Jean Bodin Six Books Of The Commonwealth

Jean Bodin in his work ‘Six Books of the Commonwealth’ raises four different ways in which individuals become slaves. He states that slaves can arise through being born of an enslaved mother, by acquisition after a successful conquest, by punishment for a criminal offence, or by an individual relinquishing their liberty to another entity. Bodin contends that evidence of slavery being a natural institution is derived from its ubiquitous presence across civilisations and cultures throughout history, suggesting that it ‘cannot be that so many rulers and legislators have upheld an institution which was unnatural”. Furthermore, Bodin puts forth an argument in support of the righteousness of enslavement by declaring that it is ‘laudible and charitable’
Firstly, whilst some Romans (particularly those from the elite, upper echelons of society) seemed sympathetic to treating slaves in a somewhat dignified manner, Bodin goes much further by characterising slavery as fundamentally immoral and even suggesting that ‘it was an unmitigated catastrophe that the institution was ever introduced’. Bodin’s view that slavery should be completely abolished would have been inconceivable in Ancient Rome, where even the slaves themselves ‘never proclaimed, or held out hopes for, the complete abolition of slavery’, so therefore Bodin’s searing attack on the institution of slavery represents a powerful evolution of thought. Moreover, unlike Marcus Terentius Varro who in his work ‘On Agriculture’ views slaves in a very cold and calculated manner as merely being a tool to be exploited, Bodin instead acknowledges the emotional dimensions of slavery by expressing empathy rather than indifference towards the turmoil that those in subjugation endure. Embedded within Bodin’s piece is the subtle notion that slavery is becoming increasingly archaic and irrelevant in modern times which stands in stark contrast to Ancient Rome in which it was clearly discernible that society had a strong dependence of slavery in order to ‘function and maintain its political, social, and economic stranglehold on the Mediterranean area and beyond’. Finally, by recognising the implicit inhumanity encapsulated by slavery, Bodin has the ability to define servitude not by Senecca’s simplistic criterion of a lack of control over one’s actions, but rather by realising the severity of institutionalised slavery is such that the moral affront that it represents must not be whitewashed. Ultimately, Bodin’s advanced and nuanced perception of the evils of slavery enable him to avoid the absurd conclusions reached by many Roman writers that the lack of free will associated