Slaves are regarded as the property of slave owners and can be bought and sold. Slave owners can force slaves to work, and labor activities must be dominated by slaves, without remuneration and personal freedom. In a human society, if most workers in the field of material production are slaves, such a society is called a slave society.

Slave society is one of the five social forms of Marxism. Marxism believes that with the development of stone tools, the appearance of metal tools and the further development of production, labor productivity has been greatly improved. In addition to maintaining people's life, social products began to have surplus. Slaves are regarded as the property of slave owners and can be bought and sold freely; Slave owners can force slaves to work, and labor activities must be dominated by slaves, without remuneration and personal freedom. In a human society, if most workers in the field of material production are slaves, the social form is a slave society.

According to Marx's historical theory, Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties were once defined as slave societies, and this view is controversial. Slave society takes the broad masses of slaves in the lower classes as the main production roles. However, according to traditional documents and archaeological excavations, there is no sign that slavery was widely practiced in ancient China. Therefore, there is quite a debate in academic circles.

Extended data

morality of slave society

The first historical form of class morality. Refers to the morality that adapts to the social and economic relations of slavery, mainly including the dominant slave class morality and the opposite slave class morality.

Morality began to become a relatively independent form of social consciousness, and people's conscious moral consciousness gradually formed. The ruling class regards morality as an important means to maintain social order, and has established relatively systematic principles, norms and theoretical systems.

The adjustment function is expanding and complicated day by day. On the one hand, morality plays an increasingly important role in all fields of social life, and at the same time, it is increasingly restricted by social factors such as economy, politics, law and culture.

Compared with primitive social morality, morality of slave society somewhat overcame the negative elements of primitive social morality, and began to develop independently from the general social consciousness, which reflected the progress of moral development. However, because the dominant slave owner class morality is characterized by ignoring the personal dignity of slave workers, it is not conducive to the development of social productive forces and will inevitably be replaced by more progressive feudal social morality.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-slave society