Article Review on The Explanation of The Moral Injustices of Slavery

People agree slavery is wrong, but why? Hare suggests there is a danger of taking things as being wrong simply for granted. You can see that in the history of slavery people simply took slavery for granted by allowing it to be normalised within society. The writer specifically argues towards utilitarianism, slavery should not exist in society. 

Within the article slavery is seen as a form of moral injustice and is against human rights, the developed world would be against the concept of slavery as it is seen as immoral in most modernised countries. Nevertheless, in 17th century USA, slavery was something that was practised by large. During the period when slavery was common people believed they were simply doing what was morally right to them. so if we can better understand why slavery is wrong we can also have a better argument of why other forms of human rights abuse are also wrong. Hare also talks about the unthinking appeal to ill-defined rights as being problematic as it allows a person to have the right to free speech but how do we know what is right, what is right in a sense is a universal phrase. This then can be seen as problematic as to how can a person determine what is right without bias influencing their lack of judgement. 

Furthermore, in the article it is quite clear that the slaveholders had an intuition that what they were doing was morally acceptable this then can be seen as problematic as their prejudices towards the slaves conflicting with what is the moralright universally. It is demonstrated slavey is a problem of distributive justice as within slavey you do not have a distribution among people in particular in terms of the rights that they have and protection under the law. within the article Hare is seeking a utilitarian defence against slavery, the theory seeks the great good for the greatest number. Utilitarians see our actions as elements of utility as things we can use to affect a better change. The more happiness for more people what be the best outcome for a utilitarian. 

The article explains how slavery can be seen as a legal status, slavey is a social status of a group that has a disproportionate share in the society. Slavey is just not a status but also it refers to a relationship one has to others for example a person has a relation to a master and the master decides the labour and the quality of life the slave has. Hare explains an early definition of slavey by the Greeks that slavey is defined as a status. The history of Greek slavery was written within the Athenian laws that a greek slave lacked four basic freedoms under the laws. The slave lacks legal recognition meaning the slave is not recognised under greek law therefore it's not equally with anyone else. A slave lacks the right to access court rights by which justices are adjudicated. The slave lacks protection from being seized detained and other personal violence as slaves don't have power over their body so they are told what to do with their body. In the way in which animals are always determined by the master in the same sense, the very bodies of the slave are determined by their master therefore slaves lack the protection of being beaten or killed. Slaves lack the privilege of free movement meaning they could not move without the permission of their masters, living under such conditions is happiness something that is ever possible. Hares distinguish slavery from other forms of legal status the first is serfdom which is tied to the land, not a master so slavey is not the same thing as serfdom because it's a different relation. The second is distinguishing slavery from a caste which refers to inferior legal status but doesn't seem to have this sort of relationship to a master. This can link to the culture within India still today that there are different legal statuses for a person based upon their caste. Lastly, indentured servitude is the idea that someone sells themselves as property to another person for a fixed period to pay off a debt. This can be seen as voluntary as it is voluntarily giving up freedom as you have no other choice. 

In sum, Hare produced an informative article explaining the moral injustices of slavery. It highlights the little rights and freedom slaves were given and how their way of living was animal-like.