Why was American slavery so much worse than other forms of slavery throughout history?
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Sorry - to clarify, I'm not asking about features of american slavery that were worse, I'm asking about the original causes - why was it that everybody ended up deciding to be worse, where people didn't seem to make those decisions in other places in history?
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Its because it followed the world's most successful nation and also one of the most recent. They all want to be us. 🇺🇸
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Perhaps more differentiation between slave and non-slave population than in other instances, which helps embed dehumanization in the culture and it grows.
Also perhaps cognitive dissonance leading to frustration/extremity because of the enlightenment and founding ideal backdrop.
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We’re supposed to be better than that. Kinda like the shock of nazi-ism growing out of a culturally liberal Germany.
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I'm not convinced it was much worse than other variants. My suspicion is that part of the difference is we just have a lot more sources/eye witness accounts of just how bad it was. If I do need to give an explanation for it being actually worse, the racial basis seems likely.
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My guess for this question is geography. Earlier empires simply couldn't relocate people to the same degree. "Slaves that might rebel somewhere else" are a much smaller problem than "slaves that might rebel right here".
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US freed their slaves, so the direct link exists today. Other places tended to destroy most if not all traces... there are more direct descendants of slaves in US than anywhere else (Brazil?), despite other places having greater quantities of slaves.
Ghosts in the machine.
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In most other places there was a real risk of the slave owner and their family to become enslaved if they lost a battle or if their community were conquered. The racial aspect of American slavery removed this risk and was inherently more dehumanizing.
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At one point the Roman Empire was 3/4 slaves.
There were different types of slavery in Roman Empire,
Not chattel slavery. Some slaves lived in their own homes, were allowed to own property etc.
Very different from chattel slavery