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Question for June 2016

Most interesting fact you’ve come across about the Aztecs (2)? Asked by Witham Hall Prep School. Chosen and answered by Professor Elizabeth Graham

The most interesting thing to me is that what people have been calling ‘slavery’ among the Aztecs is not slavery at all, but the Aztec penal system [for punishments]. The Aztecs didn’t have prisons, but when people broke the law or didn’t pay debts (or sometimes were captured in war), they were punished by having to complete tasks or work for individuals. It could be hard labour for sure, but slavery was not inherited, so it was not really ‘slavery’ but a status you had until you fulfilled your obligations.

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Scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition of the Florentine Codex, Madrid, 1994.

Which were the most common crimes among the Aztecs?See Professor Esther Pasztory’s answer to this question

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Professor Elizabeth Graham

Professor Elizabeth Graham

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