Comments on: Nobi: Rescuing the Nation from Slavery

By: Anne Hiltner

Anne Hiltner — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 21:20:39 +0000

Your comments on slavery in Korea are most interesting. But it is far more notable to compare slavery as defined in the Old Testament and its historical expansion throughout Europe and the US by Jewish traders with the terms of slavery in Korea than to compare it with pre-Civil War America. For it is the religious zealotry about slaves described in the Old Testament which was used to justify slavery in America which contributed to its perpetuation in many parts of the world. Food for thought!

By: djm

djm — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 05:03:06 +0000

I am not sure if anyone even looks at this web site anymore but I could not help adding my “two cents.”

The Korean denial of the use of the word slave for nobi is not surprising at all. having lived in Korea for six years I have discovered the notion of hiding or denying anything that is embarrassing or shameful to be part of the influences of Confucian thought that still prevails today.

That coupled with the strong nationalism in reaction to the feelings of inferiority caused by the rule of the Japanese, makes many Koreans appear to be willfully ignorant of their own history.

I don’t entirely blame them for this as the West’s liberal elite has been pushing revisionist history for some time.

What also might be of some interest to anyone who happens to stumble upon this website is the broader history of slavery that has been ignored by many accademic scholars. Please take a look at this, it is a real eye opener.

THE SCOURGE OF SLAVERY-THE REST OF THE STORY http://www.christianaction.org.za/articles_ca/2004-4-TheScourgeofSlavery.htm

By: Frog in a Well - The Japan History Group Blog

Frog in a Well - The Japan History Group Blog — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:53:32 +0000

[...] Konrad Lawson did some very nice work in Korean history a while back (and more to come, I’m sure): among my favorites were his discussions of the language and reality of slavery and an old geography text. [...]

By: Simon World

Simon World — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 02:36:36 +0000

Daily linklets 14th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates. Scroll down for today’s other posts. Eaglespeak has a great map, albeit …

By: Kotaji

Kotaji — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 09:38:39 +0000

Thanks for an excellent discussion of this interesting topic. As you and the commenter above have hinted, this debate needs to be historically contextualised and universalised a lot further. The fact that Korean historians are obsessed by a comparison with the American South tells us more about the history of modern South Korea than anything else. I would hazard to say that almost every corner of the world has seen slavery of some form at some point in its history.

Clearly slavery holds a particular horror for us, but in terms of political economy it is one of a range of forms of surplus extraction found in pre-modern societies, none of which were particularly pleasant. If slavery meant the seizure of the labour of an individual ‘lock and stock’ then corvee was the direct ‘non-economic’ seizure of a person’s labour in smaller, discrete parcels. The taking of tax/rent in kind would have commonly meant half of the crop if not considerably more and cash taxes didn’t necessarily improve things for direct producers as this could open the door to innumerable smaller extractions by petty officials.

All of these forms of surplus extraction coexisted in Chosôn Korea – like many premodern societies it can’t be neatly categorised as a ’slave society’ or a ‘feudal (rent-extracting) society’. You can’t help thinking that life must have been pretty awful whether you were born slave, commoner or ch’ônmin. But then Korea doesn’t stand out particularly in this respect – I wouldn’t want to have been born a peasant in medieval England either.

By: Jonathan Dresner

Jonathan Dresner — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 23:49:06 +0000

Hasn’t anyone pointed out that slavery predates the US South and that the world history of slavery includes any number of sub-serf classes who are routinely and legitimately called “slaves”? If they don’t want to be compared to the atrocities of the antebellum South, how about the glories of Greece and Rome….

By: Muninn

Muninn — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 09:29:29 +0000

Actually Antti, that is a good point. My post suggests that this is only a problem for historiography which places its primary emphasis on the “national” unit. However, you can also argue that for historiographical approaches where the “people’s consciousness” is primary, the problem of slavery essentially slices or divides their otherwise unified subaltern into yet another layer of social class.

Accounting for this could produce tremors in the narration of premodern history from this perspective.

By: Antti Leppänen

Antti Leppänen — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 07:20:40 +0000

Good overview and discussion!
One thing must be that so much of the Korean historiography is entangled with the theme of “modernization” that taking slavery into account isn’t easy.
It also seems that the Korean slavery doesn’t really figure in the schemes which track the development of the so-called “people’s consciousness” from the premodern times either. In the novel I’m currently reading, Taebaek Sanmaek (太白山脈), which is about the conflicts in the post-liberation South Korea, the grandfather of the communist rebel leader was a family slave (kabok 家僕). It’s not this family heritage which is given as the origin of the character’s ideology but his father’s (slave’s son) adherence of Confucian thinking, which made him do his utmost for the oldest son’s education, which in turn led him to revolutionary Communism. (Now does this have much to do with your post anymore?)