Berlin discusses slavery in two critical contexts: societies with slaves, and slave societies. Societies with slaves are ones in which bondage is one form of labor among many. Slavery is not particularly central to large-scale production in these societies. This social organization typically predates a society’s transformation into a slave society, but the transition is not predictable, definite, or linear. 

Whereas the presence of slaves in societies with slaves is removed from the epicenter of regional economy, slave societies entirely rely on slavery as their main source of labor. The influence of the institution also extends beyond labor and economy. At every level of society, in private and public spheres alike, “the master-slave relationship provided the model for all social relations” (9). This replication delineated clear lines of power with a ruling master class and their subordinates (including wives, employees, children, and slaves).

Typically, societies with slaves turned into slave societies when this emergent elite seized control of production that contributed to an international market. The details and totality of these transitions varied widely by location and era. It was especially within these slave societies that public intellectuals developed racial ideologies that justified white domination and black insubordination.