Fear of authorities made most smuggled slaves deny their own enslavement
Evidence
Naturally, these slaves, who are very ignorant and under the impression they will be harmed, even if they wanted to desert their masters, are so afraid of the Egyptian authorities that all repeat the learned lesson, and say they are free and are accompanying their masters of their own free will. Faced with such declarations, the Egyptian authorities have to retreat. However, 90 per cent of these slaves, if not under so great a fear, and if one released them from the grips of their masters, would say they had been brought there to be sold, or to be offered as a bribe. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 705
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- QUESTION: The 90 per cent figure comes from a British antislavery report — how reliable is it, and what does it reveal about official British knowledge production on Egyptian slavery?