Hammurapi Law Code About the Slaves

So many people have very different definitions on what a slave is. In the dictionary, as a noun, the word means, a person who belongs to and is completely subject to another; one who is under the influence or domination of a person or thing; drudge; slave ant; system that serves another computer that is connected to it. As a verb a slave is working excessively hard. Slaves are property of another human being and forced to obey their master. In Hammurapi’s code of law the slaves were treated as such. Hammurapi’s code of law was written in the twenty-five hundreds B.C. All of these laws were a little harsh. The laws dealing with the slaves were just as bad as the rest.

If a man or woman slave is taken out of the city gates he or she shall be put to death. This law is a little unfair considering a person is the one taking the slave out of the cities gates why not they be punished. The slaves were just following their masters. The slaves were treated unfairly but there is another law that states if anyone receives a slave and does not bring the slave out in public, the master shall be put to death. Since these laws no one could have a slave without everyone knowing.

Runaway slaves did not have it easy. If a slave even had enough sense to run away they had better have a really good plans so they will not get caught. If a slave gets caught when running away there were some very serious consequences. There were even some consequences for the master of the slave if the slave was found by another person. If a runaway slave is found and are returned to the master the master has to pay him two shekels of silver. If a person finds a slave and keeps them in their house and are caught later he will be put to death. Keeping another mans slave in your house is probably considered stilling and reading some of the other laws stealing had consequences.

Slaves were sold from person to person and there were no objection raised. They were giving away for forced labor and even sold to others. When a man can not meet a claim for debt and sell the maid servant, the repayment would be made by the slave and the maid servant would be set free. Slaves were even lower than the servants in the house that is how low they were ranked.

Even though the majority of the laws usually had really bad consequences, there were a few that did not have bad consequences. One of these laws are, when the state slave marry the daughter