Growing up in the South, many of the movies I watched in my youth depicted American slavery, wealthy white men and women in control of their (not particularly) subservient black slaves. I don't remember any of these movies that I watched, having been busy being enthralled by images of sulky black women serving their masters, unhappy but nonetheless obedient. It didn't help that I couldn'tve been older than five, and any other details surely would have slipped my mind at that age. The times when the slaves looked happy entranced me even more, watching a slender woman with skin as dark as my hair curtsey politely as she brought her master a pitcher of cold, southern tea. As appealing as these clips were to me, I never failed to notice the vast difference in skin color, and though I was too young to understand it, I wondered why paler people were never depicted in chains.

The first time I asked how much slaves cost, I got the strangest, most blank look in response. "Honey, slavery's been illegal since the 1860's." I was appalled. "Why," I asked, confused that we would give up such things as beautiful people kept by our side to do our bidding, to fetch us things that needed fetching, to act as human pets. I was even more appalled by the knowledge that, in America, it was almost exclusively Black People (everyone in The South says such things in capital letters, you see) who had been slaves, and they had been treated terribly. It angered me that people would hold other people captive and abuse them and each of their descendants in the name of so vague a cause as Racism and Fear. By then, I'd already developed my idea of 'proper' slavery.

It turns out, that it is more or less the same as what my Aztecatl ancestors did. Slavery was personal, revolving around an individual. While you may have been a slave, your children weren't. YOU were the slave, and they were as free as you had once been. You could even have possessions, including other slaves! On the death of the owner, superior slaves were freed and those that were inferior to them were passed as inheritance.

But it had nothing to do with race. If you were a prisoner of war or a criminal, you might be given to those who were wronged, if you were not killed outright. (A serial killer's life in exchange for a year of good crops? FUCK YEAH.) A murderer might be given to the widow of the man he killed, a rapist given to the woman he had raped. You could also be sold into slavery, by your self! You would be able to spend what you had earned from your sale before you entered your service, and you could also win your freedom.

As I grew up, I was disappointed to learn that this is not the way of things anymore. But, oh, how this country could have been improved with Aztecatl slavery! Can you imagine the various ways in which we could humiliate our criminals? With our modern technologies, even violent criminals could be kept in line! Can't you just see a score of murderers working to fix our streets? Or rapists being forced into being personal shoppers and maids for the women they harmed?

I guess racial memory leaves in the oddest bits...