I'm not sure if this is appropriate but,  as I am applying for a job in a call centre, I wondered if it was possible to find instances of slaves being happy in their slavery.  I think that there were black slaves in Elizabethan times who became well advanced in their careers but since then I don't think they have had such a good time.

It's just occurred to me that slaves didn't have such a great time in times prior to yon chappie who chucked all the snakes out of Ireland

Can I recommend you undergo your servitude in
http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Ephebe

Good to see you about, bren - and an interesting topic. Terence the Roman playwright came to mind. A slave - probably from North Africa - a Berber, even, wrote comedies and so he must have been happy. But then this was probably after his master set him free - mark you was he into comedy whilst in bondage? Apparently he was skilled in language so was he released for being a tad too funny in that? Now I do not think this is a good course for you to follow - but I imagine a calll centre has quite  a lot of scope for comedy.
And I don't think the Christian slave who designed all the best bits of Ottoman mosques had a hard time of it - all those domes would have collapsed by now if he was really fed up. My own slavery was made the more piquant by those that I had to stand up against always trying to find out when I was going to retire. When the subtle approaches became direct  I  told them I would when I got bored - and that my trials with them  were still most motivating.

I don't know whether they were 'happy' but quite a few Roman slaves, especially those who had valuable skills, were often able to have lives of secure contentment in conditions far, far better than many free-born (yet still dirt poor) citizens.

For example, Marcus Tullius Tiro, the personal slave of Cicero, was intelligent, educated ... and competent and trusted at managing his master's domestic and financial affairs. Cicero mentions him frequently in his writings and their relationship, while always cordial, at times seems to be one almost of friends. He was given his freedom in 53BC but still accompanied Cicero to his govenorship of Cilicia. Tiro was wealthy enough (through money earned as a slave and freedman, as well as bequests from Cicero) to be able to purchase a country estate near Puteoli where he lived out his retirement publishing his former master's collected works and writing numerous books of his own. It is also worth noting that while the 63 year old Cicero was brutally murdered on the orders of Mark Anthony - his head and hands cut off, and nailed to the Rostrum in the Forum Romanum - Tiro died peacefully on his estate at the ripe old age of 91.

Similar examples might be the emperor Claudius' secretary, the freedman Pallas, and Julius Caesar's secretary ... Ponsa was it? Indeed wasn't the majority of the 1st century Imperial 'civil service' comprised of slaves and ex-slaves ... all doing very nicely for themselves while remaining carefully aloof from the dangers of politics, senatorial intrigues and Imperial proscriptions? It was always the noble senators, their family and friends that actually got the chop ...  very rarely was it the senator's current or former slaves.

brenogler wrote:

I'm not sure if this is appropriate but,  as I am applying for a job in a call centre, I wondered if it was possible to find instances of slaves being happy in their slavery.  I think that there were black slaves in Elizabethan times who became well advanced in their careers but since then I don't think they have had such a good time.

There were white slaves, too, Brenogler - Englishmen made slaves in their own country. They were certainly not happy slaves, so sorry if this is off topic. You can read about it here:


https://thewildpeak.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/the-tudors-bring-back-slavery/



Therefore, in 1547, the first year of Edward VI, an Act was passed selling the unemployed into slavery. For a first conviction branding and two years of slavery was ordered for the unemployed vagrant; the “slave” was to be beaten and chained by his master, and for running away he was to be further branded and adjudged a “slave” for ever. Death as a felon was the penalty for a third conviction.

In my research into British West Indian slavery, I have yet to come across incidents of happy slaves. They seem to have been at their happiest when the news reached them that slavery had been abolished by the Whig government in 1833. However, they were not so happy when they discovered that they would have to serve as unpaid apprentices to the planters for another four years, to "learn" how to behave like free people.