Although "...Lokon kept a large slave class...,":
"...none of the space travelers was unduly shocked. They had seen worse elsewhere. Historical data banks described places in olden times called Athens, India, America." (p. 674)
Why America? There were slaves there as well, for a while. The list should also include Rome And Terra. Poul Anderson based his Terran Empire on the Roman Empire, therefore put slaves in it, then incorporated the Terran Empire into a future history, therefore (plausibly?) described the restoration of slavery in a novel written later but set earlier:
"Well, we're reviving it in the Empire, Rochefort thought. For terms and under conditions limited by law; as a punishment, in order to get some social utility out of the criminal; nevertheless, we're bringing back a thing the Ythrians are letting die."
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT IV, p. 487.
The Technic History incorporates space opera and speculative fiction. Broadening our perspective, the Old Phoenix multiverse incorporates every genre, even including a cameo appearance by a Technic History character.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And in my Crime and Punishment" article I discussed how Poul Anderson wrote in one of his letters to me on how the form of slavery seen in the Terran Empire actually had its origins in the libertarian era of the Solar Commonwealth and Polesotechnic League.
My point being that any social development (good, bad, or indifferent) can have deep and complex origins.
Ad astra! Sean
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