Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Dr. Anson
History of Civilization
Aug 23, 2016
At the start of the Code, it is stated that if a man were to receive anything from a
child or slave without consent of master, they would be charged with theft, and put to
death (7). This implies that slaves and minors may not hold property of any kind, and
anything they hold it property of their master/guardian. This continues through the laws
as many detail how to handle slaves, what slaves may do, and what to do about various
instances with slave interaction.
Slaves are one thing, but free men belonging to the upper- and lower-class will
find plenty of injustice that favors those who are more well off. First law to color this gold
tinted skew is where it declares that if a man is found in possession of stolen livestock
or ships, they must pay thirty-fold if in the upper-class and ten-fold if in the lower-class
(8). Now, at first glance, it is unbiased; the rich pay more and the poor pay less, but this
is still biased. Yes, thirty-fold is much more to pay than ten-fold, but keep in mind that
the upper-class is comprised of the king, chief officers of state, and owners of large
properties of land. They can easily write off the money, whereas the lower-class are
unlikely unable to comfortably pay off such a sum.