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"For 10% of your time, you’re enslaved; for 10% of your time, you own slaves."

Huh, how is this possible? Didn't slave-owners often have multiple slaves? Shouldn't it mean the % of time enslaved should be larger than the % of time owning slaves?

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There are also multiple people who own one slave-- for example, a family of five who owns a single slave.

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Hmm, I guess it depends on the definition of "slave owner". I think the slave was usually the legal property of the head of the family only? Or maybe of a married couple? The latter can account for a factor of 2, I guess...

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Sep 23, 2022·edited Sep 23, 2022

Agreed. Slaves almost certainly have significantly shorter lives on average than slave-owners, but even so I doubt that's enough to make the numbers come out equal given how many more of them I think there have been.

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The lifespan is irrelevant since, if someone's only slave dies, they are no longer a slave-owner from that point. (Unless "slave owner" is defined to be "someone who owned a slave at any point in their life".)

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Good point.

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Did Lay make any attempt to end slavery via non-extra means before resorting to the strategy of being extra?

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Holy shit this is making me want to read the book way more than Scott's review of it.

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