The Slavery of Bali

Poor men might take out loans for the express purpose of becoming debtors to some wealthy patron. They could then provide them with food during hard times, a roof, a wife. Not much more. Still, technically, he owns their children, and can also repossess the wife if his bondsmen fail to carry out his obligations. Read insists that most of this was relatively innocuous. He says people who don't actually live in africa are often left with an image of that continent as an irredeemably violent, savage place.