What is Slavery?

There are many different kinds of slavery, but in basic terms, the practice involves owning
someone else in some manner. These owned individuals are called slaves, and they usually have
a limited amount of choice about what kinds of actions they can take and are normally forced to
perform some task for another person without any reasonable compensation. In general, a slave
becomes another person's property, and he can be used by that person for financial or personal
gain. Slavery is illegal in many parts of the world now, including the US, but there are certain
forms of slavery that are still commonly practiced.

The English word slave derives through Old French and Medieval Latin from the medieval word
for the Slavic people of Central and Eastern Europe.

Types of Slavery

In ancient societies, a lot of slavery was based around using captured soldiers during war as
forced laborers. In some cases, these prisoners were kept as slaves for the rest of their lives, and
in other situations, they were allowed to go free after a certain point. Sometimes slaves were
actually treated quite well in these sorts of arrangements, but it varied a lot from once society to
another. Keeping soldiers as slaves is still practiced in some cultures, with prisoners of war being
forced to perform different kinds of physical labor, but in ancient times, it was much more
common.

Chattel slavery is generally the most well-known form practiced historically. Chattel slaves are
treated like property, and they can be sold or bought. In most cases, chattel slaves are usually
chosen based on racial or geographical divides. This is partly because of the requirement for the
complete dehumanization of another population, which is generally easier to justify with
individuals that are deemed physically or culturally different. This is the kind of slavery that was
formerly practiced in the US prior to the Civil War.

Debt bondage is another form of slavery that is still practiced around the world. This happens
when a person gets a loan and gives up her freedom as a form of collateral. Sometimes parents
even sell their children into this kind of bondage. In theory, debt bondage ends when the loan is
paid off, but in practice, the deal is almost never so simple, and people often end up with
impossible debts to pay.

Sex slavery is another form that is still practiced commonly. Often, women are kidnapped or
tricked and forced into prostitution. In some parts of the world, women have so few rights that
their husbands or parents can push them into this kind of life. Sex slavery is illegal in most
countries, but it happens under the radar in the criminal black market. Some people consider
forced marriage a form of sex slavery and in some societies; it was historically common for
women to be treated like slaves by their husbands.

History of Slavery

Evidence of slavery predates written records, and has existed in many cultures. Slavery is rare
among hunter–gatherer populations, as slavery is a system of social stratification. Mass slavery
also requires economic surpluses and a high population density to be viable. Due to these factors,
the practice of slavery would have only proliferated after the invention of agriculture during the
Neolithic revolution about 11,000 years ago. The earliest records of slavery can be traced to the
Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760 BC), and the Bible refers to it as an established institution.
Slavery was known to occur in civilizations as old as Sumer, as well as almost every other
ancient civilization, including Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria,
Ancient India, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the Islamic Caliphate, and the pre-Columbian
civilizations of the Americas. Such institutions were a mixture of debt-slavery, punishment for
crime, the enslavement of prisoners of war, child abandonment, and the birth of slave children to
slaves. Records of slavery in Ancient Greece go as far back as Mycenaean Greece. Two-fifths
(some authorities say four-fifths) of the population of Classical Athens were slaves. Greek
philosophers such as Aristotle accepted the theory of natural slavery, that is, that some men are
slaves by nature.

As the Roman Republic expanded outward, entire populations were enslaved, thus creating an
ample supply from all over Europe and the Mediterranean. Greeks, Illyrians, Berbers, Germans,
Britons, Thracians, Gauls, Jews, Arabs, and many more were slaves used not only for labour, but
also for amusement (e.g. gladiators and sex slaves). This oppression by an elite minority
eventually led to slave revolts (see Roman Servile Wars); the Third Servile War led by Spartacus
being the most famous and severe. By the late Republican era, slavery had become a vital
economic pillar in the wealth of Rome, as well as a very significant part of Roman society. It is
estimated that over 25% of the population of Ancient Rome was enslaved. According to some
scholars, slaves represented 35% or more of Italy's population. In the city of Rome alone, under
the Roman Empire, there were about 400,000 slaves. During the millennium from the emergence
of the Roman Empire to its eventual decline, at least 100 million people were captured or sold as
slaves throughout the Mediterranean and its hinterlands.

The early medieval slave trade was mainly confined to the South and East: the Byzantine Empire
and the Muslim world were the destinations, pagan Central and Eastern Europe, along with the
Caucasus and Tartary, were important sources. Viking, Arab, Greek and Jewish merchants
(known as Radhanites) were all involved in the slave trade during the Early Middle Ages.

Medieval Spain and Portugal was the scene of almost constant warfare between Muslims and
Christians. Periodic raiding expeditions were sent from Al-Andalus to ravage the Iberian
Christian kingdoms, bringing back booty and slaves. In raid against Lisbon, Portugal in 1189, for
example, the Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur took 3,000 female and child captives, while his
governor of Córdoba, in a subsequent attack upon Silves, Portugal in 1191, took 3,000 Christian
slaves. From the 11th to the 19th century, North African Barbary Pirates engaged in Razzias,
raids on European coastal towns, to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in places
such as Algeria and Morocco.

At the time of the Domesday Book, compiled in 1086, nearly 10% of the English population was
slaves. Slavery in early medieval Europe was so common that the Roman Catholic Church
repeatedly prohibited it — or at least the export of Christian slaves to non-Christian lands was
prohibited at e.g. the Council of Koblenz (922), the Council of London (1102), and the Council
of Armagh (1171). In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting
Afonso V of Portugal the right to reduce any "Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers" to
hereditary slavery which legitimized the slave trade, at least as a result of war. The approval of
slavery under these conditions was reaffirmed and extended in his Romanus Pontifex bull of
1455. However, Pope Paul III forbade enslavement of the Indians in 1537 in his papal bull
Sublimus Dei. Dominican friars who arrived at the Spanish settlement at Santo Domingo
strongly denounced the enslavement of the local Indians. Along with other priests, they opposed
their treatment as unjust and illegal in an audience with the Spanish king and in the subsequent
royal commission.

The Byzantine-Ottoman wars and the Ottoman wars in Europe brought large numbers of
Christian slaves into the Islamic world too. After the Battle of Lepanto approximately 12,000
Christian galley slaves were freed from the Ottoman Turks. Eastern Europe suffered a series of
Tatar invasions, the goal of which was to loot and capture slaves into jasyr. Seventy-five
Crimean Tatar raids were recorded into Poland–Lithuania between 1474 and1569. There were
more than 100,000 Russian captives in the Kazan Khanate alone in 1551.

OR

Slavery enters human history with civilization. Hunter-gatherers and primitive farmers have no
use for a slave. They collect or grow just enough food for themselves. One more pair of hands is
one more mouth. There is no economic advantage in owning another human being. Once people
gather in towns and cities, a surplus of food created in the countryside (often now on large
estates) makes possible a wide range of crafts in the town. On a large farm or in a workshop
there is real benefit in a reliable source of cheap labour, costing no more than the minimum of
food and lodging. These are the conditions for slavery. Every ancient civilization uses slaves.
And it proves easy to acquire them.

War is the main source of supply, and wars are frequent and brutal in early civilizations. When a
town falls to a hostile army, it is normal to take into slavery those inhabitants who will make
useful workers and to kill the rest.

There are several other ways in which slaves are acquired. Pirates offer their captives for sale. A
criminal may be sentenced to slavery. An un-payable debt can bring the end of liberty. The
impoverished sell their own children, and the children of slaves are themselves slaves - though
with a cheap supply of labor available through war, not many owners will allow their slaves the
diversion of raising a family.
Slaves in Babylon: 18th century BC

Information about slaves in early societies relates mainly to their legal status, which is essentially
that of an object - part of the owner's valuable property. The Code of Hammurabi, from Babylon
in the 18th century BC, gives chilling details of the different Rewards and penalties for surgeons
operating on free men or slaves. But it also reveals that the system is not one of unmitigated
brutality. Surprisingly, Babylonian slaves are themselves allowed to own property.

But the first civilization in which we know a great deal about the role of slaves is that of ancient
Greece.

Slaves in Greece: from the 7th century BC

Both the leading states of Greece - Sparta and Athens - depend entirely upon forced labour,
though the system in Sparta is more properly described as serfdom rather than slavery. The
distinction is that the helots of Sparta are a conquered people, living on their own hereditary land
but forced to work it for their Spartan masters. Their existence is a traditional rural one to which
certain rights remain attached.

The slaves of Athens, by contrast, have no conventional rights. But their condition varies greatly
according to the work they do.The most unfortunate Athenian slaves are the miners, who are
driven often to the point of death by their owners (the mines are state-owned but are leased to
private managers). By contrast other categories of slaves - particularly those owned directly by
the state, such as the 300 Scythian archers who provide the police force of Athens - can acquire a
certain prestige.

The majority of Athenian slaves are domestic servants. Their fortune depends entirely on the
relationship they develop with their owners. Often it is close, with female slaves looking after the
children or acting as concubines, or a male slave running the household as a steward. No free
Athenian works in a domestic capacity, for it is considered shameful to be another man's servant.
This inhibition applies equally to a subsidiary position in any form of business. As a result male
slaves in Athens do all work of a secretarial or managerial nature, for in these contexts they are
unmistakably somebody else's personal assistant. Such jobs include positions of influence in
fields such as banking and commerce.

Slaves in Rome: from the second century BC

The same loophole, offered by the self-esteem of free citizens, provides even greater
opportunities to slaves in imperial Rome. The most privileged slaves are the secretarial staff of
the emperor.

But these are the exception. In the two centuries before the beginning of the empire (the last two
centuries BC) slaves are employed by Romans more widely than ever before and probably with
greater brutality. In the mines they are whipped into continuing effort by overseers; in the fields
they work in chain gangs; in the public arenas they are forced to engage in terrifying combat as
gladiators. There are several slave uprisings in these two centuries, the most famous of them led
by Spartacus.

Slaves in the Middle Ages: 6th - 15th century AD

In the period after the collapse of the Roman empire in the west, slavery continues in the
countries around the Mediterranean. But the slaves are employed almost exclusively in
households, offices and armies. The gang slavery characteristic of large Roman estates does not
reappear until the tobacco and cotton plantations of colonial America (one notable exception is
the salt mines of the Sahara).Nevertheless the slave trade thrives, and the Mediterranean is a
natural focal point.

More than anywhere else, the Mediterranean provides the geographical and economic
environment to encourage a slave trade. Civilized regions surround the central sea. To the north
and south stretch vast areas populated by relatively unsophisticated tribes. Border warfare results
in tribal captives being enslaved. In addition to this, market forces encourage the tribes to seize
prisoners of their own to service a developing slave trade.

During the eastward expansion of the Germans in the 10th century so many Slavs are captured
that their racial name becomes the generic term for a 'slave'. At the same period the delivery of
slaves to the Black Sea region is an important part of the early economy of Russia.
South of the Mediterranean, the dynasties of Arabs along the coast stimulate an African slave
trade. The town of Zawila develops in the Sahara in about AD 700 specifically as a trading
station for slaves. Captured in the region around Lake Chad, they are sold to Arab households in
a Muslim world which by the 8th century stretches from Spain to Persia.

The Christian Gospels make no specific mention of slavery, though slaves may be expected to
benefit from the general bias in favour of the poor and the oppressed. During the early Middle
Ages the missionaries and bishops of the Roman Catholic church argue against the ownership of
slaves in the emerging dynasties of northern Europe. At first they make little headway. But
gradually slavery disappears in western European countries - largely replaced by the serfdom of
the feudal manor.

But a new and disastrous chapter in the story of slavery begins with the arrival of the Portuguese
in west Africa in the 15th century.

Meanwhile the Muslim habit of using slaves in the army has led to one unusual result - in itself
an indication of the trust accorded to slaves in Middle Eastern communities.

In 1250 the slave leaders of the Egyptian army, known as Mamelukes, depose the sultan and
seize power. A succession of rulers from their own ranks control much of the Middle East, as the
Mameluke dynasty, for nearly three centuries.

The Portuguese slave trade: 15th - 17th century AD

The Portuguese expeditions of the 15th century bring European ships for the first time into
regular contact with sub-Saharan Africa. This region has long been the source of slaves for the
route through the Sahara to the Mediterranean. The arrival of the Portuguese opens up another
channel. Nature even provides a new collection point for this human cargo. The volcanic Cape
Verde Islands, with their rocky and forbidding coastlines, are uninhabited. But they contain lush
tropical valleys. And they are well placed on the sea routes between West Africa, Europe and
America.
Portuguese settlers move into the Cape Verde islands in about 1460. In 1466 they are given an
economic advantage which guarantees their prosperity. They are granted a monopoly of a new
slave trade. On the coast of Guinea the Portuguese are now setting up trading stations to buy
captive Negroes. Some of these slaves are used to work the settlers' estates in the Cape Verde
islands. Others are sent north for sale in Madeira, or in Portugal and Spain - where Seville now
becomes an important market. Negroes have been imported by this sea route into Europe since at
least 1444, when one of Henry the Navigator's expeditions returns with slaves exchanged for
Moorish prisoners.

The labour of the slaves in the Cape Verde Islands primes a profitable trade with the African
region which becomes known as Portuguese Guinea or the Slave Coast. The slaves work in the
Cape Verde plantations, growing cotton and indigo in the fertile valleys. They are also employed
in weaving and dying factories, where these commodities are transformed into cloth.

The cloth is exchanged in Guinea for slaves. And the slaves are sold for cash to the slaving ships
which pay regular visits to the Cape Verde Islands.

This African trade, together with the prosperity of the Cape Verde Islands, expands greatly with
the development of labour-intensive plantations growing sugar, cotton and tobacco in the
Caribbean and America. The Portuguese enforce a monopoly of the transport of African slaves to
their own colony of Brazil. But other nations with transatlantic interests soon become the main
visitors to the Slave Coast.

By the 18th century the majority of the ships carrying out this appalling commerce are British.
They waste no part of their journey, having evolved the procedure known as the triangular trade.

Triangular trade: 18th century AD

The triangular trade has an economic elegance most attractive to the owners of the slave ships.
Each of the three separate journeys making up an expedition is profitable in its own right, with
only the 'middle voyage' across the Atlantic involving slaves as cargo.Ships depart from
Liverpool or Bristol with items in demand in west Africa - these include firearms, alcohol
(particularly rum), cotton goods, metal trinkets and beads. The goods are eagerly awaited by
traders in ports around the Gulf of Guinea. These traders have slaves on offer, captured in the
African interior and now awaiting transport to America.

With the first exchange of merchandise completed, the slaves are packed into the vessels in
appalling conditions for the Atlantic crossing. They are crammed below decks, shackled, badly
fed and terrified. It is estimated that as many as twelve million Africans are embarked on this
journey during the course of the Atlantic slave trade, and that one in six dies before reaching the
West Indies - where the main slave markets on the American side of the ocean are located.

The most valuable product of the West Indies, molasses extracted from sugar cane, is purchased
for the last leg of the triangle. Back in England the molasses can be transformed into rum. And
so it goes on.

The abolitionist movement: AD 1688-1808

The horrors of the slave trade do not go unnoticed in England, however hard the traders try to
justify their activities (even, preposterously, proclaiming the care and consideration which they
show to their precious cargo).

The first sharp prick to the public's conscience comes in 1688 with the publication of Aphra
Behn's novel Oroonoko (about the sufferings of an African prince and his loved one, transported
by the English to slavery in Surinam). By this time the Quakers are already prominent in their
condemnation of this inhuman trade, with the society's founder, George Fox, speaking strongly
against it. In 1772 there is a landmark case when Lord Mansfield frees James Somerset,
belonging to an American master, on the grounds that he has set foot in England.Shortly
afterwards, at the time of the American colonies' fight for independence, the Quakers again give
a lead. The clamour for freedom, expressed so powerfully in the Declaration of Independence,
can be seen as inconsistent in a population with a large Negro minority which is not in any sense
free. The issue is starkly shown when the British troops fire on patriots in the Boston massacre of
1770; the first man to fall in this demonstration for freedom is a slave, Crispus Attucks.

In 1774 Quakers in Britain decide to expel any member involved in the slave trade. In the same
year Quakers in Pennsylvania sets up the first abolitionist society, and in 1776 the Pennsylvania
Quakers free their own slaves. The first state to abolish slavery is Massachussetts, in its new
constitution of 1780. Other northern states follow suit during the next few years.

But the southern states are determined to retain slavery, which is claimed to be an economic
necessity (this rift becomes evident in the constitutional convention in Philadelphia). As a result
the abolitionists concentrate their efforts on abolishing the trade in slaves, assuming that this will
have the gradual effect of ending slavery itself.

A book of 1786 by Thomas Clarkson (Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human
Species) is followed by the foundation in London in 1787 of the Society for the Abolition of the
Slave Trade, with Quakers again predominant. William Wilberforce emerges as the champion of
the cause in parliament.

By a coincidence the slave trade is declared illegal on both sides of the Atlantic in 1807. In
America the constitutional congress has agreed in 1787, under pressure from the southern states,
that no law on slavery will be passed for twenty years. As soon as the agreed time is up,
legislation is enacted - outlawing the slave trade from 1 January 1808. Meanwhile in London in
1807 parliament prohibits the carrying of slaves in any British ship and the import of slaves into
any British colony.

These prove hollow victories. Enough children are now being born into slavery to work the
plantations, even in the rapidly expanding cotton economy of the southern states. The new cause
must be the abolition of slavery itself.

The political issue of slavery: AD 1819-1850

Slavery has been a major area of disagreement between the northern and southern states ever
since the first compromise is achieved on the issue at the constitutional convention of 1787. It
becomes a particularly hot political issue in 1819 during congressional debates on the application
of Missouri for statehood.

Settled largely from neighboring Kentucky, Missouri contains many slaves on the plantations. In
1819 a New York congressman, James Tallmadge, proposes an amendment to the Missouri bill
to the effect that no further slaves shall be brought into the state and that children of existing
slaves shall be freed at the age of twenty-five.

The house of representatives, with a preponderance of congressmen from the more populous
north, passes the Tallmadge amendment. In the senate, where eleven southern and eleven
northern states have two senators each, the amendment fails to win a majority. It is an issue of
great importance since the two new senators of a 'free' or a 'slave' state will tip the existing
balance one way or the other.

The impasse is broken by another in the series of practical compromises on this contentious
issue. It is agreed in 1820 that the district of Maine will be separated from Massachusetts to
become an independent free state, the 23rd in the union. Missouri, with its slaves, follows in
1821 as the 24th. The balance is kept in the senate.

The Missouri Compromise, as the measures of 1820 become known, includes one other clause
passed separately by congress. This legislates in advance for the territory beyond Missouri,
stating that no more slave states shall be admitted to the union north of latitude 36.30 (the
continuation of the southern boundary of Missouri).The compromise holds good for the next
thirty years, during which an equal number of new slave and free states enter the union
(Arkansas, Florida and Texas in the south, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin in the north). But in
1849 the issue returns. California applies to join the union as a free state. For the first time since
1820 the southern states are in danger of being outvoted in the senate.This time the compromise
patched together is more complex, consisting of five separate agreements passed during 1850.
Concessions to the north include the key issue of Californian admission to the union as a free
state; and the banning of the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in the nation's capital city,
Washington, and the surrounding district of Columbia.

Concessions to the south are the promise that when New Mexico and Utah are ready for
statehood, they may enter the union either with or without slavery; the federal payment of $10
million dollars of Texan debt; and new and more stringent Fugitive Slave Laws.
The Fugitive Slave Laws, passed in 1793, have been a continuing cause of local friction. They
allow southern slave owners to reclaim escaped slaves found in northern states. Northern
magistrates have often made a policy of deliberately frustrating the slave owners' legal rights in
this respect. The Fugitive Slave Laws of 1850 attempt to prevent this (though in practice they
have the opposite effect, prompting northern states to pass new laws safeguarding liberty).

It is believed by many that the Compromise of 1850 will resolve the thorny issue. It does nothing
of the kind. Within four years the question of Kansas escalates the crisis.

Emancipation Proclamation: AD 1862-1863

President Lincoln has undertaken the Civil War intending only to preserve the Union. His
purpose, and that of the Republican party, has never been to end slavery in the southern states.
But two costly and inconclusive years of war begin to alter his opinion.

There are several reasons. The abolitionist lobby in the north is passionate and vocal. Increasing
resentment at the southern states, begetters of this painful conflict, lessens any inclination to
protect their supposed rights as slave-owners. And a new moral dimension added to the Union
war aims is likely to bring its own diplomatic and political benefits.

Liberal opinion in Britain, where the government often seems inclined to support the south, will
be impressed by an anti-slavery crusade. And flagging domestic acceptance of the war will be
refreshed by an injection of idealism, particularly in the cause with which Americans identify
most powerfully - that of liberty. Lincoln decides, in the summer of 1862, to make the
emancipation of the slaves a central plank of his policy. But this summer, bringing successive
defeats in Virginia of Union armies, seems not the right moment. It is important that such an
important announcement shall not seem to be made in desperation.
The president is given his opportunity when the engagement at Antietam, in September 1862,
can be presented as a Union success on the battlefield. Five days later he issues a preliminary
proclamation. It states that if the Confederate states have not laid down their arms by the end of
the year, he will declare their slaves to be free.Naturally the states fail to respond, so on 1
January 1863 Lincoln issues his Emancipation Proclamation. It declares that all people held in
slavery in the rebel states are now free; it urges them to refrain from violence; and it announces
that freed slaves will be welcome to serve in the US army and navy.

Most of this is as yet only of symbolic relevance. No slaves are formally freed anywhere, since
the proclamation does not apply to slave states fighting on the Union side (where Lincoln cannot
as yet afford to offend their owners). Nevertheless many southern slaves take the opportunity to
flee to the north. By the end of the war about 180,000 Negroes have joined the armed forces,
greatly boosting Union military strength.

And the symbolic effect is enormous. The struggle now has a high moral purpose. The attitude of
the slaves is transformed, whether in Union or Confederate states, by the knowledge that a Union
victory will be followed by freedom.

Political Economy of Slavery