What slaveholders think how contemporary perpetrators rationalize what they do

243 Pages·2017·0.924 MB·English

by  Choi-Fitzpatrick, Austin

WHAT
SLAVEHOLDERS
THINK
HOW CONTEMPORARY PERPETRATORS
RATIONALIZE WHAT THEY DO
AUSTIN CHOI-FITZPATRICK
WHAT
SLAVEHOLDERS
THINK

WHAT
SLAVEHOLDERS
THINK
HOW CONTEMPORARY
PERPETRATORS RATIONALIZE
WHAT THEY DO
AUSTIN CHOI-FITZPATRICK
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York(cid:3273)Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright (cid:139) 2017 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Choi-Fitzpatrick, Austin, author.
Title: What slaveholders think : how contemporary perpetrators
(cid:3273)rationalize what they do / Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2017] (cid:95)
(cid:3273)Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identi(cid:1006)ers: LCCN 2016028996 (print) (cid:95) LCCN 2016041855 (ebook) (cid:95)
(cid:3273)ISBN 9780231181822 (cloth : alk. paper) (cid:95) ISBN 9780231543828 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Slavery—History—21st century. (cid:95) Human tra(cid:1010)cking. (cid:95)
(cid:3273)Forced labor.
Classi(cid:1006)cation: LCC HT867 .C46 2017 (print) (cid:95) LCC HT867 (ebook) (cid:95)
(cid:3273)DDC 306.3/620905—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028996
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Jason Heuer
For the children of Issachar

I am a master. I have employed people and done so much for them.
I have ful(cid:1006)lled my duties toward my servant. They should real-
ize this and ful(cid:1006)ll their duties as a servant and they should main-
tain that master-servant distance.(cid:172).(cid:172).(cid:172). If we don’t supervise our
servants then we’ll be (cid:1006)nished. So they should understand that
there is a di(cid:1016)erence between master and the servant, and that
the masters have a particular role and that the servants have a
particular role.
—Radhesh (Interviewee 31)
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere
insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to sepa-
rate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing
good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who
is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments(cid:3273)xi
1.
In All Its Forms: Slavery and Abolition, Movements and Targets(cid:3273)1
2.
Best-Laid Plans: A Partial Theory of Social Movement Targets(cid:3273)16
3.
Just Like Family: Slaveholders on Slavery(cid:3273)40
4.
As If We Are Equal: Slaveholders on Emancipation(cid:3273)62
5.
The Farmer in the Middle: Target Response to Threats(cid:3273)92
6.
Private Wrongs: Slavery and Antislavery in Contemporary
India(cid:3273)121
7.
Long Goodbye: The Contemporary Antislavery Movement(cid:3273)141
8.
Between Good and Evil: The Everyday Ethics of Resources and
Reappraisal(cid:3273)159
Notes(cid:3273)179
References(cid:3273)199
Index(cid:3273)217