Was slavery a benign or evil institution?

Answer 1

There is no doubt that it was evil. It forced large numbers of human beings into involuntary servitude and often subjected them to extreme cruelty: slaves were beaten, raped, starved, and if they did not do enough work, murdered. They were forced to perform long hours of manual labor for their masters, who not only did not pay them but who often did not even give them any rest, even in the harshest weather. There may have been a few "benign" slaveholders who treated their slaves with some degree of compassion, but the very act of enslaving someone and holding them against their will is nothing to be proud of.

While not all slavery is racially based (in Bible times, those whose side lost in a war could be enslaved, although there was a time limit to how long they would remain in servitude), some of the worst slavery has been racial, with one group dominating another solely based on skin color, emanating from the inaccurate (but widely believed) claim that one race was superior to another and somehow had a "right" to enslave the inferior race. In the United States, slavery not only caused endless suffering and brutality for black people, but it also tore the country apart and led to the Civil War.