Slavery

[ValkyrieRaven88]

I know. I just posted a similar thread in the movies section...

Bascially, I'm curious about the relationship between a master and a slave. I want something that goes into how they feel about one another and the imbalance of power between them. Something deeper than "the evil master whipped the slave for nothing, and the slave hated him and plotted escape." It doesn't have to be a nice relationship...just a different kind of twist on it.

 

[Middle Eye]

Umm. I don't know. Have you read Roots? I know that it's become a total joke now in the years since the book and movie came out, but it's pretty good. There is a lot of interaction between Kunta and his family and their masters, not all of it negative. I think I read that Roots is supposed to be basically just a ripoff of a book I think is called The African...never read it though. Maybe you can look into that too.

 

[Rien]

Again, are you talking master/slave, captor/captive, plantation owner type thing and slave worker? Slavery can be very different, depending on the era, the definition, and the culture.

 

[Proofreader]

There is a mass of material out there - these sites all have information

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAslavery.htm
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/index.html
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/slavery/primary_sources.html

 

[Middle Eye]

You could try going to Amazon.com and searching for "slavery". You might not get a lot of novels that way (if any), but you would find a lot of books on the subject...

 

[ions]

Beloved has slavery as a topic.

 

[unKeMPt]

One word: Hegel.

EDIT: Another one is needed. Nietzsche.

 

[unKeMPt]

Again, are you talking master/slave, captor/captive, plantation owner type thing and slave worker? Slavery can be very different, depending on the era, the definition, and the culture.

Excellent point. Many contemporary thinkers refer to the current epoch as one of "wage slavery." Are you speaking of chattel slavery, or just of exploitation in relationships in general?

 

[beer good]

"The Interesting Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written By Himself", the autobiography of an 18th-century slave who bought his own freedom, is supposedly a very interesting read. It's available at Project Gutenberg.

 

[steffee]

I haven't read it, so not sure if it's exactly what you're after, but Andrea Levy's Small Island is about slavery.

 

[Flor]

March by Geraldine Brooks has an interesting relationship between a slave and his owner. Also between a slave and the narrator. There's a bit of a twist to each relationship and the outcomes are not what one might expect. Won the Pulitzer this year.

 

[Middle Eye]

You could try reading "River God" by Wilbur Smith. It's about a slave in ancient Egypt who has a succession of masters, both cruel and kind, (including the Pharaoh) and falls in love with his mistress, has a series of adventures and ends up an old man chronicling his life story. It's a fantastic book and it's about slavery.

 

[ValkyrieRaven88]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm thinking more about the actual "I bought you for twenty dollars and I own you" slavery more than parasitic relationships, for those of you who asked. I'm sorry; I should have explained that better in the first post.

 

[AudioEdition]

I've recently enjoyed, and would recommend 'Memoirs of a geisha'.
Might be a bit off topic, but there are elements of being bought and sold in it, and definitely goes into the psychological aspect of it quite a bit.

In the same vein of East Asian women slaves, James Clavel's 'Noble House' and 'Tai Pan', while it's not the main focus, go over the practices and the issues quite a bit. Concubines, nannys, prostitutes are all bought and sold, and the culture surrounding it is very unusual to the western mind. Clavel is also good if you like a long historical fiction read.