Slavery

In a report this morning on the radio the estate of James Madison, President of the United States, was considered. The focus was on the fact that Madison, principal author of the Constitution, owned about one hundred slaves. There is a modern sense of disbelief that such a contradiction could occur, but this ignores the historical context. It was the spirit of the times and an integral part of the economy. At the time very few in positions of authority questioned it.

The reporter said that many of the slaves had no earthly possessions to pass on. Set that next to Janis Joplin singing, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”, and it turns our understanding a mite. It got me to thinking about what the slave owners were beholden to, and a whole landscape opened up. In a short space, during which I was driving and soon had to pull over to write it all down, I came up with a list of things that people can be enslaved to.

But first, I wanted to consider the definition of slavery. Turning to Webster’s, the first definition is what we normally think of as being owned by and in servitude to another human being. But skipping down to the third definition we find that slavery is a condition of submission to or domination by some influence, habit, etc. By this definition James Madison was enslaved to his business ventures and land holdings. My own idea is that slavery is whatever is necessary to support your drives, and this could be positive or negative. Let’s go back to my list. We can be enslaved by:

· Possessions, or standard of living
· Self image and identity, including the pursuit of success
· Opinions, either our own or others’
· Doctrines
· Causes
· Relationships of many types
· Hope without certainty, especially with religion and politics
· Desire for potency, power
· Passions
· Situations we’ve gotten into and are hard to get out of

This is just a short list of all the kinds, and each could take an essay itself. Jumping back to the global level, it seems that we’re all enslaved to something or someone. And so much time, effort, money, and hopefulness goes into efforts to feel free, which paradoxically enslaves us to the pursuit of freedom. Bikers find it in the wind on the road. Adrenaline junkies find it in fast vehicles and extreme sports. Workers of all types find it in a lazy Saturday morning with (relatively) nothing to do. Yet the feeling of freedom is momentary and fleeting; we return to other enslavements in all too short a time.

Is there a more enduring type of freedom? Stay tuned.

If there is such a thing as a free man or woman, it must be exceedingly rare.