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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   2429 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 19, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Have people looked into how necessary slavery was in historical civilizations? While industrialization seems to have ended the necessity of chattel slavery, though not necessarily all coerced and semi-coerced labor, in a country it seems the past required more coercion. An example is that sugar farming is so horrific once Haiti/St Domingue ended slavery, it basically stopped since no one was willing to do it without being forced to. I'm curious how much more economically diversified empires like the Romans and Chinese required slavery.

The problem becomes comparing different forms of slavery/sefdom/free labor which are incommensurate.

Reading the replies, that does seem to be the case. Every society contains some degree of coercion, taxes can't be optional after all, but the difference between a modern westerner vs. a gulag inmate or a St. Domingue field slave seems to be in the particulars of treatment rather than some sort of a priori philosophical divide.

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