Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age
Christopher Leslie Brown and Philip D. Morgan
Abstract
Arming slaves as soldiers is a counterintuitive idea. Yet throughout history, in many varied societies, slaveholders have entrusted slaves with the use of deadly force. This book surveys the practice broadly across space and time, encompassing the cultures of classical Greece, the early Islamic kingdoms of the Near East, West and East Africa, the British and French Caribbean, the United States, and Latin America. To facilitate cross-cultural comparisons, each chapter addresses four crucial issues: the social and cultural facts regarding the arming of slaves, the experience of slave soldiers, t ... More
Arming slaves as soldiers is a counterintuitive idea. Yet throughout history, in many varied societies, slaveholders have entrusted slaves with the use of deadly force. This book surveys the practice broadly across space and time, encompassing the cultures of classical Greece, the early Islamic kingdoms of the Near East, West and East Africa, the British and French Caribbean, the United States, and Latin America. To facilitate cross-cultural comparisons, each chapter addresses four crucial issues: the social and cultural facts regarding the arming of slaves, the experience of slave soldiers, the ideological origins and consequences of equipping enslaved peoples for battle, and the impact of the practice on the status of slaves and slavery itself.
Keywords:
slaves,
slaveholders,
classical Greece,
Islamic kingdoms,
slave soldiers,
slavery,
Near East,
Africa,
East Africa,
Caribbean
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2006 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780300109009 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: October 2013 |
DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300109009.001.0001 |
