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Azza Kazkaz, Mackenzie Tatham, Sharrang Mitra, Kevin Henderson, Justin Filler, Johnny Rivera, Michell Grip, Joshua White

Ulrich-Schlumbohm

Hist 109

2/21/2017

Mendlesohn Final Paper

In the text “Slavery in the Ancient East”, the author Issac Mendelohn describes the socio-economic and cultural contexts of slaves and their relationships to non-slave populations along with the various avenues of acquiring the slaves (through self-indenture, sale of children, and enslavement of debtors), what the contracts to own these slaves entailed for both parties according to both The Hammurabi Code and Hebrew Biblical Law, how the slaves were treated and whether they regarded as human or as property, different classes of slaves, and how slaves were freed. Although slavery is now seen as a negative aspect of history, in ancient times, slavery was seen as helpful and normal. “For people in antiquity, a society without slaves was virtually inconceivable. Trading in slaves linked the cultures of the ancient world, as did the shared belief in the necessity and virtue of slavery. That belief was as widespread as the conviction today that slavery is morally wrong.”[1] The author

Throughout this document the author shows how slavery was used, but also how it developed into something more. He depicts in the literature that the civilizations of Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia, and Mesopotamia would not have function without slavery. The author presses upon the reader that slavery was a necessary mean of staying alive. And some types of slavery, such as debt slavery, can be very similar to the minimum wage workers of today. Such ideas can be contrary to popular belief, but the author use of primary sources to support his article. While primary sources can be misinterpreted the author was a professor of Semitic Languages at Columbia University, and was frequently published in several scholarly journals with peer reviewed articles. [2]

Bibliography

Mendelsohn, Isaac. Slavery in the Ancient Near East.

Van De Mieroop, Marc. “The Cuneiform Tablets of Columbia University Libraries —Rare     Books and Manuscripts Library.” Accessed February 19, 2017. http://cdli.ucla.edu/collections/columbia/columbia_intro.html.

[1] Issac Mendelsohn, Slavery in the Ancient Near East, 74-88

[2] “The Cuneiform Tablets of Columbia University Libraries — Rare Books and Manuscripts Library,” accessed February 19, 2017, http://cdli.ucla.edu/collections/columbia/columbia_intro.html.