ABSTRACT
Slavery having predated and outlived so many civilizations, its apologists can almost be forgiven for believing it to be part of the natural order of things. Ancient Egypt demonstrates an early tradition of slavery and modern Egypt has dramatic extant examples of what highly organized slavery can achieve; the pyramids which, to say the least, bear comparison with major structures of the industrial age, have also become the standard metaphor for a hierarchical society. Today the old traditional theory that slavery was good both for society and the individual slave has given way to an Orwellian doublethink process: all states forbid it and many practise it. The mass of twentieth century citizens in the developed world have long imagined that slavery went out with Wilberforce. There are many organizations working in the field of human rights today, but only one is specifically concerned with slavery: the Anti-Slavery Society for the Protection of Human Rights.
