The Word for World is Forest

In the book “ The Word for World is Forest”, the author makes many references to slavery, in order to expose the flaws of slavery as a system. The references are not direct but instead the author describes a circumstance in which a group of future humans creates a “voluntary” workforce out of a less evolved human group. One of the characters justified the workforce with the argument, “ ‘… but this isn’t slavery, Ok baby. Slaves are humans. When you raise cows, you call that slavery? No. And it Works.’” (18).  Slavery is justified in the future human society because the enslaved people are considered less than humans, and therefore do not deserve the same rights privileged to humans. This argument mirrors the argument that was made by pro-slavery advocates during the 19^th century. African Americans were considered less than human, and therefore slavery was justified in the eyes of some individuals. The parallels that are made between slavery in US history and slavery in the futuristic society highlight the flaws of the argument that were made in support of slavery and further demonstrate the appalling nature of the slavery system.