II problema della concorrenza tra lavoro libera e lavoro servile nella Grecia antica

Some modern scholars view competition between free and slave labor in ancient Greece as a genuine phenomenon, others as a false problem. An analysis of the sources reveals that this phenomenon can indeed be observed where slave ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few people; the real antagonism was not between free and slave workers but between slave owners and non-slaveholders. This antagonism is, however, hardly to be found in societies where slave ownership was distributed throughout the population and non-slaveholders were in minority, as in classical Athens. Comparison with the American slavery supports such a thesis, showing a similar situation in the southern United States of 19th century, where slave ownership was also concentrated in the hands of a few people.