Unfortunately, the origins of slavery predate historical recording and the written word. Therefore, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact year that slavery began. However, historians can trace the roots back roughly 11,ooo years. Slavery was not apart of hunter-gatherer societies. The first identifiable evidence of slavery is found in the Code of Hammurabi out of Mesopotamia. The ancient texts talk about slavery as a common practice that had been in place for thousands of years. It's interesting to note that the practice of human slavery grew the more humans became more organized and cities were created. It is believed that Summer or Sumeria is the birthplace of slavery. It is believed that the Ancient East didn't adopt slavery until as late as the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC. It is unclear exactly when India began the practice of slavery due to no word in ancient Sanskrit that can be translated as 'slave'.
In ancient times people typically found themselves as slaves due to debt, being born into a slave family, child abandonment, war, or as a punishment for crime. The key characteristics of slavery are the loss of freedom of movement and legal rights. Slavery didn't start out as the booming business it ended up being at the height of the American slave trade. Slavers would seek out buyers who needed specific skills of a slave and matched supply with demand on a local and personal level. In fact, many historical texts describe the lives of slaves in early years as better than peasants. This is due to them being provided with regular care, food, shelter and clothing. Slaves rarely ran away. Although slavery developed for a number of reasons one primary reason was due to the need for a large workforce. The more people you had working for you the more you can produce. However, the problem is you also have to pay them, unless you make them a slave then you have free labor and you maximize profits.
The 1st true 'slave society' is probably ancient Greece. This is the 1st time we see the majority of the economy dependent on slave labor. Slaves made up 1/3 of the total population. The wealthier classes looked down on manual labor with distain, much like they do today. Although they were offered a chance for freedom, they were not allowed to become full citizens and the majority still had obligations to their former masters. There is some evidence of the ethics of slavery being questioned, but as Greece declined and Rome expanded so did slavery. At its height the Roman empire had up to 30% of the total population enslaved with the majority being made up of conquered people. This is also where we start to see slavery being used as 'sport' rather than labor such as gladiatorial fights and large-scale brothels. There was strict rules around slavery and harsh punishments for slaves who revolted, however it was not uncommon to have slave revolts during this time. Slaves could also operate as skilled craftsmen and women such as hairdressers, painters and tutors to young children. The main difference between Rome and Greece is freed slaves were allowed to become full Roman citizens with rights. As we all know when Rome fell the dark ages began. There's no clear records of what happened to all the slaves but the market for them all but disappeared. We do know that during the Anglo-Saxon years slavery was still prevalent.
Vikings would invade and conquer large portions of land, and although they left no written records there is plenty of archaeological evidence of slave markets. Years prior to its links with the Transatlantic Slave trade, Bristol had a thriving Viking slave market. Most of the Viking slaves were captives or spoils of war and raids. Slaves had no rights and were treated similarly to cattle and murdered at random for fun or ritual acts. Many slaves were beheaded and female slaves were frequently raped so they could be sold at markets as a '2 for 1' deal. After the conquest of Britain by William the Conqueror in 1066, the Doomsday book was commissioned to survey the land for tax reasons. It showed that 10% of the British population were slaves. Although in 1102 the church officially condemned slavery, it held no legislative power to act and the slave market thrived. There were still many that openly spoke out about it and by the 1200's slavery by its old definition had completely died out in the British Isles.
`As 'traditional' slavery saw its decline, we see something else begin to emerge in the British Isles and in feudal Europe. Serfs became the new slave. Unlike slaves of the past these new citizens were no longer classed as property and were entitled to protection and justice. However, they still were not allowed free movement and they were debt-bonded to their lord and legally tied to the land. They couldn't move around without their lords consent and in return for shelter they had to pay tribute in the form of cash or labor. Even if they grew their own food such as corn, they still had to pay the Lord to use the mill he owned so they could grind it. Serfdom lasted a few centuries. Then the 'Black Death' in the 14th Century happened and severely reduced the population and created a high demand for workers. The reduced population naturally meant the demand for workers were high. Unfortunately for the Lords the serfs were able to negotiate their freedom and their wages. The black death transformed feudal lords into landlords and the end of feudal dues. However, serfdom did survive in Eastern Europe and Russia until the 19th century.
The Middle ages brought a dramatic change to slavery. global warfare, raiding and conquering spanned continents. Naturally this caused chaos and confusion. Citizens of conquered regions were taken as slaves and transported across many miles. The true begining of the global slave trade can be traced back to King Charlemagne at the outset of the Middle Ages. The war and violence he used during his campaings involved taking slaves and selling them to the highest bidders. During his reign European slaves became wildly popular throughout Muslim countries. Vikings were also taking slaves across Europe, primarily on the British Isles. Spain and Portugal were constantly in a state of Holy War with Muslims that led to many women and children being taken into slavery in the name of God or Allah.
The Islamic invasions of India resulted in the enslavement of hundreds of thousands of Indians. Documents show that royals from the Tang Dynasty purchased many European and Jewish slaves. The soldiers and pirates who serve the Tang Dynasy also took countless slaves in raids on Korea, Turkey, Persia and Indonesia as well as thousands of slaves taken from indigenous Aboriginal tribes.
As cultures grew and changed so did slavery. During the colonial era Indentured servitude was the new form of slavery. This was a contract that involved a person entering a fixed term of servitude for a certain number of years. Prisoners could escape capital punishment by agreeing to be an indentured servant for 7 years or more in the colonies. You could also gain passage to America by agreeing to be an indentured servant. It was typically the poorest in society that entered into this type of slavery. During their service they were bonded to their 'master' and their freedoms were restricted, they could not marry without consent, couldn't move around freely, didn't receive the same level of justice as a non-indentured person, and if a female indentured servant became pregnant during the contract 9 months plus was added to the end to fulfil her labor requirements. This carried on alongside the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the 17th, 18th and partly into the 19th centuries. As the workforce of indentured slaves declined a new labor force was found.
When it comes to Africa, Slavery has been around for thousands of years. Many African rulers had regular trade with Europeans for goods and materials that weren't found locally. The Portuguese were the 1st 'Western' slavers in Africa and with the support of the Papal they captured the African port of Ceuta in 1415. The slave trade of native Africans was small during the 15th century due to the Portuguese and Spanish enslaving the native people of central and southern America. However, once these natives began dying out in large numbers due to European diseases they began looking for alternative sources of manual labor. The enterprise that can be argued to of kick started the Transatlantic Slave Trade is Large scale sugar production around Brazil. Between the early 1400's to the mid-17th Century, it was the Spanish and Portuguese that pioneered and dominated the slave trade. The British didn't establish any colonies until the mid to late 17th century so they stuck with easier markets. Between 1570 to 1640, Britain only made 3 slave trading voyages. Once Spain and Britain maintained peace Britain started to really scale up their slave trading with their colonies in the Caribbean and Americas. However, most of the early slaves weren't African, they were European. In fact, 75% of 17th century emigrants were indentured servants. Tobacco and sugar both required a large labor force and demand for both grew greatly with time. The Royal African Company was founded in 1672 and had a monopoly on the trade until 1698. As their monopoly ended, the transatlantic slave trade was taken over by British merchants. Between 1720-1740 Bristol was a major port for the trade where they shipped goods to Africa in exchange for slaves and importing goods from the Americas. Liverpool eventually took over as the dominant port until abolition in the early 19th century. There was an estimated 3.4 million Africans taken from their homeland and shipped across the Atlantic.
There was other slave trades going on during this time including the Barbary pirate raids on various European countries. Regular people were forcibly removed from sea ports and villages and taken to northern Africa. It's estimated up to 1.2 million Europeans were enslaved between 1500 to 1900 and lost in the Ottoman empire. The trade declined after the United States, Great Britain and other European nations fought a war against the pirates in the early 19th century, and finally ended after France conquered and colonized the North African region. Throughout the 19th century slavery began to disappear from western nations and wasn't fully outlawed globally until the 20th century with the UN resolution, however a few countries still kept the practice up to the 1980's. Admittedly, slavery has evolved and has become a game of smuggling in the shadows and quite a lucrative trade to this day, with the majority of its victims being women involved in sex trafficking. There is an estimated 40million victims of slavery today.
So, where do we go from hear. Yes, Most of the world has agreed slavery is wrong and yes there is still slavery going on around the world. However, I would like to address something that is quite controversial. Capitalism and just how it fits into the history of slavery. In fact some would go so far as to say, 'Capitalism is a watered down form of slavery.' However you want to look at it, you can't deny the similarities in modern day capitalism and ancient day slavery.
