What do you think?
Rate this book
The Problem of Slavery
The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture
Winner of several national awards including the 1967 Pulitzer Prize, this classic study by David Brion Davis has given new direction to the historical and sociological research of society's attitude towards slavery.
Davis depicts the various ways different societies have responded to the intrinsic contradictions of slavery from antiquity to the early 1770's in order to establish the uniqueness of the abolitionists' response. While slavery has always caused considerable social and psychological tension, Western culture has associated it with certain religious and philosophical doctrines that gave it the highest sanction. The contradiction of slavery grew more profound when it became closely linked with American colonization, which had as its basic foundation the desire and opportunity to create a more perfect society. Davis provides a comparative analysis of slave systems in the Old World, a discussion of the early attitudes towards American slavery, and a detailed exploration of the early protests against Negro bondage, as well as the religious, literary, and philosophical developments that contributed to both sides in the controversies of the late eighteenth century. This exemplary
introduction to the history of slavery in Western culture presents the traditions in thought and value that gave rise to the attitudes of both abolitionists and defenders of slavery in the late eighteenth century as well as the nineteenth century.
Davis depicts the various ways different societies have responded to the intrinsic contradictions of slavery from antiquity to the early 1770's in order to establish the uniqueness of the abolitionists' response. While slavery has always caused considerable social and psychological tension, Western culture has associated it with certain religious and philosophical doctrines that gave it the highest sanction. The contradiction of slavery grew more profound when it became closely linked with American colonization, which had as its basic foundation the desire and opportunity to create a more perfect society. Davis provides a comparative analysis of slave systems in the Old World, a discussion of the early attitudes towards American slavery, and a detailed exploration of the early protests against Negro bondage, as well as the religious, literary, and philosophical developments that contributed to both sides in the controversies of the late eighteenth century. This exemplary
introduction to the history of slavery in Western culture presents the traditions in thought and value that gave rise to the attitudes of both abolitionists and defenders of slavery in the late eighteenth century as well as the nineteenth century.
528 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1966
11 people are currently reading
1577 people want to read
About the author
David Brion Davis
43 books48 followersDavid Brion Davis was an American historian and authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He was the Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University, and founder and Director Emeritus of Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. He was a foremost intellectual and cultural historian. The author and editor of 17 books, and frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, Davis played a principal role in explaining the latest historiography to a broad audience. His books emphasized religious and ideological links among material conditions, political interests, and new political values.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 20, 2020
This one ain't for kids; this is some real deal history. It is massive survey of thought on slavery since antiquity that focuses on how slavery became a "problem." This means that throughout most of history slavery was accepted as normal but people nonetheless found many things to criticize about it, although they did not really criticize slavery as inherently wrong and deserving of extinction until the Enlightenment. For example, Batholome de Las Casas is famous for his criticism of Indian slavery, but he accepted black enslavement as normal and acceptable. Throughout much of history, certain aspects of slavery would be criticized-the failure to Christianize slaves, the brutality of slaveowners, the enslavement of some groups but not others, the particular nastiness of the transatlantic slave trade, the risk of slave revolts-but not until certain social and intellectual conditions were in place could an assault on the institution itself take place.
That's what the book is really about: why slavery was assumed to be acceptable for most of history and how that acceptability slowly broke down over time. Let's start with the first point. Davis explores several longstanding justifications for slavery. The first was that slavery was justified if the slaves were taken as captives in warfare. This hardly qualifies as a moral defense; it is more of a rationalization of an ancient practice. The second was the more complicated dualism in much of Christian thought. Many CHristian thinkers (as well as the Stoics) believed that slavery was as much a spiritual condition as a physical one; a master of slaves could be a slave himself (to passions for example) while a literal slave could be spiritually free. Third, Christian thinkers taught a division between a perfect afterlife and a perfect world once Jesus returns and the degraded, sinful world as it is. In this mindset, slavery could be tolerated as one of many inevitable manifestations of a sinful world. It is important to note that while religious and ethnic differences were long used to justify slavery, full-fledged concepts of race as an immutable stain didn't develop until the transatlantic trade, when anti-black racism started to emerge.
So how did this change? Davis focuses on a theological change that arose in Protestantism (he associates it with latitudinariansim) in which the focus of human endeavor shifted toward creating goodness and purity on Earth, on working toward a divine perfection and inner sanctity here as well as in the afterlife. Davis shows convincingly that before the American Revolution, the Enlightenment was a mixed bag on slavery. Hume, Locke, Hobbes and others did not criticize it nor racism, although Montesquieu undermined many of its intellectual ballasts. Thus, the book is challenging to the Stephen Pinker view of the Enlightenment, which reads more antislavery thought into the Enlightenment than there really was. Instead, Davis focuses on explaining how the Quakers evolved to become the founders of the first antislavery movements in world history, fusing some Enlightenment ideas (like progress) with some Christian ideas. Not having a great grip on Protestant thought, I found this to be the harder section to grasp, although I still want to read the remainder of the Problem of Slavery series.
This is a great book is you already have a working knowledge of the history of slavery. Sometimes it got pretty dense and it was hard to follow, but overall it is a brilliant work of history.
That's what the book is really about: why slavery was assumed to be acceptable for most of history and how that acceptability slowly broke down over time. Let's start with the first point. Davis explores several longstanding justifications for slavery. The first was that slavery was justified if the slaves were taken as captives in warfare. This hardly qualifies as a moral defense; it is more of a rationalization of an ancient practice. The second was the more complicated dualism in much of Christian thought. Many CHristian thinkers (as well as the Stoics) believed that slavery was as much a spiritual condition as a physical one; a master of slaves could be a slave himself (to passions for example) while a literal slave could be spiritually free. Third, Christian thinkers taught a division between a perfect afterlife and a perfect world once Jesus returns and the degraded, sinful world as it is. In this mindset, slavery could be tolerated as one of many inevitable manifestations of a sinful world. It is important to note that while religious and ethnic differences were long used to justify slavery, full-fledged concepts of race as an immutable stain didn't develop until the transatlantic trade, when anti-black racism started to emerge.
So how did this change? Davis focuses on a theological change that arose in Protestantism (he associates it with latitudinariansim) in which the focus of human endeavor shifted toward creating goodness and purity on Earth, on working toward a divine perfection and inner sanctity here as well as in the afterlife. Davis shows convincingly that before the American Revolution, the Enlightenment was a mixed bag on slavery. Hume, Locke, Hobbes and others did not criticize it nor racism, although Montesquieu undermined many of its intellectual ballasts. Thus, the book is challenging to the Stephen Pinker view of the Enlightenment, which reads more antislavery thought into the Enlightenment than there really was. Instead, Davis focuses on explaining how the Quakers evolved to become the founders of the first antislavery movements in world history, fusing some Enlightenment ideas (like progress) with some Christian ideas. Not having a great grip on Protestant thought, I found this to be the harder section to grasp, although I still want to read the remainder of the Problem of Slavery series.
This is a great book is you already have a working knowledge of the history of slavery. Sometimes it got pretty dense and it was hard to follow, but overall it is a brilliant work of history.
October 2, 2024
This is less a history of the actual systems of slavery that have prevailed in Western Civilization, but more on how they were reconciled by various philosophies, countries, and faiths. That is, until after 1700, when two groups formed an anti-slavery alliance. One were British Protestants, particularly Quakers. The other was the emerging Enlightenment. In 1740 they were merely a fringe. By 1770, they were affecting policy.
The best part of the book is the discussion of the contradictions within the forces that would forge the anti-slavery movement. Quakers debated slavery ferociously, and the Enlightenment had its share of ambivalence. Indeed, much of the Enlightenment's critique of slavery was about self-interest, lacking morality outside a general pity for slaves such as could be found in Candide. As Davis makes clear, the 1700s saw a revolution of sorts in how slavery was seen in the world. It was rooted in a desire to make the world about more than greed and brute force.
Yet is this world any better? The horrors of that age were merely replaced with new horrors, and it appears the world is drifting away from the very western civilization that birthed the ideas that ended slavery. Slavery is not dead, and semi-slave labor is as common as ever. Hypocrisy, elitism, exploitation, and expansion are found everywhere and at all times. I do not defend those things; it adds to my suspicion that George Carlin was right to think we are “semi civilized beasts, with baseball caps and automatic weapons.” Yet, it is the conservative who defends this a natural and normal. I do not, but I do suspect we are damned to mostly crave status and punish enemies.
But back to the book. For all my praise, I found this a harder slog than Inhuman Bondage. The prose could be turgid, and while I understand the need to suppose prior knowledge of ideas and figures, it makes the work less accessible since he discusses so many of them. It is no mean feat to discuss ideas of slavery not from say 1700-1750, but rather since Sumeria. The trouble is, the closer we got to today, the better the book got, and I was left wondering to what degree ancient historians may or may not agree with Davis's harsh take on Aristotle. I felt the book might have been better split into two.
PS: Of the Protestant faith's role, the book's thesis ties in with the later argument by Gottfried that Protestantism lends itself to progressive thought.
The best part of the book is the discussion of the contradictions within the forces that would forge the anti-slavery movement. Quakers debated slavery ferociously, and the Enlightenment had its share of ambivalence. Indeed, much of the Enlightenment's critique of slavery was about self-interest, lacking morality outside a general pity for slaves such as could be found in Candide. As Davis makes clear, the 1700s saw a revolution of sorts in how slavery was seen in the world. It was rooted in a desire to make the world about more than greed and brute force.
Yet is this world any better? The horrors of that age were merely replaced with new horrors, and it appears the world is drifting away from the very western civilization that birthed the ideas that ended slavery. Slavery is not dead, and semi-slave labor is as common as ever. Hypocrisy, elitism, exploitation, and expansion are found everywhere and at all times. I do not defend those things; it adds to my suspicion that George Carlin was right to think we are “semi civilized beasts, with baseball caps and automatic weapons.” Yet, it is the conservative who defends this a natural and normal. I do not, but I do suspect we are damned to mostly crave status and punish enemies.
But back to the book. For all my praise, I found this a harder slog than Inhuman Bondage. The prose could be turgid, and while I understand the need to suppose prior knowledge of ideas and figures, it makes the work less accessible since he discusses so many of them. It is no mean feat to discuss ideas of slavery not from say 1700-1750, but rather since Sumeria. The trouble is, the closer we got to today, the better the book got, and I was left wondering to what degree ancient historians may or may not agree with Davis's harsh take on Aristotle. I felt the book might have been better split into two.
PS: Of the Protestant faith's role, the book's thesis ties in with the later argument by Gottfried that Protestantism lends itself to progressive thought.
March 26, 2016
This. Is. A. Book. To. Remember.
January 16, 2009
This is the book that made the biggest difference to me in the past 5 years.
January 4, 2020
Three-and-a-half stars. Impressive scholarship outlines how Western Civilizations have controlled, limited, or encouraged slavery. Davis traces how ancient captives-of-war slaves morphed into slaves-for-life and ultimately into inherited racial slavery. I’m giving it 3 1/2 stars only because most of the book examines philosophical and religious treatises; it does not explore actual conditions for slaves in different countries. Great for academic historians, but less compelling than what I expected.
May 14, 2012
An exceedingly detailed and generally overwhelming history of legal and theological thinking on the subject of chattel slavery from the 16th century until the American Revolution. Davis emphasizes theological innovation (prompted by sectarian infighting, doubts over the the social effects of capitalist development, and a revolution in social and political philosophy) as the prime source of modern abolitionism.
January 4, 2024
Fantastic book! He traces how Europeans thought about slavery during the resurgence sprked by the Atlantic Slave trade. He ends at the 1760s and 1770s with the rise of the antislavery movement.
During my career teaching US history, I was always mystified about how England went from no-slavery (1492) to slavery. How did that regression happen?
Though slavery had died out in England, the philosophical underpinnings were still there. Some people are meant to rule, others to be ruled.
Aristotle's idea that some folks are slavish by nature had not disappeared in the 1600s. But more importantly, neither had the idea that those people captured (and not killed) in war were legitimate slaves. And though England no longer enslaved those that they defeated in war, the Mediterranean countries did, especially those on the Iberian Peninsula. Muslims ruled Spain and Portugal through the 1400s. Muslim Grenada finally fell in 1492. For the next few hundred years Europe would be fighting with Islamic North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. And both sides enslaved captured combatants.
There was also a booming trade from sub-Saharan Africa of black slaves into the Islamic countries. When the Portuguese and Spanish sailed down the African coast and started their new world colonies slavery had a resurgence. France, Holland, and England could not resist steady labor in their colonies. Though slavery had disappeared (or at least changed) in England, the belief in slavery had not.
During my career teaching US history, I was always mystified about how England went from no-slavery (1492) to slavery. How did that regression happen?
Though slavery had died out in England, the philosophical underpinnings were still there. Some people are meant to rule, others to be ruled.
Aristotle's idea that some folks are slavish by nature had not disappeared in the 1600s. But more importantly, neither had the idea that those people captured (and not killed) in war were legitimate slaves. And though England no longer enslaved those that they defeated in war, the Mediterranean countries did, especially those on the Iberian Peninsula. Muslims ruled Spain and Portugal through the 1400s. Muslim Grenada finally fell in 1492. For the next few hundred years Europe would be fighting with Islamic North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. And both sides enslaved captured combatants.
There was also a booming trade from sub-Saharan Africa of black slaves into the Islamic countries. When the Portuguese and Spanish sailed down the African coast and started their new world colonies slavery had a resurgence. France, Holland, and England could not resist steady labor in their colonies. Though slavery had disappeared (or at least changed) in England, the belief in slavery had not.
September 26, 2022
Whew, a heavy book. Very academic and the author presupposes a lot of knowledge, so you will likely end up doing additional research as you read to understand it completely.
July 23, 2015
I have been informed by those who know that this is a classic text in the history of the abolitionist movement. I can see why. While somewhat dated, this book does an admirable job of covering the global history of slavery from the the beginning of recorded human history to the beginning of its slow demise in the mid-18th century.
I want to emphasize the word global in the previous sentence. While the primary focus is on Western European conceptions of slavery Prof. Davis makes numerous digressions into how non-Western cultures viewed slavery as well. Do you want to know what early Buddhists thought about slavery? Footnote 76 on page 87 will give you a quick sketch and contrast it with the views of Saint Basil.
How you reacted to that last sentence will give you a good indication of whether this book is a worthwhile read for you. If you felt your eyes glaze over your time would probably be better spent elsewhere. If, however, you thought "Wow! A comparison of the views of the Buddha and Saint Basil on slavery!? How interesting!" This book will fascinate you to no end. I am, as you can probably guess from my five star review, the second kind of reader. I found this book endlessly thought provoking.
Prof. Davis performs an amazing task of helping the reader understand how, for want of a better word, normal slavery seemed to Europeans as they approached the Age of Enlightenment. For them slavery was not just an economic expedient, but a fundamental part of their conception of the universe. For them, imagining a world without higher and lower orders people would be like imagining a world without taller and shorter people. Some people were meant to submit to others completely and that was that.
This isn't to say that some Europeans weren't horrified by how exploitative slavery could be. Many of them were, especially as Enlightenment philosophy and more liberal versions of Protestant theology began to elevate the status of the individual over the organic balance of the community. Prof. Davis shows clearly, however, that horror at how slavery was practiced did not necessarily lead to horror at the idea of slavery itself. Rather than deciding to abolish slavery, many leading Enlightenment intellectuals sought to improve it. Prof. Davis spends substantial portions of the book debunking various contenders for the title "first abolitionist".
As the mid-eighteenth century approached, however, this elusive quest for a humane slave system was beginning to seem futile to some Europeans. Various traditional justifications for slavery began to collapse under the skeptical eye of philosophers like Montesquieu (who was not an abolitionist) and spiritual intuitions of Quakers like John Woolman (one of the first abolitionists). These intellectual developments occurred contemporaneously with literary and theatrical productions that portrayed black slaves as humans worthy of dignity and respect. It's at this point that Prof. Davis ends his first volume.
As other reviewers have observed, this book, for all its immense erudition, is very readable. I managed to plow through almost 500 pages of text in under a week. If you are looking for a deep dive into the intellectual justifications for slavery, and how those assumptions began to be questioned, this is a classic text on the subject.
I want to emphasize the word global in the previous sentence. While the primary focus is on Western European conceptions of slavery Prof. Davis makes numerous digressions into how non-Western cultures viewed slavery as well. Do you want to know what early Buddhists thought about slavery? Footnote 76 on page 87 will give you a quick sketch and contrast it with the views of Saint Basil.
How you reacted to that last sentence will give you a good indication of whether this book is a worthwhile read for you. If you felt your eyes glaze over your time would probably be better spent elsewhere. If, however, you thought "Wow! A comparison of the views of the Buddha and Saint Basil on slavery!? How interesting!" This book will fascinate you to no end. I am, as you can probably guess from my five star review, the second kind of reader. I found this book endlessly thought provoking.
Prof. Davis performs an amazing task of helping the reader understand how, for want of a better word, normal slavery seemed to Europeans as they approached the Age of Enlightenment. For them slavery was not just an economic expedient, but a fundamental part of their conception of the universe. For them, imagining a world without higher and lower orders people would be like imagining a world without taller and shorter people. Some people were meant to submit to others completely and that was that.
This isn't to say that some Europeans weren't horrified by how exploitative slavery could be. Many of them were, especially as Enlightenment philosophy and more liberal versions of Protestant theology began to elevate the status of the individual over the organic balance of the community. Prof. Davis shows clearly, however, that horror at how slavery was practiced did not necessarily lead to horror at the idea of slavery itself. Rather than deciding to abolish slavery, many leading Enlightenment intellectuals sought to improve it. Prof. Davis spends substantial portions of the book debunking various contenders for the title "first abolitionist".
As the mid-eighteenth century approached, however, this elusive quest for a humane slave system was beginning to seem futile to some Europeans. Various traditional justifications for slavery began to collapse under the skeptical eye of philosophers like Montesquieu (who was not an abolitionist) and spiritual intuitions of Quakers like John Woolman (one of the first abolitionists). These intellectual developments occurred contemporaneously with literary and theatrical productions that portrayed black slaves as humans worthy of dignity and respect. It's at this point that Prof. Davis ends his first volume.
As other reviewers have observed, this book, for all its immense erudition, is very readable. I managed to plow through almost 500 pages of text in under a week. If you are looking for a deep dive into the intellectual justifications for slavery, and how those assumptions began to be questioned, this is a classic text on the subject.
August 12, 2011
An exceedingly detailed and generally overwhelming history of legal and theological thinking on the subject of chattel slavery from the 16th century until the American Revolution. Davis emphasizes theological innovation (prompted by sectarian infighting, doubts over the the social effects of capitalist development, and a revolution in social and political philosophy) as the prime source of modern abolitionism.
Read
November 20, 2015This is an excellent book for the scholar and the very interested general reader. However, it is not exactly what I wanted. I was looking for a book that would discuss the nature of slavery in the ancient world, particularly in the Roman world. The author does touch on this, but his focus is on slavery in the New World and particularly in the United States.
October 13, 2014
I managed to read about 470 pages of this book today while travelling to and from and working in Dublin. A very good, though somewhat dated text. Obviously since the author is covering a massive amount of ground, there are some problems with his analysis, but it is still a very important book. I look forward to soon reading the other two parts of this trilogy in the near future.
October 6, 2024
I can't say I like a book like this but it is a thorough book and caused a great deal of thinking of the issue and a great deal of scholarship on the matter. If you are researching and writing about slavery or anti-slavery in western culture this is one book you have to at least look at.
May 17, 2014
The author has a brilliant analysis of slavery in western society.
December 23, 2016
Important read for those who believe that this nation was founded on pure Christian principles.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews