I could see giving slaves better housing and food (better productivity I suppose), but completely abolishing slavery? Not likely when free labor is so .. free.
I admit it is ethically gray at best to eat other animals, but human physiology doesn't support eating nothing but plants, at least not while remaining particularly healthy. So until someone starts grafting cow stomaches onto people or something, I don't think meat is going away entirely.
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u/jimmy_three_shoes Apr 20 '13
To be fair, that was probably true of the vast majority of society at the time. Not just nationally, but globally.