Student Question
What is a slave?
Quick answer:
A slave is a person who is legally considered the property of another person, forced to work for them without freedom or rights. Unlike indentured servants, who serve for a limited time, slaves are bound for life. Slaves differ from serfs, who are tied to the land but not owned outright. The 1857 Dred Scott decision underscored this, declaring slaves as property with market value, not as individuals with rights.
The slave is the human property of its human owner and as such could be used in any way the human owner saw fit. For example, a slave could be utilized as an economic factor of production or to serve the personal and /or private needs of the owner. When the issue of slavery with regard to its being property or humanity was argued before the Supreme Court in 1857 the Dred Scott case, the court's decision was that a slave was property, a thing, a commodity with no other value than the market value of the day.
A slave is a person who is forced to work for another and who is, moreover, actually the property of the other person. When we use the word slave, we typically use it to mean someone who is owned by his or her master for the entire life of the slave.
We distinguish...
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between slaves and indentured servants. Both are essentially owned by their masters, but indentured servants are set to be freed after a specific period of service. Slaves are slaves for life.
We also distinguish between slaves and serfs. Serfs were not free to leave the land they worked on and they owed their service to their masters. However, they were not legally the property of their masters in the same way slaves were. For example, they could not be sold to another master -- they were tied to a specific piece of land.