I'm of two minds about what's going on here. Slavery is undeniably a terrible thing - but what exactly defines slavery? Is it working without pay, or is it HAVING to work without pay? I think one of the most basic horrors of slavery is that one is forced into it - you have no choice in the matter; you must work for as long as your master orders you to, with no benefit for yourself at the end of the day. On the other hand, the line becomes blurred a bit when someone CHOOSES to work without pay. If you make the conscious choice to labor for someone without any remuneration or reward, is it still slavery? "My men work for me voluntarily", says Mr. Am. This would seem to indicate that they chose this life, rather than being forced into it (although, of course, we only have his word on that). He claims to treat them well and give them food (again, only his word), and he claims to work just as long and hard as they do on his end of things - so, one could argue, he's subjecting them to only as much work as he subjects himself to. On the other hand, he says quite firmly that "They never quit". WHY do they never quit? If they choose to work for him, as he seems to imply, does that mean that they have also have the freedom to throw in the towel and go elsewhere, but never do? Or does it mean that they have the freedom to START working for him, but not to stop - i.e, the initial decision may be theirs, but that decision, once made is final and permanent? Or is the whole thing a load of hooey, and they are genuine slaves as we think of them, forced to start working and doomed never to stop? Mind you, there are complicating factors here - Mr. Am is not your usual boss. Perhaps the workers are all as old as he is. Perhaps this is the reason that they never quit - they are all men of another era, unaccustomed to the modern world, and would rather stay in a world with familiar customs than subject themselves to the bewildering culture of the 20th Century. Perhaps they choose to work for him out of simple pride that their labors are uncovering so much of value about the past - perhaps Mr. Am gets his workforce by appealing to the hard-working zealots of the archaeological and paleontological community, those who are not particularly talented themselves, but are willing to pitch in to make a difference - ANY difference - in the field, even if their labors go uncredited. Perhaps they have simply been working so long at their labors that they can no longer conceive of another life outside the diggings - self-made zombies, as it were. It's an odd situation, to be sure - are they slaves, indentured workers, or what?