Poll of the Day > If slavery never existed how much of the population would be different

(+) Yeah! (+)

How many of us wouldn't exist?

We'd all exist, just in different places. I don't think it would really influence deaths.
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Given that slavery's an institution that dates back thousands of years, and practiced to some degree by most pre-modern cultures who the fuck knows.

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Dont be taking my username brah

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Well the only reasonable alternative to enslaving those that were conquered was death, so that would be pretty wasteful IMO

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PMarth2002 posted...

Given that slavery's an institution that dates back thousands of years, and practiced to some degree by most pre-modern cultures who the fuck knows.

Yup. Without slavery as a concept the Roman empire wouldn't have even started

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FatalAccident posted...

Dont be taking my username brah

remember when you tried to steal my sig?

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Ellyfatal posted...

How many of us wouldn't exist?

Probably everyone...
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Kimbos_Egg posted...

remember when you tried to steal my sig?

Gtfo

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100%
We'd be living in a completely different world, far less advanced than we are now.

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FatalAccident posted...

Gtfo

*walks away*

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American slavery or all slavery? And are we talking just strictly things called slavery or also systems like serfdom, etc, which were effectively slavery? And what are we talking about in terms of alternatives? Simply killing conquered individuals who would have instead been taken as slaves? Because slavery throughout all of history is a pretty fucking huge and complex subject.

DocDelicious posted...

100%
We'd be living in a completely different world, far less advanced than we are now.

Probably. Most great civilizations were built on the backs of forced labor at some point in their history.

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Most of our ancestors probably never would have met each other.

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It would be far too different to be able to tell.

For example, a solid part of the Bible deals with how the jewish people were enslaved in Egypt and their escape from said slavery to head to Israel. If slavery never existed the Judeo-Christian faiths would be radically different. Ancient Egypt would be likely unrecognizable as they'd no longer have a slave caste for labor. While you might still get things like the pyramids the society would be different at its core. Ancient Greece would be extremely different as would Rome. In fact you could say in general that every culture would be different at its core since almost all of them were affected by it or its absence in some way.

But the one I know most people are thinking of is American Chattle slavery.

First off the South would have been much worse-off from the start. Cotton wasn't a good cash crop initially for a multitude of reasons and it was tobacco that was the main one. Likewise in the Caribbean there'd be a lot less people since one of the main drives was sugar. Slavery provided for a relatively cheap way to get the labor to staff those places and make those colonies profitable. So without it you'd probably see Europe simply exploit and pillage the Caribbean and Central America with only token colonies in what is today the Southern colonies. The northern colonies would likely remain similar culturally for the most part. However even there you'd likely see fewer numbers as moving out to the colonies would be seen as less of a chance at a future and more like an exile to a giant island where you make your living trapping beaver. When the revolution happened the South, while it might join, wouldn't be anywhere near as committed as they were in reality (that Britain might outlaw slavery making cotton and tobacco effectively wastes to grow for most people wouldn't be a threat). It's hard to say if this means the revolution would succeed or not. If it failed you'd likely end up with an America divided up into four to six sparsely-populated nations with the only large cities on the coasts. Colonial England, followed by French Louisiana, then arguably a Spanish/Mexican Texan area with a Native nation on the great plains and either Russia, Japan, or Spain claiming the territory to the west of the Rockies (and only sparsely populated at BEST). It would likely be seen as being akin to Australia. If the Revolution WON you'd likely not see a civil war and, instead, see the colonies slowly fracture apart to become 13 small nations with maybe a loosely-binding government keeping them as 'technically' one nation. They'd likely be unable to afford buying Louisiana from France and, thusly, wouldn't move west and remain probably about as important as the nations on the African Ivory Coast more or less on the global scale.

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Black people would have much darker skin, I'll tell you that much

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Kimbos_Egg posted...

*walks away*

Thats u whenever I wanna battle

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if not for slavery in america we never could have abolished slavery in america, and wed end up with slavery in america

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Kyuubi4269 posted...

We'd all exist, just in different places. I don't think it would really influence deaths.

That's not how any of that works.

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EvilMegas posted...

That's not how any of that works.

Yea... If Slavery didn't exist we'd be looking at a world so different that the question of if 'you exist' would be irrelevant. For example, there were plenty of power struggles that happened because some ruler purchased a slave wife. A lot of people wouldn't exist because one of their ancestors was a slave who bought/was bought by someone who ended up parenting a child with them in some way. So much changes that it's pointless to speculate.

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