Constructing Freedom in Athens in the 4th Century BCE: The Case of Pasion and Phormion
By Javal Coleman (University of Texas)
Studies concerning manumission and freedom in ancient Athens typically focus on the institution of paramone (legal obligations post-manumission) as a process that kept formerly enslaved individuals subordinate to their former enslavers. Scholars such as Rachel-Zelnick Abramovitz have argued that while slaves freed by this procedure are legally free, they are not entirely free from a social perspective (Zelnick-Abramovitz 2005, 2017).
The Uses and Limits of "Social Death" as a Conceptual Framework for Understanding Ancient Slavery
By Jinyu Liu (DePauw University)
Since Orlando Patterson's monumental work Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study in 1982 (republished with a new Preface in 2018), "social death" has been used variously to define slavery, describe slavery conditions, and analyze mechanisms of enslavement. While the concept has facilitated paradigm shift in the study of slavery across cultures and historical period, a certain circularity has also emerged.
Enslavement, Theology, and Comparison: Varro's ARD in Three Dimensions
By Dan-El Padilla Peralta (Princeton University)
The synergistic interrelation of the transatlantic slave trade, Euro-American settler colonialism, and the North Atlantic intellectual revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries continues to be scrutinized across a range of fields, with striking and sometimes shocking results (see, purely e.g., Rosenthal 2018 on accounting and Downs 2021 on epidemiology).
Enslavement and the Liberal Arts in 18th and 19th Century US Education
By Sam Flores (College of Charleston)
When the Roman philosopher Seneca explained the meaning of the phrase “liberal studies” (liberalia studia), he etymologized the Latin adjective liberalis as a term diametrically opposed to the status of enslaved persons, saying these studies are called liberal “because they are worthy of a free man” (quia homine libero digna sunt) (Ep. 88.2). What we today call “classics” also takes root in a form of exclusion and marginalization: the western European Renaissance education of elites.
Human Trafficking in the Roman World? Re-Framing a Modern Concept in Roman Terms.
By Christopher J Fuhrmann (University of North Texas)
Some troubling conclusions emerge when one examines Roman-era kidnapping and enslavement through the modern prism of human trafficking. The Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei project has addressed certain aspects of these issues (e.g. Heinz 2008), while other recent works cover subtopics such as sex-trafficking terms in Latin literature (Richlin 2021, Witzke 2015).
The Authority of Antiquity: The Rebirth of Roman History in Early Modern Europe
By Sarah E Bond (University of Iowa)
Long before the movie Black Panther, early modern Europeans embraced a different kind of “Black avenger”, one largely constructed by White abolitionists who drew upon select motifs, models, and myths plucked from the annals of Roman history.