chattel – n - A movable article of personal property; any article of tangible property other than land, buildings, and other things annexed to land; a slave.
Slaves were a prime example in our history, but the issue was never quite so cut and dried as many moderns now see it. A Northern factory worker worked - if he was lucky - five 12-hour days a week and eight on Saturday for bare-subsistence wages; a slave may have worked from dawn to dusk but he got free room, board, and medical attention. If the factory worker was unable to work for any reason, age,injury, or illness, he was out of luck; a slave had full retirement benefits until death. George Washington made an inventory of his assets in 1795 and discovered that he owned 317 slaves, only 104 of whom were actually working; the rest were either too old, too young, or too sick. In other words, better than two-thirds of his work force called in sick every day.
Of course, slavery had its down side, starting with the fact that a slave couldn't quit his job. My point is only that the issue is not quite so black-and-white as may appear on first glance. (And - No! - I am not defending slavery.)
