Slavery as an industrial system

The work examines slavery as an organized economic institution through comparative ethnographic evidence from small-scale and non-industrial societies, surveying its geographic distribution and varied forms. Employing an inductive method, it considers origins, legal status, household authority, treatment of dependents and children, and the labour roles slaves perform, while engaging with contemporary theorists and critiques. The author integrates case records with theoretical discussion to show how bondage intersects with kinship, property, and social hierarchy, and to distinguish between domestic unfreedom, servile labor, and other forms of dependent status across cultures.