Flight from Bondage

Abstract According to Plato, the notion of health develops from the awareness of being ill. Likewise, the realization of dependency, and especially debt slavery, brings the idea and objective of liberation to the fore. The first attempt at liberation occurs on the dependent person’s own initiative and out of his or her own drive when the dependent person takes the act of liberation into his or her own hands by flight. A plethora of written sources report the flight of these fugitives. Here, no term for freedom can be found, but the flight testifies to escapist wishes connected to the socio-economic realities of dependency. Flight implies a process of negation. At this early stage, dependency as a socio-economic reality comes first, freedom second, and “freedom from” emerges only from the escapee’s wish. In addition, it was usually expected from people that runaway slaves be caught and brought back to the owner. In the Hebrew Bible, however, the law of harbouring the fugitive is an exception to the rule. It shows an explicit legal recognition and approval of flight from bondage that protects the fugitive.