Homework assignment asks students to list positive aspects of slavery - CNN

[–] PMYA 3 points (+3|-0)

In the context they asked the question, it does seem stupid. I don't see how there is any positive aspect of slavery from the point of view of someone who is a slave.

On the other hand, it does highlight a problem with looking at topics in modern history from certain perspectives. In the same way that one could argue that Germany's role in WW2 had some positive after effects for Europe and the rest of the world, or that the dropping of the bombs on Japan by the US was potentially a better outcome than a few more years of war, arguments could probably made that slavery throughout history has also had some positives. It's just too recent and controversial for it to be discussed from a removed perspective.

[–] Kannibal [OP] 2 points (+2|-0)

One of the arguments for reparations is the idea that the United states benefited greatly in the form of all that free labor in the form of slavery for a literal century or so.

You see this also some management practices where management tries to lock and trap people into a low wage working situation, the "company town" for example.

Thus there are advantages, but usually only for the people in control.

[–] InnocentBystander 3 points (+3|-0)

I don't accept that excuse for reparations.
Anyone that has a valid claim for reparations, is dead already. Nobody alive today was an American slave, and everyone alive today benefits from the past. Not just white people.

Nobody owes anyone anything based on pigmentation alone.

[–] Boukert 3 points (+3|-0)

Edited

Students in the class were supposed to complete an assignment on the "positive aspects" and "negative aspects" of the life of slaves, giving a "balanced view."

I'd say CNN at the very least used a misleading title.

The teacher should have used the term "benefits" rather then positive. But asking students to list positives and negatives is a good thing imo. Of course slavery is a bad phenomenon but also very common in mankind's entire history regardless of skincolor. If there where no "positive"/benefit sides it would never have existed.

[–] Kannibal [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

There is always a "benefit" for the slavemaster to own a slave.

There is always a benefit for a robber to steal something from you.

Would stealing freedom from you and your descendents be a long term benefit to you?

[–] Boukert 0 points (+0|-0)

There is always a "benefit" for the slavemaster to own a slave.

There are also negatives for the slavemaster, housing, food, capital, chance of rebellion etc. Not saying they are big ones but they are there.

Would stealing freedom from you and your descendants be a long term benefit to you?

Now you are turning it into general benefit question, the teacher asked to list benefits and negatives not a general judgment. As an answer to your question: Quick answer says no, smart answer (especially looking at some historic cases) says: under what kind of circumstances

[–] Kannibal [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

well see that's the argument.

screwing you over because of some imagined or promised benefit down the road.

given a cynical look at political promises, etc, I expect that most people would expect no return on that "investment"

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[–] Justintoxicated 1 points (+1|-0)

I just want to meet the troll kid who is like "well I managed to find a lot of positive reasons but really drew a blank the negatives"

[–] doggone 0 points (+0|-0)

Edited

I just happened to be reading about this guy a few days ago,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrich_Bonnell_Phillips

The Phillips school asked, what did slavery do for the slaves? As the historian Herbert Gutman noted, the Phillipsian answer was that slavery lifted the slaves out of the barbarism of Africa, Christianized them, protected them, and generally benefited them. Scholarship in the 1950s then moved to the question, what did slavery do to the slaves, and concluded it was a harsh and profitable system. More recently, scholars such as Genovese and Gutman asked, "What did slaves do for themselves?" They concluded "In the slave quarters, through family, community and religion, slaves struggled for a measure of independence and dignity.[6]

Probably not a question appropriate for grade school kids (edit: in today's climate).

[–] Kannibal [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

thus we get into the logic of how stealing a man's freedom is justified because it is supposed to benefit him in some way.

[–] doggone 0 points (+0|-0)

I'm not trying to justify it. I think it's just the way it was and that it's possible that it's not zero sum.

[–] Kannibal [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

well, there is the question of of those assumptions, things like "the barbarism of Africa" and the "benefits" of Christianity

given the continued wars in Europe, etc.

Plus the whole romantic notion of "the white man's burden" which covered a world of sins of colonial exploitation for fun and profit.

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Homework assignment asks students to list positive aspects of slavery - CNN

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