Roman Abolitionism

What if there were an abolitionist movement in ancient Rome?

Consider, first, that, among the plebeians, slavery was fairly well frowned upon for the simple logic of 'they took our jobs.' Consider, also, that among the the patricians, manumission was so popular that Augustus had place strict regulations upon who might be freed (no more than 1/3 or 100 of one's slaves, whichever was smaller, and none under the age of 30). Finally, remember that any manumitted slave became a client of their former owner.

While it would certainly take a form very different than the Abolitionism of the Enlightenment, Roman abolitionism could be cast simply as a way to assist the plight of the plebs while expanding the political influence of various patricians.
 
It's going to be tough. Abolitionism worked not least because it addressed an insititution that was felt alien to the societies it came from, cruel, distant, and vaguely barbaric. In Rome, slavery was graduated, complex, integral to society at almost every level, and thoroughly familiar. There was a fundamental criticism of it - from the Cynic school, mainly, but also from Roman law (Caius Inst. refers to it as 'contrary to natural law', though we have to remember that pre-Rousseau that doesn't mean what it sounds like today). But turning that into a political movement I can't see. Maybe a gradual phasing-out followed by creating the legal underpinnings, as happened in England.
 
It's going to be tough. Abolitionism worked not least because it addressed an insititution that was felt alien to the societies it came from, cruel, distant, and vaguely barbaric. In Rome, slavery was graduated, complex, integral to society at almost every level, and thoroughly familiar. There was a fundamental criticism of it - from the Cynic school, mainly, but also from Roman law (Caius Inst. refers to it as 'contrary to natural law', though we have to remember that pre-Rousseau that doesn't mean what it sounds like today). But turning that into a political movement I can't see. Maybe a gradual phasing-out followed by creating the legal underpinnings, as happened in England.

I concur with your general assessment, but I would point out that, historically, Rome took many measures in order to protect the rights of their slaves; largely for economic reasons, since the supply of slaves gradually went down over the course of the Empire.
 
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