>I forget my source, but I seem to recall that the Spartacists were not
>against slavery as such; only against being slaves themselves.
That's all Jenny was saying too, I think. I don't see assuming a person at any time would rather not be beaten and forced to perform hard labor as ascribing our values to another age. And with evidence of revolts like the Spartacists we don't have to assume.
"As a relaxation in the evenings I have been reading Appian on the Roman Civil Wars, in the original Greek text. A very valuable book. The chap is an Egyptian by birth. Schlosser says he has "no soul," probably because he goes to the roots of the material basis for these civil wars. Spartacus is revealed as the most splendid fellow in the whole of ancient history. Great general (no Garibaldi), noble character, real representative of the ancient proletariat."
Marx-Engels Correspondence 1861
http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1861/letters/61_02_27-abs.htm