-"Sargasso of Lost Starships," p. 374.
Later in the Technic History:
"...we're reviving [slavery] in the Empire, Rochefort thought."
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 437-662 AT IV, p. 487.
Explanations for this apparent discrepancy:
there was slavery on Ansa so Donovan mistakenly thought that it also existed in the Empire;
the author of "Sargasso..." lived after The People Of The Wind and anachronostically projected slavery back into that earlier period;
slavery existed in the early Empire, then was phased out or terminated, then was revived;
slavery existed at different times and places within the Empire and no one knows the full story.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Also, Anderson traced the existence of slavery in the Empire back to origins during the era of the Polesotechnic League--when some took to extreme lengths the libertarian principles of that time. I quoted some of Anderson's remarks about that in my article "Crime and Punishment in the Terran Empire." In law, slavery was supposed to be used only as a punishment for crime, and did not have to be for life.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that until fairly recently, historically speaking -- the 13th century in Western Europe, 1590 in Japan -- slavery was a ubiquitous human institution.
From hunter-gather bands (most commonly in the form of abducted women) up through Bronze Age city-states, republics, empires and so forth. In some places/times it was a marginal institution, in others central, but it was always there.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Unfortunately, we still have slavery. Some Muslim countries have revived chattel slavery. The brutal regime in China use the Uighurs as slave labor. And criminals trafficking in children and women as sex slaves are found all over the world.
Ad astra! Sean
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