Abstract

ZERON, Carlos. An Unbreakable Blade: Slavery in Modern and Contemporary Times. Hist. graf [online]. 2017, n.49, pp.85-115. ISSN 1405-0927.

The article exposes what were the theological and legal concepts which the missionaries used to justify slavery during the modern colonial era. Such concepts were not defined only from the theological treatises, but also from the concrete historical experience of colonization and the slave trade. After opposing the justifications about slavery developed by different agents of colonization, the article presents its continuity in the XX and XXI centuries, focusing especially in debt bondage. The goal is to follow the historical thread of the transformations in working world: not only the differences and similarities between modern and contemporary slavery, but also the limits with respect to precarious forms of wage labor.

Keywords : theology; legal; slavery; colonization; modernity; contemporary.