Thehistory of slavery happens over manycultures,nationalities, andreligions. Slavery has happened fromancient times to thepresent day. Its victims have come from many differentethnicities andreligious groups. People's social,economic, and legal beliefs about slaves have changed throughout history.[1]
Slavery was used very little in somehunter-gatherer populations.[2][3] When people usedagriculture, there were more times to usechattel slavery.[4] Slavery was aninstitution in thefirst civilizations. For example, slavery happened inSumer inMesopotamia.[5] Slavery was mentioned in theMesopotamianCode of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BC). This Code calls slavery andinstitution that was in place.[6] In the ancient world, slavery became common in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.[7][8][4]
It became less common in Europe during theEarly Middle Ages. BothChristians andMuslims enslaved each other in times of war in theMediterranean andEurope.[9]Islamic slavery happened inWestern andCentral Asia,Northern andEastern Africa,India, andEurope from the 600s to 1900s. Islamic law allowed enslavement of non-Muslims. Slaves here were usually trafficked from non-Muslim places: theBalkan slave trade, theCrimean slave trade, theBukhara slave trade; theAndalusian slave trade, theTrans-Saharan slave trade, theRed Sea slave trade, and theIndian Ocean slave trade.
Starting in the16th century, thetransatlantic slave trade begin. This trade was started bymerchants fromPortugal. They mostly bought imprisoned Africans forgold andivory fromWest African kingdoms. They took the slaves toEurope's colonies in the Americas. The merchants sold slaves for popular goods, such asgun,gunpowder, coppermanillas, andcloth. This trade had highdemand. The slave trade started manywars and larger enslavement of Africans.[10] In India and theNew World, slaves were apart of the workforce. The transatlantic slave trade eventually stopped aftergovernmentsabolished slavery. There were many efforts to stop slavery in practice. For example, the BritishPreventative Squadron, and the AmericanAfrican Slave Trade Patrol were used to stop slavery.
Recently,human trafficking is an international problem. It is thought that about 25–40 million people were enslaved in 2013. Many of these slaves were inAsia.[11] During the 1983–2005Second Sudanese Civil War, many people were taken into slavery.[12] In the late 1990s, there was evidence ofchild slavery and trafficking oncacao plantations in West Africa.[13]
Slavery in the 21st century continues and creates about $150 billion inprofit every year.[14] Regions witharmed conflict are more likely to have slavery. Moderntransportation has made human trafficking easier.[15] In 2019, there were almost 40 million people in slavery. 25% of these were children.[14] 61% are used forforced labor. 38% live in forced marriages.[14] Other types of modern slavery areprison labor,sex trafficking, andsexual slavery.
In one form or another slavery has been practiced since the earliestcivilizations.[16] Earlyhunter-gatherers had no use for slaves[17] They did everything for themselves. Having another pair of hands to help them meant another mouth to feed. Slavery or owning another person made no sense to these people.[17] Once men gathered incities andtowns and there was more than enough food, having a cheap supply of labour made sense.[17] This is when the earliest forms of slavery appeared. The main source of slaves waswar. When a town wascaptured, the men were killed and the women were enslaved to work in thefields or asconcubines.[18] Slaves made up only a small percentage of the earliest civilizations. These includedChina'sYangtze River valley,India'sIndus Valley,Egypt'sNile valley and theTigris andEuphrates valleys inMesopotamia.[18]
Once slavery became a major part of the workforce, slave trading became a business.Ancient Greece was the first civilization where slaves made up a large part of thepopulation. Between the4th and6th centuries (BC) it is estimated that from one-third to one-half of the population were slaves.[18] There were many sources of slaves. Prisoners captured in war,kidnapping, people selling theirchildren andcriminals were some of the more common sources.[19] The market price for slaves would go down after abattle in which many slaves were taken.[19] Slavery was a large part of the Greekeconomy. A slave could earnmoney and could earn enough to purchase theirfreedom.[20]Ancient Rome was even more dependent on slaves.[18]
Slavery was also a part ofmedievalEurope. Societies that did not depend on slaves were often the source of slaves. In theViking world, slavery was an important part of the economy.[21] Not only the taking of slaves inraids and battles, but also selling slaves in othermarkets.[21] The Vikings were slave traders. They captured, used, and sold slaves. Most forms of slavery declined inNorthern Europe but was practiced elsewhere in Europe. InSicily,Italy,Spain,France,Russia andNorth Africa slavery lasted through much of themiddle ages. Most of these slaves were "white" and came from other parts of Europe andEastern Europe.[18] As theNew World was colonized, slavery was a well-established source of cheap labour. By the timeColumbus came to theAmericas, Europeans had already been usingAfrican slaves in theircolonies inWest Africa.[18]
Historians estimate that between 650 AD and the 1960s, 10 to 18 million people were enslaved by theArab world. They were taken from Europe,Asia and Africa across theRed Sea,Indian Ocean, and theSaharadesert.[22] For fourcenturies, beginning in the late15th century,millions ofAfricans were taken as slaves byEuropeans.[23] They got this idea from the Arabempires which had been taking black slaves from Africa since the7th century.[22] Europeans began exporting Africans to the New World as a source of cheap labor oncolonial plantations.[23] This was called theAtlantic slave trade. Early attempts to enslaveNative Americans failed which gave rise to the African slave trade. Africans were a relatively easy source of slaves as European traders did not have to capture them, but relied on Arabs and other Africans to do it for them. Even before outside slave traders took advantage of Africans, the Africans themselves had established slave trading.[24] Theirs was not an economy based on money, but on trading. Slaves were acommodity (a substitute for money).[24]
Slaves were often sold atmarkets andauctions. Slave auctions show that slaves were not thought of as human beings withhuman rights. Instead, they were thought of asproperty, which could be bought or sold. Slaves that were for sale were often advertised in the newspapers, like today's newspapers advertise cars or houses.[25] Slave traders were even listed in public directories (like today's phone books).[26]p. 96
Slaves did not have any say in what happened to them. Many times, families were split up and sold to different owners for different amounts ofmoney. Millions of families became separated this way and never saw each other again.[27][28]
There were three types of auctions:Grab and go,May the highest bidder win, andthe scramble.
In a "grab and go"auction, a buyer would give the slave trader a certain amount of money and would get a ticket. When a drum roll sounded, the pen holding the slaves would open. The buyer would rush in and grab the slave or slaves that he wanted. He would then show his ticket to the slave trader before he left.[29]
In a "may the highest bidder win" auction, slaves would be shown to the buyers one at a time. If more than one buyer wanted a particular slave, all of the buyers would have tobid on the slave (making offers for what they were willing to pay). Slaves would be investigated by the buyer and would be forced to be poked, and tortured by the buyer. The buyer who bid the highest would be able to buy that slave for the amount of money he bid.[28][30]
In "the scramble," buyers would quickly grab whichever slaves they wanted and would take them to work.[31]
Slaves were prepared for this when the sellers put fat and tar on them to make them look more healthy.
Somewhat more convincing are statistical surveys of large numbers of societies that show that slavery is rare among hunter-gatherers, is sometimes present in incipient agricultural societies, and then becomes common among societies with more advanced agriculture. Up to this point slavery seems to increase with increasing social and economic complexity.
Summary characteristics of hunter-gatherer societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCSS). [...] Social stratification [: ...] Hereditary slavery 24% [...].
Slavery was a widespread institution in the ancient world (1200 BCE – 900 CE). Slaves could be found in simpler societies, but more important and better known was the existence of slavery in most advanced states. Indeed, it is hard to find any ancient civilizations in which some slavery did not exist. Slave use was sometimes extensive.
In Sumer, as in most ancient societies, the institution of slavery existed as an integral part of the social and economic structure. Sumer was not, however, a slavery based economy.
e.g. Prologue, "the shepherd of the oppressed and of the slaves" Code of Laws No. 307, "If any one buy from the son or the slave of another man".
For most Africans between 10000 BCE to 500 CE, the use of slaves was not an optimal political or economic strategy. But in some places, Africans came to see the value of slavery. In the large parts of the continent where Africans lived in relatively decentralized and small-scale communities, some big men used slavery to grab power to get around broader governing ideas about reciprocity and kinship, but were still bound by those ideas to some degree. In other parts of the continent early political centralization and commercialization led to expanded use use of slaves as soldiers, officials, and workers.
It is to the Neolithic period of Ghana's history that one must look for the earliest evidence of slavery. Technological advancement and dependence on agriculture created a need for labor. The available evidence indicates that around the 1st century AD farming was done by individual households consisting of blood relations, pawns, and slaves. The earliest evidence of slavery is, therefore, likely to be found in the field of agriculture." and "The retention of captives taken in battle was a recognized practice among every people before the beginning of written history. The ancient records of the Assyrians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Persians, Indians and Chinese are all full of references to slaves and types of labor for which they were usually employed. With the Greeks and the Romans, the institution of slavery reached new heights.
Between the Renaissance and the French Revolution, hundreds of thousands of Muslim men and women from the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean were forcibly transported to Western Europe.
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