Guest Writer: Carl Terver
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| Shackles used to bind slaves. UN Photo/Mark Garten |
Invention rules the world, and it can be speculated that those who
invent steer the course of the world. Man has invented a lot; adventure for example, is typical of spurring invention.
Before the 15th century and the centuries that followed the era of the slave trade, slavery had existed under varying guises. You only have to
look back in history to observe that. Before I go further I’ll want us
to look at the stages of development man has undergone beginning from
the Stone Age, Neolithic age and the modern times. Man was a wanderer
(hunter) before settling; organising the home and cultivating crops. This period was known as communalism, until society was stratified into feudalism and then capitalism. These stages of development were
characterised by the level of civilisation attained across respective
worlds. In this discourse I shall settle for where ‘division of labour’
emerged as an inevitable partner in the civilisation progress. The key
word is ‘labour’, human labour.
