Voluntary Slavery
Think of slavery and the image you get is of people taken in chains kicking and screaming to some far off land to toil like animals for the rest of their days, right? So did I…until I heard of this case of people voluntarily becoming slaves. But wait, it gets even more weird: these guys even paid monthly fees to remain slaves ! So what was going on, you ask? The guys we are talking about lived in ancient Egypt between 190 BC and 130 BC. They chose to become temple slaves, a “privilege” for which they paid a monthly fee. So was this a tale of religious insanity? Not at all: this was a very level headed choice these guys were making! The slave contracts that Egyptologist Kim Ryholt unearthed and deciphered showed that 90% of the people entering these contracts could not name their father. Which would suggest they were children of prostitutes. And that in turn meant they belonged to the lower classes. Therefore, the Pharaoh could use them for forced labour, you know for diggin...