Bruce Miller wrote:
>
> Bill Mulligan wrote:
> >
> > At 04:41 PM 2/20/98 -0500, you wrote:
> > >But isn't that distorting history?  The Africans who worked on the
> > >plantation were most definitely slaves.  Some of them had it real good,
> > >living better than poor, free whites and some of them were treated worse
> > >than abused animals.
> >
> > No matter how "good" they may appear to have had it, they were still
> > enslaved.  That cannot have been "good" in any meaningful sense.
> >
> > >Why is the use of the word "slave" such a bad thing?
> >
> > Because it represents one group of humans systematically degrading another
> > for profit.
> >
> > >
> > >Deb
> > >
> >
> > William H. Mulligan, Jr. [[log in to unmask]]
> > Associate Professor of History
> > Director - Forrest C. Pogue Public History Institute
> > Murray State University - Murray, KY 42071-0009
> > Phone:(502) 762-6571 Fax:(502) 762-6587
> > Home Phone:(502)753-9033
> > Pogue Institute web site:
> > http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/Bill.Mulligan/Index.htm
>
> Bill,
>
> You're concise definition of slavery, "one group of humans
> systematically degrading another for profit" misses the point. Slavery
> is about forceful exploitation, not degradation. Slavery is degrading
> because it callously utilizes man as an expendable commodity. But
> degradation was merely coincidental to the goals of slavers.
>
> However, your interpretation of slavery does serve as an excellent
> definition of both history and politics. But if we should taboo every
> word or idea that "represents" such an idea, as you appear to propose,
> then every associate history professor would most certainly be out of a
> job. I suspect that is not what you had in mind.
>
>  On the brighter side, if you would suggest we further extend your taboo
> to the "systematically degrading another for profit"- world of politics,
> I'd vote for you anytime.

Would all of this mean that all "workers" are systematically degraded
for profit.  We are, after all, exploited for someone elses gain.  May
degradation is a relative term, i.e. people who only get minimum wage
are degraded but those who earn $50,000 a year are not.

No one has yet raised the issue of late 18th early 19th Century
[extreme] exploitation of immigrants, then women and children by rampant
laissez faire capitalism.  Was that practice better, worse, or as evil
as slavery?