Talk:Slavery

Slavery as a punishment
I'm not sure about this, but I was wondering if slavery is best categorised under something other than punishment? I personally believe it wasn't - loads of innocent people being held against their will, that's hardly punishment. I realise that there could be a long debate about this, but I was wondering if I could gauge other people's opinions or helped to understand why it's listed as a punishment. Thanks, DaveSubspace Message 19:04, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia categorizes it as: "Discrimination | Crimes against humanity | Labor | Slavery | Slave trade | Racism | Abuse" -- really don't see any of those as being described as "punishment" either... --Alan 19:09, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Agreed- it's only a punishment if it is a consequence of something- which by definition isn't the case with slavery. --31dot 22:18, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Slavery in the 21st Century
"Slavery was common in ancient Earth, being practiced as late as the middle of the 19th century in the southern United States before being outlawed as a consequence of the American Civil War."

There is still a thriving slave trade on Earth in 2009.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0309/feature1/
 * Here, we go by what is stated in the star trek universe and not what is in the real world. &mdash; Morder 00:02, 17 May 2009 (UTC)