Slavery: Antiquity & Its Legacy

Page duBois is Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of California, San Diego, USA. Her many books include Torture and Truth (1991), Sappho is Burning (1997), Trojan Horses: Saving Classics from the Conservatives (2001) and Slaves and other Objects (2003).

Slavery, Greece, Rome, United States, Slavery in Media, Philosophy 

• What was the nature of slavery in antiquity? 
• How does ancient slavery differ across cultures, particularly Greece and Rome? 
• How does ancient slavery differ from 18th and 19th century slavery, particularly the transatlantic slave trade and American slavery? 
• How does ancient slavery differ from modern slavery, particularly sexual slavery? 
• How does media shape our understanding of slavery? 

DuBois structures Slavery: Antiquity and Its Legacy largely in reverse chronological order. She begins with an examination of modern slavery, focusing on the experiences of individuals who experienced trafficking and sexual slavery in a contemporary context. DuBois moves to an examination of the transatlantic slave trade and the experience of slaves in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, duBois launches an examination of ancient ideologies of slavery, particularly in the Hebrew Bible, ancient Greece, and the New Testament, as well as a revisiting of the ideologies of the antebellum United States. After this, duBois examines the practices and experiences of ancient slaves in Israel, Greece, and Rome. Finally, duBois examines the portrayals of ancient slavery in three modern films, as well as examining the concept of ‘thanatourism’ which describes the touristic viewing of locations of gruesome events such as concentration camps and plantations. 

In Slavery: Antiquity & Its Legacy, duBois engages with the topic of race in antiquity mostly through her examinations of the transatlantic slave trade and racialized slavery in the United States and the Americas during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. duBois adequately balances incorporating the history and significance of racialized slavery into conversations about the non-racialized slavery of ancient Greece and Rome. One key area in which this shines through is in duBois’ handling of the relationship of foreignness to slavery and ideas of natural slavery in ancient Athens. duBois carefully examines the idea of ‘natural slavery’ put forth by Aristotle which suggests that foreigners are more suited to slavery than Athenians. In this way, though not engaging with race directly, duBois addresses the idea of the relationship of the ‘other’ to justifications of enslavement. 

“The question of slavery is deeply implicated in the issue of the barbarians and the ideology of slavery; in particular  the view of ‘natural slavery’ relies on differentiation between the Greeks and these others.” 55 

“The Aristotelian legacy on the question of natural slavery endures through the modern age of racialized slavery.” 63

“We live ephemerally, poised in an ever-vanishing present, shaped by the past and ignorant of the future. The voices of many slaves, living and dead, survive as part of the noise and music of our existence. The past is undeniably marked by slavery, its myths of conquest, empire, and domination, its stories of resistance, survival, and hopes for freedom. Slavery is implicated in what we know of globalization, ideologies of race, of identity and selfhood, religious fundamentalisms, colonialism and the construction of the world as we know it. If what we owe to the slaves of the past is listening, recognition, a remembering of their suffering and courage, we can also commit ourselves to ending slavery in all its variations, in the present and in the future.” 143-44

While duBois provides an excellent overview of slavery across civilizations and effectively utilizes cross-temporal analysis, Slavery: Antiquity & Its Legacy leaves something to be desired in the realm of an in-depth examination of ancient Greco-Roman slavery. While duBois does pull from various ancient cultural sources including politics, law, and drama, the book is in its essence an overview which does not examine a comprehensive array of ancient evidence and should be treated as such. 

Slavery: Antiquity & Its Legacy does an excellent job of outlining complex topics in a way that is accessible to a wide range of readers. Prior knowledge of historical concepts, figures, and terms could be helpful but are certainly not necessary to grasp the core arguments and expositions of the book. duBois’ book would serve as a wonderful introductory text to any study of ancient slavery, as it addresses differing ideas of the definition and circumstances of slavery and uses examinations of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in the present to strengthen its examination of ancient slavery. 

 G.S. Gessert, Choice Magazine (Association of College and Research Libraries), November 2010 

 Laura Proffitt, The Journal of Roman Studies, 2011 

DuBois suggests several texts for further reading, many of which she references in her text. Access to key ancient texts could be helpful, though are not necessary, including but not limited to: 

Aristophanes – The Frogs, Wasps Homer – The Odyssey

Aristotle – Politics, Constitution of the Athenians Juvenal – The Sixteen Satires

Cicero – Paradoxa Stoicorum, Letters Martial – The Epigrams

The Tragedies of Euripides Plato – The Republic

Herodas – The Mimes & Fragments Seneca – Moral Essays

Herodotus – The Histories Suetonius – The Twelve Caesars

Additionally, several non-ancient texts are mentioned in the book which could augment the experience of the reader. These include but are not limited to: 

Dessa Rose – Shirley Ann Williams 

Incidents in the Life of a Slavery Girl – Harriet Jacobs 

My Bondage, My Freedom – Frederick Douglass 

In addition to this Readers Guide, click  here  to access an accompanying infographic for Slavery: Antiquity & Its Legacy