Potent quotables
There is another practical reason for turning war captives into slaves. A slaves master has a responsibility to keep them alive in a fit state to work. Most human beings need a good deal of care and resources, and can usually be considered a net economic loss until they’re twelve or sometimes fifteen years old.
It rarely makes economic sense to breed slaves, which is why globally, slaves have so often been the product of military aggression, though many were also a product of debt traps, punitive judicial decisions or banditry. Seen one way, a slave raider is stealing the years of caring labor another society invested to create a work-capable human being.
An old Shilluk legend sums it up nicely:
There was once a cruel king who killed many of his subjects. He even killed women. His subjects were terrified of him.
One day, to demonstrate that his subjects were so afraid they would do anything he asked, he assembled the Shilluk chiefs and ordered them to wall him up inside a house with a young girl.
Then he ordered them to let him out again.
They didn’t, so he died.