Slave-owning Slaves
In some human societies there were slaves who owned slaves. Although details varied, there were two broad cases: ''peculium'' slavery, and elite political slavery. A ''peculium'' was a slave's informal property, and is best known from ancient Rome. In strict law, slaves could own nothing. Yet in everyday Roman life a large volume of business was transacted by slaves: it suited their owners, who made money from it. Thus an astute slave could save and might grow quite rich, buying one or more slaves of his own. His slaves might to do the same: thus there could be slaves of slaves. The head slave, unless liberated, remained a slave in every respect: his owner could examine him under torture for suspected embezzlement. The ''peculium'' concept is found in many other cultures; for example Jewish law had something similar, including slaves of slaves. So did slave-era Brazil, where slaves — quite often, women — could acquire slaves of their own, and use them to pay for thei ...
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