"In Defense of Slavery" by Marjorie Spiegel

In Marjorie Spiegel's essay "In Defense of Slavery," the author argues that the domestication of animals by humans is tantamount to the enslavement of African's from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Spiegel's strongest argument, in my opinion, was that of Aristotle's interpretation of the subjugation and domestication of animals and some humans over two thousand years ago. Aristotle argued that being tamed improves an animals existence, claiming that is "secures [the animals] survival." Though I do not agree with Aristotle's take on slavery, I do respect  him as one of the greatest minds in history. I believe that the weakest argument made in this essay is that many slaves enjoyed there enslavement. After visiting a plantation, Sterling Brown claimed that he found no evidence of the horrible conditions attributed to slave plantations, instead finding "a kindly patriarchy and grateful, happy slaves." This is the weakest piece of evidence in my mind because even if the conditions on this particular plantation were livable I doubt that those conditions were standard for all slaves.