i know this is a shitpost but the pyramids were built by corvée labor, not slaves
in ancient egypt it was common for farmers to be conscripted for public works projects during the time of year when the nile flooded and they could not work their land – this practice was widespread throughout the ancient near-east and the egyptians considered it a form of taxation
Do you… know what conscripting someone means? It means taking them from their home and forcing them to do labor. If only we had a word for people this happened to
it’s unfree labor, but it isn’t slavery any more than taxation is robbery
Bruh “unfree labor” is literally the definition of slavery
slavery is a type of unfree labor. other types include military conscription, penal labor, and corvée labor.
All of the labor you stated is still exploiting people and is just as bad as American slavery lmao. Dude just did a 360. You said it wasn’t slavery then said slavery is a type of unfree labor… which would still make it.. slavery. Any labor that forces and exploits people into work and doesn’t grant fair rights along with a payment, is slavery.
not sure how to explain to someone that buying and selling human beings as property is different from conscripting farmers for a few weeks out of the year when they’re unable to work their farms anyway…
But that is not what the Egyptians did. Conscripting is defined as compulsory, compulsory means you are being forced or doing so against your own will. Slavery is when you are owned as property or also defined as someone being exploited and are forced against your will to do a certain task. The new modern idea that Egyptians didn’t have slavery is bullshit and is a way to try and rewrite history to fit a new narrative. Egyptians owned and used slaves to build their empire and pyramids. “Asian slaves, whether merchandise or prisoners of war, became plentiful in wealthy Egyptian households [prior to the New Kingdom]”, we read in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It’s estimated that Pharaohs’ pyramids arose between 2670 BC and 664 BC..and the language used by the Egyptians is complicated and can be altered to fit a specific narrative. However, Egyptians had chattel slavery, bonded labor and forced labor. Slaves were vital for the Egyptian workforce and were used in every day life. And with our modern language many historians try to frame slavery as we know it today but what we know about Egypt is that slavery was very prominent and the whole narrative shift has been due to archeologists finding tombs which they ASSUMED were filled with “laborers”. Historians may not call these people slaves due to our modern day defintion but these people weren’t doing labor at free will BUT not all were seen as property-modern scape goat to not call it slavery. Archeologists say it was workers who were loyal to the Pharaoh that built the pyramids but looking at the history of ancient Egypt it’s easy to conclude NOT all workers were loyal and most were forced to do the work in fear of disobedience.
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