User:Sgoodner/sandbox

Topic: The justification and subsequent impact of chattel slavery as a result of Aristotle's idea of "natural slavery." (To be added to the "natural slavery" page)

Natural Slavery:

In his books Politics and De Anima , Aristotle makes the claim about how physical differences between different bodies can make some people "natural slaves" and others "natural masters."

Influence of Natural Slavery:

During the 16th century as the Americas began to be colonized the debate over enslavement of the native peoples grew. John Mair (Johannes Maior) was the first European recorded to cite Aristotle's theory of Natural Slavery in 1510. Mair stated "As the Philosopher [Aristotle] says in the third and fourth chapters of the first book of the Politics it is clear that some men are by nature slaves, others by nature free... And this has now been demonstrated by experience, wherefore the first person to conquer the Indians, justly rules over them because they are natural slaves." The idea of their being "natural slaves" came from Aristotle's writings, and were used to justify their enslavement.

Perhaps the most well-known case of Aristotle's idea of Natural Slavery being applied is through its use as justification for the chattel slavery in the Americas and the opposing arguments of Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. During the 1520's Las Casas worked in Spain and the New World (modern-day Venezuela) in an attempt to peacefully convert native peoples without enslaving them. For years, Las Casas protested the treatment of natives by Spaniards, and in 1520 was granted an audience with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain). Las Casas protested the enslavement of Native Americans and asked instead for their peaceful conversion.

Though Las Casas may be one of the best-remembered outspoken voices against the conversion of Native Americans, he was hardly the only one protesting the forced enslavement. However, for as many voices as protested, many others supported enslavement and went to many lengths to morally justify it. Las Casas worked to avoid enslavement of Native Americans and found one of his greatest challengers in Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. In April of 1550, Las Casas and Sepúlveda met in Spain for a debate on the rationalization of native American enslavement and its morality based on Aristotle's idea of Natural Slavery. Sepúlveda reasoned that the enslavement of natives was a result of war: the "superior" was dominating the "inferior:" and the Spaniards had every right to do so.

In many accounts of the infamous debate between Las Casas and Sepúlveda, the latter is often villainized for his ruthless nature towards American Indians of the 16th century. In his essay "Some Notes on a Controversial Controversy: Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda and Natural Servitude," Robert E. Quirk analyses Sepúlveda's exact wording in the debate of 1550. Quirk states that Sepúlveda used the term latin natura servus, which has been often mistranslated to "natural slave." In some cases, servus can also mean "serf," in the same way of a Medieval European serf; therefore Quirk asks the question whether Sepúlveda was referring to Native Americans as serfs, not slaves. Either way, the debate over the social standing of Native Americans would have still been hotly contested in 16th century Europe.