Slavery and property.

What characterized slaves was that, body and soul, they belonged to their owners. This corresponded to a precise legal status, namely chattel, which placed slaves next to livestock. Their condition was often "naturalized" by likening them to animals more than to humans. Specific legislation derived from Roman law but included with few modifications in the Black Code drew the consequences of this radical state of deprivation. At a general level, the metaphysics of subjectivity sheds light on the deep meaning of the basic relations between access to property and the right to possess one's own body, which the fact of becoming a piece of property made impossible.