiors again.

Xunhan He Thong

NB: The images accompanying this post will soon be published in full resolution with their respective explanations.