View source for Slavery

{{Short description|Ownership of people as property}}
{{Redirect2|Slave|Slaves}}
{{Redirect|Slave master|other uses|Slave Master (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Slave labour|the Banksy artwork|Slave Labour (mural)}}
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{{Use Oxford spelling|date=August 2016}}
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[[File:Scourged_back_by_McPherson_&_Oliver,_1863,_retouched.jpg|right|thumb|242x242px|[[Peter (enslaved man)|Peter]], a slave from [[Louisiana in the American Civil War|Louisiana]], in 1863. The scars are the result of a whipping by his overseer.]]
{{Slavery}}

'''Slavery''' is the [[ownership]] of a person as [[property]], especially in regards to their labour.<ref>{{cite book |last=Allain |first=Jean |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=62t3a5iESy8C}} |title=The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-19-164535-8 |editor1-last=Allain |editor1-first=Jean |location=Oxford |pages=199–219 |chapter=The Legal Definition of Slavery into the Twenty-First Century |url-access=subscription}}</ref> It is an economic phenomenon and its history resides in economic history.<ref name="harper1">{{cite book |last1=Harper |first1=Kyle |title=Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275-425 |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107640818 |page=11|quote=Slavery is an economic phenomenon, and a history of slavery must be situated within the economic history of the ancient world.}}</ref> Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. '''Enslavement''' is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a '''slave''' or an '''enslaved person'''.

Many historical cases of enslavement occurred as a result of breaking the law, becoming indebted, suffering a military defeat, or exploitation for cheaper labor; other forms of slavery were instituted along demographic lines such as [[Racism|race]] or [[sex]]. Slaves would be kept in bondage for life, or for a fixed period of time after which they would be [[Manumission|granted freedom]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Baker-Kimmons |first=Leslie C. |chapter=Slavery |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMUola6pDnkC&pg=PT1360 |title=Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society |volume=3 |page=1234 |editor-first=Richard T. |editor-last=Schaefer |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |date=2008 |isbn=9781412926942}}</ref> Although slavery is usually involuntary and involves coercion, there are also cases where people [[voluntary slavery|voluntarily enter into slavery]] to pay a debt or earn money due to [[poverty]]. In the course of [[human history]], slavery was a typical feature of [[civilization]],<ref name="ebhellie" /> and existed in most societies throughout history,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pargas |first1=Damian |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery throughout History |date=2023 |publisher=Palgrave MacMillan |isbn=978-3031132629 |chapter=Introduction: Historicizing and Spatializing Global Slavery}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Engerman |editor1-first=Stanley |editor2-last=Paquette |editor2-first=Robert |editor3-last=Drescher |editor3-first=Seymour |title=Slavery (Oxford Reader)|date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780192893024 |page=1 |edition=Reprinted |quote=By the end of the twentieth century, slavery was no longer legally or morally acceptable anywhere in the world. Only two centuries ago, slavery was still among the most ubiquitous institutions in human societies, and had existed in most times and places throughout history.}}</ref> but it is now [[Abolition of slavery timeline|outlawed]] in most countries of the world, except as a [[penal labor|punishment for a crime]].{{sfn|Bales|2004|p=4}}<ref name="WhiteWhite2014">{{cite book |last1=White |first1=Shelley K. |first2=Jonathan M. |last2=White |first3=Kathleen Odell |last3=Korgen |title=Sociologists in Action on Inequalities: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=GsruAwAAQBAJ|page=43}} |date=2014 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-4833-1147-0 |page=43}}</ref> In general there were two types of slavery throughout human history: domestic and productive.<ref name="ebhellie" />

In '''chattel slavery''', the slave is legally rendered the [[personal property]] (chattel) of the slave owner. In economics, the term '''de facto slavery''' describes the conditions of [[unfree labour]] and [[forced labour]] that most slaves endure.<ref name="newint">{{cite web |title=Slavery in the 21st century |url=http://www.newint.org/issue337/facts.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527095857/http://www.newint.org/issue337/facts.htm |archive-date=May 27, 2010 |access-date=August 29, 2010 |publisher=Newint.org}}</ref> In 2019, approximately 40 million people, of whom 26% were children, were still enslaved throughout the world despite slavery being illegal. In the modern world, more than 50% of slaves provide [[forced labour]], usually in the factories and [[sweatshop]]s of the [[private sector]] of a country's economy.<ref>{{cite web |first1=Kate |last1=Hodal |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200 |title=One in 200 people is a slave. Why? |date=May 31, 2016 |work=[[The Guardian]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430012324/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200 |archive-date=April 30, 2019}}</ref> In industrialised countries, [[human trafficking]] is a modern variety of slavery; in non-industrialised countries, people in [[debt bondage]] are common,<ref name="newint"/> others include captive [[Domestic worker|domestic servants]], people in [[forced marriage]]s, and [[military use of children|child soldiers]].<ref name="modernslavery">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/modern_1.shtml#section_2 |title=Religion & Ethics – Modern slavery: Modern forms of slavery |publisher=[[BBC]] |date=January 30, 2007 |access-date=June 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106012011/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/modern_1.shtml#section_2 |archive-date=January 6, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 
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== Etymology{{anchor|Types}} ==
The word ''{{lang|en|slave}}'' was borrowed into [[Middle English]] through the [[Old French]] {{lang|fro|esclave}} which ultimately derives from [[Byzantine Greek]] {{lang|grc-x-byzant|σκλάβος}} ({{lang|grc-latn|sklábos}}) or {{lang|grc-x-byzant|εσκλαβήνος}} ({{lang|grc-latn|ésklabḗnos}}).

According to the widespread view, which has been known since the 18th century, the Byzantine {{lang|grc-x-byzant|Σκλάβινοι}} ({{lang|grc-latn|Sklábinoi}}), {{lang|grc-x-byzant|Έσκλαβηνοί}} ({{lang|grc-latn|Ésklabēnoí}}), borrowed from a Slavic tribe self-name *Slověne, turned into {{lang|grc-x-byzant|σκλάβος}}, {{lang|grc-x-byzant|εσκλαβήνος}} ([[Late Latin]] sclāvus) in the meaning 'prisoner of war slave', 'slave' in the 8th/9th century, because they often became captured and enslaved.<ref name=":0">{{cite encyclopedia |dictionary=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |edition=2nd |year=1989 |title=slave}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jankowiak |first1=Marek |title=What Does the Slave Trade in the Saqaliba Tell Us about Early Islamic Slavery? |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |date=February 2017 |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=169–172 |doi=10.1017/S0020743816001240 |doi-access=free| issn = 0020-7438 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The international slave trade |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/slavery-sociology/The-international-slave-trade |work=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>{{sfn|Lewis|1992|loc=Chapter 1}} However this version has been disputed since the 19th century.<ref>{{cite book |first=Friedrich |last=Kluge |author-link=Friedrich Kluge |title=Etymologisches Wörterbuch Der Deutschen Sprache |language=de |trans-title=Etymological dictionary of the German language |year=1899 |chapter=Artikel Sklave |trans-chapter=Article Slave |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/etymologisches00klug/page/366/mode/2up |edition=6 |location=Strassburg |publisher=Trübner|page=366}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Fyodor |last=Dostoevsky |author-link=Fyodor Dostoevsky |editor=В. Г. Базанов и др., ИРЛИ |script-title=ru:Полное собрание сочинений. В 30 томах |language=ru |title=Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy. V 30 tomakh |trans-title=Full composition of writings. In 30 volumes |volume=23. Дневник писателя за 1876 год. Май-октябрь |year=1981 |entry=Самое последнее слово цивилизации |url=https://russian-literature.org/tom/416481 |location=Leningrad |publisher=Наука. Ленингр. отд-ние |pages=63, 382 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520190356/http://russian-literature.org/tom/416481 |archive-date=May 20, 2018}}</ref>

An alternative contemporary hypothesis suggests that [[Medieval Latin]] {{lang|la-x-medieval|sclāvus}} via {{lang|la|*scylāvus}} derives from Byzantine {{lang|grc-x-byzant|σκυλάω}} ({{lang|grc-latn|skūláō}}, {{lang|grc-latn|skyláō}}) or {{lang|grc-x-byzant|σκυλεύω}} ({{lang|grc-latn|skūleúō}}, {{lang|grc-latn|skyleúō}}) with the meaning "to strip the enemy (killed in a battle)" or "to make booty / extract spoils of war".<ref>{{cite journal |first=Georg |last=Korth |author-link=Georg Korth |year=1970 |title=Zur Etymologie des Wortes 'Slavus' (Sklave) |trans-title=On the etymology of the word 'Slavus' (slave) |language=de |journal=Glotta, Zeitschrift für Griechische und Lateinische Sprache |volume=48 |issue=1/2 |location=Göttingen |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG) |pages=145–153 |jstor=40266114}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Friedrich |last=Kluge |author-link=Friedrich Kluge |editor=Elmar Seebold |title=Etymologisches Wörterbuch Der Deutschen Sprache |language=de |trans-title= |year=1989 |chapter=Artikel Sklave |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/f.-kluge-etymologisches-worterbuch-der-deutschen-sprache-berlin-de-gruyter-1989/page/676/mode/2up |edition=22 |location=Berlin & New York |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |page=676 |isbn=3-11-006800-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Gerhard |last=Köbler |author-link=Gerhard Köbler |year=1995 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/gerhard-kobler-deutsches-etymologisches-worterbuch-1995/page/370/mode/2up |chapter=Sklave |language=de |trans-chapter=Slave |title=Deutsches Etymologisches Rechtswörterbuch |trans-title=German Etymological Legal Dictionary |location=Tübingen |publisher=Mohr |page=371 |isbn=978-3-8252-1888-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Scholten |author-link=Daniel Scholten |year=2020 |url=https://www.belleslettres.eu/content/wortkunde/sklave-slawe.php |chapter=Sklave und Slawe |language=de |trans-chapter=Slave and Slav |title=Deutsch für Dichter und Denker: Unsere Muttersprache in neuem Licht |trans-title=German for poets and thinkers: Our mother tongue in a new light |publisher=Bright Star Books |isbn=978-3-948287-06-1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024064810/https://www.belleslettres.eu/content/wortkunde/sklave-slawe.php |archive-date=October 24, 2020}}</ref> This version has been criticized as well.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Byzantinoslavica |last=Ditten |first=Hans |publisher=Academia, de l'Academie Tchecoslovaque des Sciences et Lettres |year=1972 |location=Prague |url=https://archive.org/details/byz-slav-30-1969/ByzSlav%2033%20%281972%29/page/183/mode/2up |volume=33 |pages=183–184 |entry=Kritik an G. Korth}}</ref>

== Terminology ==
There is no consensus among historians about whether terms such as "[[unfree labour]]er" or "enslaved person", rather than "slave", should be used when describing the victims of slavery.<ref name="ebhellie" /> According to those proposing a change in terminology, ''slave'' perpetuates the crime of slavery in language by reducing its victims to a nonhuman noun instead of "carry[ing] them forward as people, not the property that they were" (see also ''[[People-first language]]''). Other historians prefer ''slave'' because the term is familiar and shorter, or because it accurately reflects the inhumanity of slavery, with ''person'' implying a degree of autonomy that slavery does not allow.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_history_of_american_slavery/2015/05/historians_debate_whether_to_use_the_term_slave_or_enslaved_person.html?wpsrc=sp_all_native_by-section |title=Slave or Enslaved Person? It's not just an academic debate for historians of American slavery |last=Waldman |first=Katy |date=May 19, 2015 |website=[[Slate (website)|Slate]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150521212600/http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_history_of_american_slavery/2015/05/historians_debate_whether_to_use_the_term_slave_or_enslaved_person.html?wpsrc=sp_all_native_by-section |archive-date=May 21, 2015 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

=== Chattel slavery ===
[[File:Sale of negroes 1860.jpg|thumb|upright|A poster for a slave auction in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], U.S., 1860]]
[[File:Slaves Zadib Yemen 13th century BNF Paris.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|13th-century slave market in [[Yemen]]<ref>{{Cite news |title=Slaves in Saudi |volume=5 |issue=61 |url=http://archive.thedailystar.net/2004/07/27/d40727150297.htm |access-date=February 7, 2021 |newspaper=[[The Daily Star (Bangladesh)|The Daily Star]] |first=Naeem |last=Mohaiemen |date=July 27, 2004}}</ref>]]
[[File:Woman with enslaved girl, New Orleans 1850s.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of an older woman in [[New Orleans]] with her enslaved servant girl in the mid-19th century]]

As a social institution, chattel slavery classes slaves as ''chattels'' ([[personal property]]) owned by the enslaver; like livestock, they can be bought and sold at will.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brace |first=Laura |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=osZnIiqDd4sC|page=162}} |title=The Politics of Property: Labour, Freedom and Belonging |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7486-1535-3 |page=162|access-date=May 31, 2012}}</ref> [[Chattel slavery]] was historically the normal form of slavery worldwide and was practiced in places such as [[slavery in ancient Greece|classical Greece]] and the [[Slavery in ancient Rome|Roman Empire]], where it was considered a keystone of society.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Keith Bradley |title=slavery, Roman |url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-7311 |website=[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |access-date=June 27, 2023 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.7311 |date=March 7, 2016 |isbn=978-0-19-938113-5 |quote=chattel-slavery, whereby the slave‐owner enjoyed complete mastery (dominium) over the slave's physical being […] was evident throughout the central era of Roman history, and in Roman no less than Greek thought was regarded as both the necessary antithesis of civic freedom}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://chs.harvard.edu/curated-article/snowden-lectures-keith-bradley-the-bitter-chain-of-slavery/ |title='The Bitter Chain of Slavery': Reflections on Slavery in Ancient Rome |publisher=[[Harvard University]] |last=Bradley |first=Keith |date=November 2, 2020 |access-date=November 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411063656/https://chs.harvard.edu/curated-article/snowden-lectures-keith-bradley-the-bitter-chain-of-slavery/ |archive-date=April 11, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Finley |first=Moses I. |title=Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology |publisher=Viking Press |year=1980 |isbn=9780670122776 |pages=71 |language=EN}}</ref> 
Other examples include the institution of [[history of slavery in the Muslim world|slavery in the Muslim world]] such as [[Slavery in Egypt|Medieval Egypt]],<ref name=Alexander>{{cite journal |date=2001 |doi=10.1080/00438240120047627 |first=J. |jstor=00438243 |language=en |last=Alexander |number=1 |page=51 |periodical=[[World Archaeology]] |quote=Chattel-slaves were needed, especially from the ninth to thirteenth centuries, in the gold and emerald (carbuncle) mines of the Wadi Allaqi in the deserts east of the Nile’s  2nd Cataract |title=Islam, Archaeology and Slavery in Africa |volume=33}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> as well as Subsaharan Africa,<ref>{{cite book|author1=Burkholder, Mark A.|author2=Johnson, Lyman L.|chapter=1. America, Iberia, and Africa Before the Conquest|date=2019|edition=10th|language=en|page=10|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|quote=Wealth rested heavily on the possession of slaves across the large empires of West Africa as well as in Benin and other kingdoms […] Slave owners in sub-Saharan Africa also employed their chattel in a variety of occupations.|title=Colonial Latin America}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> Brazil, the [[Antebellum South|Antebellum United States]], and parts of the Caribbean such as Cuba and Haiti.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bergad |first=Laird W. |title=The Comparative Histories of Slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the United States |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |isbn=9780521872355 |location=New York |pages=57,132,165,166 |language=EN}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Slavery and Social Death : A Comparative Study |first=Orlando |title=Patterson |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1982 |isbn=9780674986909 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |pages=X |language=EN}}</ref>  
The Iroquois enslaved others in ways that "looked very like chattel slavery."<ref>{{cite book |author1=[[Wendy Warren]] |date=2016 |edition=1st. |language=en |pages=110–111 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=978-0-87140-672-9|quote=the Iroquois confederacy, people who practiced a form of captive taking that in some ways looked very like chattel slavery |title=New England Bound}}</ref>

Beginning in the 18th century, a series of [[abolitionist]] movements in Europe and the Americas saw slavery as a violation of the slaves' rights as people ("[[all men are created equal]]"), and sought to abolish it. Abolitionism encountered extreme resistance but was eventually successful. Several of the states of the United States began abolishing slavery during the American Revolutionary War. 
After the [[French Revolution]], the government of France abolished slavery in 1794, but Napoleon reintroduced it in 1802 and permanent abolition did not occur until 1848. 
In much of the [[British Empire]], slavery was subject to abolition in 1833, throughout the United States it was abolished in 1865 as a result of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], which was fought after the attempted secession of the South in order to protect its "Peculiar Institution" (I.e. slavery).  In Cuba slavery was abolished in 1886. The last country in the Americas to abolish slavery was Brazil, [[Slavery in Brazil|in 1888]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/slavery/contemporary/essay-chattel-slavery.html |title=Traditional or Chattel Slavery |website=FSE Project |publisher=The Feminist Sexual Ethics Project |access-date=August 31, 2014 }}</ref>

Chattel slavery survived longest in [[history of slavery in the Muslim world|the Middle East]]. After the [[Atlantic slave trade|trans-Atlantic slave trade]] had been suppressed, the ancient [[trans-Saharan slave trade]], the [[Indian Ocean slave trade]] and the [[Red Sea slave trade]] continued to traffic slaves from the African continent to the Middle East. 

During the 20th century, the issue of chattel slavery was addressed and investigated globally by international bodies created by the [[League of Nations]] and the [[United Nations]] (UN), such as the [[Temporary Slavery Commission]] in 1924–1926, the [[Committee of Experts on Slavery]] in 1932, and the [[Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery]] in 1934–1939.<ref name="Miers, S. 2003">Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. USA: AltaMira Press.</ref> By the time of the UN [[Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery]] in 1950–1951, legal chattel slavery still existed only in the Arabian Peninsula: [[Slavery in Oman|in Oman]], [[Slavery in Qatar|in Qatar]], [[Slavery in Saudi Arabia|in Saudi Arabia]], [[Slavery in the Trucial States|in the Trucial States]] and [[Slavery in Yemen|in Yemen]].<ref name="Miers, S. 2003"/>  Legal chattel slavery was finally abolished in the Arabian Peninsula in the 1960s: Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 1962, in Dubai in 1963, and Oman as the last in 1970.<ref name="Miers, S. 2003"/>

The last country to abolish slavery, [[Mauritania]], [[Slavery in Mauritania|did so in 1981]]. While slavery had technically been banned by colonial France in French West Africa (including Mauritania) already in 1905,<ref name="Ghanem">{{cite web|url=http://www.onislam.net/english/politics/africa/438414 |title=Slavery in Mauritania Emancipating the Free |date=21 August 2007 |website=Onislam.net |last1=Ghanem |first1=Omar |access-date=28 October 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028173723/http://www.onislam.net/english/politics/africa/438414 |archive-date=28 October 2014 }}</ref> this had been a purely nominal ban. The 1981 ban on slavery was not enforced in practice, as legal mechanisms to prosecute those who used slaves were not implemented until 2007.<ref name="NYER-2014" /><ref name=BBC>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6938032.stm | work=[[BBC News]] | title=Mauritanian MPs pass slavery law | date=9 August 2007 | access-date=2010-05-23}}</ref>

=== Bonded labour ===
{{Main|Debt bondage}}
{{See also|Money marriage|Chukri system}}

Indenture, also known as bonded labour or debt bondage, is a form of unfree labour in which a person works to pay off a debt by pledging themself as collateral. The services required to repay the debt, and their duration, may be undefined. Debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation, with children required to pay off their progenitors' debt.{{sfn|Bales|2004|pp=15–18}} Debt bondage is most prevalent in South Asia,{{sfn|Bales|2004|pp=15–18}} and is the most widespread form of slavery today.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20504&LangID=E |title=Debt bondage remains the most prevalent form of forced labour worldwide |publisher=[[United Nations]] |access-date=July 27, 2021 |date=September 15, 2016 }}</ref>

[[Money marriage]] refers to a marriage where a child, usually a girl, is married off to settle debts owed by their parents.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/nigerias-young-daughters-sold-money-wives-180921153424671.html |title=Nigeria's young daughters are sold as 'money wives' |publisher=[[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]] |access-date=May 12, 2020 |date=September 21, 2018 }}</ref> The [[Chukri system]] is a [[debt bondage in India|debt bondage]] system found in parts of [[Bengal]] where a woman or girl can be coerced into [[prostitution]] in order to pay off debts.<ref>{{cite book |pages=11–12 |last1=Sleightholme |last2=Indrani |date=1996 |title=Guilty Without Trial |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=0-8135-2381-8}}</ref>

=== Dependents ===
The word ''slavery'' has also been used to refer to a legal state of dependency to somebody else.<ref name="Encyclopedia1">{{Cite book |title=Slavery and South Asian History |first1=Indrani |last1=Chatterjee |first2=Richard |last2=Eaton |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-253-11671-0 |page=3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=M. A. |last1=Dandamayev |last2=Barda |last3=Bardadārī |title=Encyclopædia Iranica}}</ref> For example, in [[Achaemenid Empire|Persia]], the situations and lives of such slaves could be better than those of common citizens.<ref>{{cite book |last=Farazmand |first=Ali |date=1998 |chapter=Persian/Iranian Administrative Tradition |editor-first=Jay M. |editor-last=Shafritz |title=International Encyclopedia of Public Edict and Administration |location=Boulder, CO |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |pages=1640–1645 (1642) |quote=Persians never practiced mass slavery, and in many cases the situations and lives of semi-slaves (prisoners of war) were in fact better than the common citizens of Persia.}}</ref>

=== Forced labour ===
{{Main|Forced labour}}
{{See also|Human trafficking}} 
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is sometimes used to describe an individual who is forced to work against their own will, under threat of violence or other punishment. This may also include institutions not commonly classified as slavery, such as [[serfdom]], [[conscription]] and [[penal labour]]. As slavery has been legally outlawed in all countries, forced labour in the present day (frequently referred to as "[[Slavery in the 21st century|modern slavery]]") revolves around illegal control.

Human trafficking primarily involves women and children forced into [[prostitution]] and is the fastest growing form of forced labour, with Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil and Mexico having been identified as leading hotspots of [[commercial sexual exploitation of children]].<ref name="voa">{{cite web |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2009-05-15-voa30-68815957/413170.html |title=Experts encourage action against sex trafficking |date=November 2, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091223080032/http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2009-05-15-voa30-68815957.html?rss=human%2Brights%2Band%2Blaw |archive-date=December 23, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ipsnews.net/2007/08/rights-mexico-16000-victims-of-child-sexual-exploitation/ |title=Rights–Mexico: 16,000 Victims of Child Sexual Exploitation |website=ipsnews.net |date=August 13, 2007 |access-date=February 11, 2016 }}</ref>

==== Child soldiers and child labour ====
{{Main|Child slavery}}
{{See also|Child labour|3=Military use of children}}In 2007, [[Human Rights Watch]] estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 children served as soldiers in then-current conflicts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/index.htm |title=Campaign Page: Child Soldiers |date=June 2001 |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213041833/http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/index.htm |archive-date=February 13, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Chikwanine |first1=Michel |last2=Humphrey |first2=Jessica |title=Child Soldier: When Boys and Girls Are Used in War |date=1 September 2015 |publisher=Kids Can Press Ltd |isbn=978-1-77138-126-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zKF6BwAAQBAJ&dq=estimate+child+soldiers&pg=PA45 |language=en}}</ref> More girls under 16 work as [[Domestic worker#Migrant domestic workers|domestic workers]] than any other category of child labour, often sent to cities by parents living in rural poverty as with the Haitian [[restavek]]s.<ref>{{Cite news |title=In Togo, a 10-Year-Old's Muted Cry: 'I Couldn't Take Any More' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/25/AR2008122501198.html?wprss=rss_print/asection&sid=ST2008122600004 |last=Sullivan |first=Kevin |date=2008-12-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612143935/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/25/AR2008122501198.html?wprss=rss_print/asection&sid=ST2008122600004 |archive-date=2018-06-12 |access-date=2024-01-15 |url-status=live |language=en}}</ref>

=== Forced marriage ===
{{See also|Marriage by abduction|Child marriage}}

[[Forced marriage]]s or early marriages are often considered types of slavery. Forced marriage continues to be practiced in parts of the world including some parts of Asia and Africa and in immigrant communities in the West.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21665322 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |title=Two-year-old 'at risk' of forced marriage |date=March 5, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.honordiaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/FactSheet-ChildForcedMarriage-Updated.pdf |title=Honor Diaries: Child/Forced Marriage: Factsheet |publisher=Honordiaries.com |access-date=September 29, 2015 |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924031200/http://www.honordiaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/FactSheet-ChildForcedMarriage-Updated.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Black |first1=Debra |date=September 20, 2013 |title=Forced marriages rampant in Ontario |url=http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4116168-forced-marriages-rampant-in-ontario |newspaper=The Hamilton Spectator |access-date=September 20, 2013 |archive-date=March 26, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326072557/http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4116168-forced-marriages-rampant-in-ontario/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mulr.com.au/issues/36_3/36_3_5.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613000244/http://www.mulr.com.au/issues/36_3/36_3_5.pdf |archive-date=June 13, 2015 |title=Without Consent: Forced Marriage in Australia |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Marriage by abduction]] occurs in many places in the world today, with a 2003 study finding a national average of 69% of marriages in Ethiopia being through abduction.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/unicef-supports-fight-end-marriage-abduction-ethiopia |title=UNICEF supports fight to end marriage by abduction in Ethiopia |publisher=reliefweb.int |date=November 9, 2004 |access-date=August 29, 2013 }}</ref>

=== Other uses of the term ===
The word ''slavery'' is often used as a pejorative to describe any activity in which one is coerced into performing. Some argue that [[Conscription#Military slavery|military drafts]] and other forms of coerced government labour constitute "state-operated slavery."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2346 |title=An Idea Not Worth Drafting: Conscription is Slavery |first=Peter |last=Krembs |date=January 20, 2003 |publisher=Capmag.com |access-date=September 29, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.davidkopel.com/NRO/2001/Nationalized-Slavery.htm |title=Nationalized Slavery; A policy Italy should dump |website=davidkopel.com |author-link=Dave Kopel |first=Dave |last=Kopel |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012125652/http://www.davidkopel.com/NRO/2001/Nationalized-Slavery.htm |archive-date=October 12, 2007}}. Refers to both the military and [[national service]] requirements of Italy as slavery</ref> Some [[libertarianism|libertarians]] and [[anarcho-capitalism|anarcho-capitalists]] view government taxation as a form of slavery.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/library/tax-slavery |last=Machan |first=Tibor R. |title=Tax Slavery |publisher=[[Ludwig von Mises Institute]] |date=April 13, 2000 |access-date=October 9, 2006 }}</ref>

"Slavery" has been used by some [[Antipsychiatry|anti-psychiatry]] proponents to define involuntary psychiatric patients, claiming there are no unbiased physical tests for mental illness and yet the psychiatric patient must follow the orders of the psychiatrist. They assert that instead of chains to control the slave, the psychiatrist uses drugs to control the mind.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Elliot |last1=Valenstein |title=Blaming the Brain: The Truth About Drugs and Mental Health |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=fBxyTAEiSUIC|page=26}} |date= 2002 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=978-0-7432-3787-1 |page=26}}</ref> [[Drapetomania]] was a pseudoscientific psychiatric diagnosis for a slave who desired freedom; "symptoms" included laziness and the tendency to flee captivity.<ref>{{cite book |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=3OeefBqX7ggC}} |title=Psychiatric Slavery |first=Thomas Stephen |last=Szasz |author-link=Thomas Stephen Szasz |via=Google Books |access-date=September 29, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schaler |first1=J. A. |year=2003 |title=Slavery and psychiatry |journal=[[British Journal of Psychiatry]] |volume=183 |pages=77–78 |doi=10.1192/bjp.183.1.77-a|pmid=12835252 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Some proponents of [[animal rights]] have applied the term ''slavery'' to the condition of some or all human-owned animals, arguing that their status is comparable to that of human slaves.<ref name="MSpiegel">{{cite book |last=Spiegel |first=Marjorie |title=The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery |location=New York |publisher=Mirror Books |year=1996}}</ref>

The labour market, as institutionalized under contemporary capitalist systems, has been criticized by mainstream [[Socialism|socialists]] and by [[anarcho-syndicalism|anarcho-syndicalists]], who utilise the term [[wage slavery]] as a [[pejorative]] or [[dysphemism]] for [[wage labour]].<ref>For sources about the concept of ''"wage slavery"'' and its various interpretations, see {{cite encyclopedia |title=wage slave |url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/wage-slave |dictionary=dictionary.com |access-date=March 4, 2013 }}</ref>{{sfn|Ellerman|1992}}<ref name="merriam-webster.com">{{cite web |title= wage slave |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wage%20slave |publisher=merriam-webster.com |access-date=March 4, 2013 }}</ref> Socialists draw parallels between the trade of labour as a commodity and slavery. [[Cicero]] is also known to have suggested such parallels.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Constitution Society – Advocates and enforcers of the U.S. and State Constitutions |url=https://constitution.org/ |access-date=February 6, 2021 |quote=...vulgar are the means of livelihood of all hired workmen whom we pay for mere manual labour, not for artistic skill; for in their case the very wage they receive is a pledge of their slavery. |archive-date=December 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221014338/https://constitution.org/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Characteristics ==
=== Economics ===
Economists have modeled the circumstances under which slavery (and variants such as [[serfdom]]) appear and disappear. One theoretical model is that slavery becomes more desirable for [[Land tenure|landowners]] where land is abundant, but labour is scarce, such that rent is depressed and paid workers can demand high wages. If the opposite holds true, then it is more costly for landowners to guard the slaves than to employ paid workers who can demand only low wages because of the degree of competition.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=North |first1=Douglass C. |first2=Robert Paul |last2=Thomas |title=The Rise and Fall of the Manorial System: A Theoretical Model |journal=[[The Journal of Economic History]] |date=December 1971 |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=777–803 |jstor=2117209 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700074623 |s2cid=154616683}}</ref> Thus, first slavery and then serfdom gradually decreased in Europe as the population grew. They were reintroduced in the Americas and in Russia as large areas of land with few inhabitants became available.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Domar |first=Evsey D. |title=The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis |journal=[[The Journal of Economic History]] |date=March 1970 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=18–32 |jstor=2116721 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700078566 |s2cid=154921369}}</ref>

Slavery is more common when the tasks are relatively simple and thus easy to supervise, such as large-scale [[Monocropping|monocrops]] such as [[sugarcane]] and [[cotton]], in which output depended on [[economies of scale]]. This enables systems of labour, such as the [[gang system]] in the United States, to become prominent on large plantations where field hands toiled with factory-like precision. Then, each work gang was based on an internal division of labour that assigned every member of the gang to a task and made each worker's performance dependent on the actions of the others. The slaves chopped out the weeds that surrounded the cotton plants as well as excess sprouts. Plow gangs followed behind, stirring the soil near the plants and tossing it back around the plants. Thus, the gang system worked like an [[assembly line]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lagerlöf |first1=Nils-Petter |url=https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/372.html |title=Slavery and other property rights |journal=MPRA Paper 372 |date=November 12, 2006 |access-date=May 6, 2009 }}</ref>

Since the 18th century, critics have argued that slavery hinders technological advancement because the focus is on increasing the number of slaves doing simple tasks rather than upgrading their efficiency. For example, it is sometimes argued that, because of this narrow focus, technology in Greece – and later in Rome – was not applied to ease physical labour or improve manufacturing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=223811 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080423152702/http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=223811 |archive-date=April 23, 2008 |title=Technology |publisher=History.com |date=January 4, 2008 |access-date=May 6, 2009}}</ref><ref name=Helper>{{cite book|last=Helper|first=Hinton Rowan|authorlink=Hinton Rowan Helper|date=1857|location=New York|publisher=Burdick Brothers|title=The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36055}}</ref>
[[File:Fathers of the Redemption.jpg|thumb|The work of the [[Mercedarians]] was in ransoming Christian slaves held in North Africa (1637).]]

Scottish economist [[Adam Smith]] stated that free labour was economically better than slave labour, and that it was nearly impossible to end slavery in a free, democratic, or republican form of government since many of its legislators or political figures were slave owners and would not punish themselves. He further stated that slaves would be better able to gain their freedom under centralized government, or a central authority like a king or church.<ref>{{cite book |first1=John R. |last1=McKivigan |first2=Mitchell |last2=Snay |title=Religion and the Antebellum Debate Over Slavery |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=e-unV4v5puYC|page=68}} |access-date=May 31, 2012 |year=1998 |publisher=[[University of Georgia Press]] |isbn=978-0-8203-2076-2 |page=68}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Charles L. |last=Griswold |title=Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=WRcU_GJAc9gC|page=198}} |access-date=May 31, 2012 |year=1999 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-62891-4 |page=198}}</ref> Similar arguments appeared later in the works of [[Auguste Comte]], especially given Smith's belief in the [[separation of powers]], or what Comte called the "separation of the spiritual and the temporal" during the [[Middle Ages]] and the end of slavery, and Smith's criticism of masters, past and present. As Smith stated in the ''[[Lectures on Jurisprudence]]'', "The great power of the clergy thus concurring with that of the king set the slaves at liberty. But it was absolutely necessary both that the authority of the king and of the clergy should be great. Where ever any one of these was wanting, slavery still continues..."{{sfn|Forbes|1998|p=74}}

[[File:The inspection and sale of a slave.jpg|thumb|Sale and inspection of slaves]]

Even after slavery became a criminal offense, slave owners could get high returns. According to researcher [[Siddharth Kara]], the profits generated worldwide by all forms of slavery in 2007 were $91.2&nbsp;billion. That was second only to drug trafficking, in terms of global criminal enterprises. At the time the weighted average global sales price of a slave was estimated to be approximately $340, with a high of $1,895 for the average trafficked sex slave, and a low of $40 to $50 for debt bondage slaves in part of Asia and Africa. The weighted average annual profits generated by a slave in 2007 was $3,175, with a low of an average $950 for bonded labour and $29,210 for a trafficked sex slave. Approximately 40% of slave profits each year were generated by trafficked sex slaves, representing slightly more than 4% of the world's 29&nbsp;million slaves.<ref name="Dhaliwal">{{Cite book |last=Kara |first=Siddharth |title=Sex Trafficking – Inside the Business of Modern Slavery |date=2008 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-13960-1}}</ref>

=== Identification ===
[[File:A slave market in Cairo-David Roberts.jpg|thumb|Barefooted slaves depicted in [[David Roberts (painter)|David Roberts]]' ''Egypt and Nubia'', issued between 1845 and 1849, depicting victims of the [[slavery in Egypt]].]]
[[File:Slavery17.jpg|thumb|Slave branding, {{circa|1853}}]]

Slaves are often identified or marked via [[mutilation]] or [[Tattoo|tattooing]]. A widespread practice was [[Human branding|branding]], either to explicitly mark slaves as property or as punishment. Some slaves are forced to wear shackles that cannot be removed such as [[Handcuffs|cuffs]], [[legcuffs]], collars, [[Ball and chain|chains]], or [[Anklet|anklets]].

== Legal aspects ==
=== Private versus state-owned slaves ===
Slaves have been owned privately by individuals but have also been under state ownership. For example, the {{lang|ko-latn|[[kisaeng]]}} were women from low castes in pre modern Korea, who were owned by the state under government officials known as {{lang|ko-latn|hojang}} and were required to provide entertainment to the aristocracy. In the 2020s, in [[North Korea]], {{lang|ko-latn|[[Kippumjo]]}} ("Pleasure Brigades") are made up of women selected from the general population to serve as entertainers and as concubines to the rulers of North Korea.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.indy100.com/news/kim-jongun-is-recruiting-a-pleasure-squad-of-teenage-girls-7296526 |title=Louis Dor (Saturday 30 April 2016) Kim Jong-un is recruiting a new 'pleasure squad' of teenage girls |date=April 30, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Ryall |first1=Julian |title=Kim Jong-un brings back 'pleasure troupe' entertainers |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11510664/Kim-Jong-un-brings-back-pleasure-troupe-entertainers.html |work=The Telegraph |date=2 April 2015 |language=en}}</ref> "Tribute labor" is compulsory labor for the state and has been used in various iterations such as [[corvée]], [[mit'a]] and [[repartimiento]]. The [[internment|internment camp]]s of [[totalitarian]] regimes such as the Nazis and the Soviet Union placed increasing importance on the labor provided in those camps, leading to a growing tendency among historians to designate such systems as slavery.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.eurozine.com/from-private-to-state-slavery-and-back-again/#footnote-3|title=From private to state slavery and back again |publisher=[[Eurozine]] |access-date=August 12, 2021 |date=July 31, 2017 }}</ref>

A combination of these include the [[encomienda]] where the Spanish Crown granted private individuals the right to the free labour of a specified number of natives in a given area.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lockhart |first1=James |last2=Schwartz |first2=Stuart |title=Early Latin America |location=New York |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=138 |quote=The encomienda in its early heyday granted a lifetime monopoly on the utilization of temporary Indian labor in a given area to one Spaniard, the encomendero.}}</ref> In the "Red Rubber System" of both the [[Congo Free State]] and French ruled [[Ubangi-Shari]],<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/28/one-day-we-will-start-a-big-war-central-african-republic-un-violence/ |title=One day we will start a big war |magazine=[[Foreign Policy]] |access-date=February 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205203123/http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/28/one-day-we-will-start-a-big-war-central-african-republic-un-violence/ |archive-date=February 5, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> labour was demanded as taxation; private companies were conceded areas within which they were allowed to use any measures to increase rubber production.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stengers |first=Jean |author-link=Jean Stengers |chapter=The Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo before 1914 |editor1-last=Gann |editor1-first=L. H.|editor2-last=Duignan |editor2-first=Peter |title=Colonialism in Africa, 1870–1914 |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=272 |volume=I |year=1969}}</ref> [[Convict leasing]] was common in the Southern United States where the state would lease prisoners for their free labour to companies.

=== Legal rights ===
Depending upon the era and the country, slaves sometimes had a limited set of legal rights. For example, in the [[Province of New York]], people who deliberately killed slaves were punishable under a 1686 statute.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pollak |first=Michael |date=March 28, 2014 |title=Determining the Legal Rights of Slaves |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/nyregion/determining-the-legal-rights-of-slaves.html |access-date=February 11, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> And, as already mentioned, certain legal rights attached to the nobi in Korea, to slaves in various African societies, and to black female slaves in the [[Louisiana (New France)|French colony of Louisiana]]. Giving slaves legal rights has sometimes been a matter of morality, but also sometimes a matter of self-interest. For example, in [[Classical Athens|ancient Athens]], protecting slaves from mistreatment simultaneously protected people who might be mistaken for slaves, and giving slaves limited property rights incentivized slaves to work harder to get more property.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ober |first=Josiah |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=hYZeDwAAQBAJ&newbks=0|page=112}} |title=Athenian Legacies: Essays on the Politics of Going On Together |date=June 26, 2018 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-19016-7}}</ref> In the southern United States prior to [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|the extirpation of slavery in 1865]], a proslavery legal treatise reported that slaves accused of crimes typically had a legal right to counsel, freedom from [[double jeopardy]], a right to trial by jury in graver cases, and the right to grand jury indictment, but they lacked many other rights such as white adults' ability to control their own lives.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cobb |first=Thomas |title=An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America |pages=268–269 |publisher=[[University of Georgia Press]] |date=1999 |orig-date=1858}}</ref>

== History ==
{{Main|History of slavery}}
{{See also|Slavery in antiquity}}
[[File:Mines 1.jpg|thumb|Corinthian black-figure terra-cotta votive tablet of slaves working in a mine, dated to the late seventh century BC]]
Slavery predates written records and has existed in many cultures.<ref name="Slavery">{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24156 |title=Historical survey: Slave-owning societies |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223090720/http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24156 |archive-date=February 23, 2007}}</ref> Slavery is rare among [[hunter-gatherer]] populations because it requires economic surpluses and a substantial population density. Thus, although it has existed among unusually resource-rich hunter gatherers, such as the [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]] peoples of the [[salmon]]-rich rivers of the [[Pacific Northwest]] coast, slavery became widespread only with the invention of [[agriculture]] during the [[Neolithic Revolution]] about 11,000 years ago.<ref name="ebhellie"/> Slavery was practiced in almost every ancient civilization.<ref name="Slavery"/> Such institutions included debt bondage, punishment for crime, the enslavement of [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]], [[child abandonment]], and the enslavement of slaves' offspring.<ref>{{cite book |last=Harris |first=W. V. |title=Demography, Geography, and the Sources of Roman Slaves |date=February 3, 2011 |series=Rome's Imperial Economy |pages=88–110 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199595167.003.0005 |isbn=978-0-19-959516-7}}</ref>

=== Africa ===
{{See also|Slavery in Africa}}
Slavery was widespread in Africa, which pursued both internal and external slave trade.<ref>{{cite web |last=Perbi |first=Akosua |url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/perbi.pdf |title=Slavery and the Slave Trade in Pre-colonial Africa |publisher=latinamericanstudies.org |date=April 5, 2001 |access-date=August 11, 2016 }}</ref> In the [[Senegambia (geography)|Senegambia]] region, between 1300 and 1900, close to one-third of the population was enslaved. In early Islamic states of the western [[Sahel]], including [[Ghana Empire|Ghana]], [[Mali Empire|Mali]], [[Bamana Empire|Segou]], and [[Songhai Empire|Songhai]], about a third of the population were enslaved.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24157 |title=Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071230184609/http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24157 |archive-date=December 30, 2007 |access-date=March 19, 2018}}</ref>

In European courtly society, and European aristocracy, black African slaves and their children became visible in the late 1300s and 1400s. Starting with [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor]], black Africans were included in the [[retinue]]. In 1402 an [[Ethiopian]] embassy reached [[Venice]]. In the 1470s black Africans were painted as court attendants in wall paintings that were displayed in [[Mantua]] and [[Ferrara]]. In the 1490s black Africans were included on the emblem of the [[Duke of Milan]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Image of the Black in Western Art |volume=2 |editor1-first=David |editor1-last=Bindman |editor2-first=Henry Louis |editor2-last=Gates (Jr.) |editor3-first=Karen C. C. |editor3-last=Dalton |publisher=[[Belknap Press]] of [[Harvard University Press]] |year=2010 |issue=2 |isbn=978-0-674-05271-0 |page=27}}</ref>

During the [[trans-Saharan slave trade]], slaves from [[West Africa]] were transported across the [[Sahara|Sahara desert]] to [[North Africa]] to be sold to [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] and [[Middle East|Middle eastern]] civilizations. During the [[Red Sea slave trade]], slaves were transported from Africa across the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula. The [[Indian Ocean slave trade]], sometimes known as the east African slave trade, was multi-directional. Africans were sent as slaves to the [[Arabian Peninsula]], to [[Indian Ocean]] islands (including [[Madagascar]]), to the [[Indian subcontinent]], and later to the Americas. These traders captured [[Bantu peoples]] ([[Zanj]]) from the interior in present-day [[Kenya]], [[Mozambique]] and [[Tanzania]] and brought them to the coast.<ref name="Och">{{cite book |last1=Ochiengʼ |first1=William Robert |title=Eastern Kenya and Its Invaders |date=1975 |publisher=East African Literature Bureau |page=76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ziJyAAAAMAAJ |access-date= May 15, 2015 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="Ogot">{{Cite journal |first=Bethwell A. |last=Ogot |author-link=Bethwell A. Ogot |date=April 1970 |title=Zamani: a survey of East African history |journal=[[African Affairs]] |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a096007 |issn=1468-2621 |page=104}}</ref> There, the slaves gradually assimilated in rural areas, particularly on [[Unguja]] and [[Pemba Island|Pemba]] islands.<ref name="Lodhi"/>

Some historians assert that as many as 17&nbsp;million people were sold into slavery on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and North Africa, and approximately 5&nbsp;million African slaves were bought by Muslim slave traders and taken from Africa across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert between 1500 and 1900.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1523100.stm |title=Focus on the slave trade |publisher=[[BBC]] |date=September 3, 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525101036/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1523100.stm |archive-date=May 25, 2017}}</ref> The captives were sold throughout the Middle East. This trade accelerated as superior ships led to more trade and greater demand for labour on [[plantation]]s in the region. Eventually, tens of thousands of captives were being taken every year.<ref name="Lodhi">{{cite book |last=Lodhi |first=Abdulaziz |title=Oriental influences in Swahili: a study in language and culture contacts |year=2000 |publisher=Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis |isbn=978-91-7346-377-5 |page=17 |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=ePhxAAAAMAAJ |page=17}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Africa |first1=John Donnelly |last1=Fage |first2=William |last2=Tordoff |date=2001 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-25248-5 |edition=4 |location=Budapest |page=258 |author1-link=John Donnelly Fage}}<!--|access-date=14 May 2015 --></ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Edward R. |last1=Tannenbaum |first2=Guilford |last2=Dudley |title=A History of World Civilizations |year=1973 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-471-84480-8 |page=615 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=pxpmAAAAMAAJ|page=615}}}}</ref> The Indian Ocean slave trade was multi-directional and changed over time. To meet the demand for menial labour, Bantu slaves bought by east African slave traders from southeastern Africa were sold in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries to customers in Egypt, Arabia, the Persian Gulf, India, European colonies in the Far East, the [[List of islands in the Indian Ocean|Indian Ocean islands]], Ethiopia , Sudan and Somalia.{{sfn|Campbell|2004|p=ix}}

According to the ''[[Encyclopedia of African History]]'', "It is estimated that by the 1890s the largest slave population of the world, about 2 million people, was concentrated in the territories of the [[Sokoto Caliphate]]. The use of slave labour was extensive, especially in agriculture."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shillington |first=Kevin |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=umyHqvAErOAC}} |title=Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set |date=July 4, 2013 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-45670-2 |page=1401}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_world_history/v007/7.1blue02.html |title=Slow Death for Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897–1936 (review) |journal=[[Journal of World History]] |access-date=December 31, 2021 |archive-date=April 11, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160411071529/http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=%2Fjournals%2Fjournal_of_world_history%2Fv007%2F7.1blue02.html}}</ref> The Anti-Slavery Society estimated there were 2&nbsp;million slaves in Ethiopia in the early 1930s out of an estimated population of 8 to 16&nbsp;million.<ref name="twentieth1">{{cite web |url=http://www.yale.edu/glc/events/cbss/Miers.pdf |title="Freedom is a good thing but it means a dearth of slaves": Twentieth Century Solutions to the Abolition of Slavery |access-date=August 29, 2010 |archive-date=May 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515192003/http://www.yale.edu/glc/events/cbss/Miers.pdf}}</ref>

Slave labour in East Africa was drawn from the ''Zanj'', Bantu peoples that lived along the East African coast.<ref name="Ogot"/><ref name="Bagley">{{Cite book |last=Bagley |first=H. R. C. |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=-AznJs58wtkC|page=174}} |title=The Last Great Muslim Empires |date=August 1, 1997 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|BRILL]] |isbn=978-90-04-02104-4}}</ref> The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean during the [[Indian Ocean slave trade]]. The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696, there were slave revolts of the Zanj against their Arab enslavers during their [[slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate]] in Iraq. The [[Zanj Rebellion]], a series of uprisings that took place between 869 and 883 near [[Basra]] (also known as Basara), against the [[slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate]] situated in present-day Iraq, is believed to have involved enslaved Zanj that had originally been captured from the [[African Great Lakes]] region and areas further south in [[East Africa]].{{sfn|Rodriguez|2007a|p=585}} It grew to involve over 500,000 slaves and free men who were imported from across the [[Muslim empire]] and claimed over "tens of thousands of lives in lower Iraq".<ref name="Furlonge">{{cite web |last=Asquith |first=Christina |url=https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-767/revisiting-the-zanj-and-re-visioning-revolt-complexities |title=Revisiting the Zanj and Re-Visioning Revolt: Complexities of the Zanj Conflict – 868–883 AD – slave revolt in Iraq |archive-date=March 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306155327/https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-76402507/revisiting-the-zanj-and-re-visioning-revolt-complexities}}</ref>

The Zanj who were taken as slaves to the Middle East were often used in strenuous agricultural work.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history-world.org/islam12.htm |title=Islam, From Arab To Islamic Empire: The Early Abbasid Era |publisher=History-world.org |access-date=March 23, 2016 |archive-date=September 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924235641/http://history-world.org/islam12.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref> As the [[plantation economy]] boomed and the Arabs became richer, agriculture and other manual labour work was thought to be demeaning. The resulting labour shortage led to an increased slave market.

[[File:Marche aux esclaves d alger gravure.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Slave market in [[Algiers]], 1684]]
In [[Algiers]], the capital of Algeria, captured Christians and Europeans were forced into slavery. In about 1650, there were as many as 35,000 Christian slaves in Algiers.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Last Great Muslim Empires |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=-AznJs58wtkC|page=100}} |isbn=978-90-04-02104-4 |last1=Kissling |first1=H. J. |last2=Spuler |first2=Bertold |last3=Barbour |first3=N. |last4=Trimingham |first4=J. S.|last5=Braun |first5=H. |last6=Hartel |first6=H. |date=August 1, 1997|publisher=BRILL }}</ref> By one estimate, raids by [[Barbary slave trade]]rs on coastal villages and ships extending from Italy to Iceland, enslaved an estimated 1 to 1.25&nbsp;million Europeans between the 16th and 19th centuries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Syed |first1=Muzaffar Husain |date=2011 |title=A Concise History of Islam |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=eACqCQAAQBAJ|page=453}} |location=New Delhi |publisher= VIJ Books (India) Pty Ltd |page=453 |isbn=978-93-81411-09-4 |quote=According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aNdPQAAACAAJ |title=Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, The Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500–1800 |date=September 16, 2003 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] UK |isbn=978-1-4039-4551-8 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="researchnews.osu.edu">{{cite web |url=http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm |title=When Europeans Were Slaves: Research Suggests White Slavery Was Much More Common Than Previously Believed |publisher=Research News |access-date=October 10, 2007 |archive-date=July 25, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725220038/http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm}}</ref> However, this estimate is the result of an extrapolation which assumes that the number of European slaves captured by Barbary pirates was constant for a 250-year period:

{{blockquote|There are no records of how many men, women and children were enslaved, but it is possible to calculate roughly the number of fresh captives that would have been needed to keep populations steady and replace those slaves who died, escaped, were ransomed, or converted to Islam. On this basis it is thought that around 8,500 new slaves were needed annually to replenish numbers – about 850,000 captives over the century from 1580 to 1680. By extension, for the 250 years between 1530 and 1780, the figure could easily have been as high as 1,250,000.<ref name=Earle>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/mar/11/highereducation.books |title=New book reopens old arguments about slave raids on Europe |last1=Carroll |first1=Rory |date=March 11, 2004 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=December 11, 2017 |issn=0261-3077 }}</ref>}}

Davis' numbers have been refuted by other historians, such as David Earle, who cautions that true picture of Europeans slaves is clouded by the fact the corsairs also seized non-Christian whites from eastern Europe.<ref name=Earle/> In addition, the number of slaves traded was hyperactive,{{clarify|date=December 2023}} with exaggerated estimates relying on peak years to calculate averages for entire centuries, or millennia. Hence, there were wide fluctuations year-to-year, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, given slave imports, and also given the fact that, prior to the 1840s, there are no consistent records. Middle East expert, John Wright, cautions that modern estimates are based on back-calculations from human observation.<ref name=Wright>{{Cite news |last=Wright |first=John |title=Trans-Saharan Slave Trade |year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]]}}</ref> Such observations, across the late 16th and early 17th century observers, account for around 35,000 European Christian slaves held throughout this period on the Barbary Coast, across Tripoli, Tunis, but mostly in Algiers. The majority were sailors (particularly those who were English), taken with their ships, but others were fishermen and coastal villagers. However, most of these captives were people from lands close to Africa, particularly Spain and Italy.<ref name=BritishSlaves>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml |title=British Slaves on the Barbary Coast |last=Davis |first=Robert |date=February 17, 2011 |publisher=[[BBC]] }}</ref> This eventually led to the [[Bombardment of Algiers (1816)|bombardment of Algiers]] by an Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1816.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=White Slaves, African Masters: An Anthology of American Barbary Captivity Narratives |journal=The SHAFR Guide Online |last=Baepler |first=B. |date=January 1999 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |doi=10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim030170256 |page=5}}</ref><ref name=BritishSlaves />

[[File:Slaves ruvuma.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Swahili coast|Arab-Swahili]] slave traders and their captives on the [[Ruvuma River]] in East Africa, 19th century]]
Under Omani Arabs, Zanzibar became East Africa's [[Zanzibar slave trade|main slave port]], with as many as 50,000 African slaves passing through every year during the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/10/01/html/ft_20011001.6.html |title=Swahili Coast |work=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]] |date=October 17, 2002 |access-date=September 30, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071230022459/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/10/01/html/ft_20011001.6.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 30, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=March 30, 2007 |title=Remembering East African slave raids |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6510675.stm |access-date=February 6, 2021 |publisher=[[BBC News]] }}</ref> Some historians estimate that between 11 and 18&nbsp;million African slaves crossed the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert from 650 to 1900 AD.<ref name="Slavery"/>{{failed verification|date=August 2020}}<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 3, 2001 |title=Focus on the slave trade |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1523100.stm |access-date=February 6, 2021 |publisher=[[BBC News]] }}</ref> [[Eduard Rüppell]] described the losses of Nuba slaves from Southern sudan being transported on foot to Egypt: "after the Daftardar bey's 1822 campaign in the southern Nuba mountains, nearly 40,000 slaves were captured. However, through bad treatment, disease and desert travel barely 5,000 made it to Egypt."{{sfn|Campbell|2007|p=173}} W.A. Veenhoven wrote: "The German doctor, [[Gustav Nachtigal]], an eye-witness, believed that for every slave who arrived at a market three or four died on the way&nbsp;... [[John Scott Keltie|Keltie]] (''The Partition of Africa'', London, 1920) believes that for every slave the Arabs brought to the coast at least six died on the way or during the slavers' raid. [[David Livingstone|Livingstone]] puts the figure as high as ten to one."<ref>{{cite book |first1=Willem A. |last1=Veenhoven |title=Case Studies on Human Rights And Fundamental Freedoms: A World Survey |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=0lSH6-0HRaYC|page=440}} |access-date=May 31, 2012 |year=1977 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |isbn=978-90-247-1956-3 |page=440}}</ref>

Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa, as they were in much of the [[Ancient history|ancient world]]. In many African societies where slavery was prevalent, the slaves were not treated as [[#Chattel slavery|chattel slaves]] and were given certain rights in a system similar to [[indentured servitude]] elsewhere in the world. The forms of slavery in Africa were closely related to [[kinship]] structures. In many African communities, where land could not be owned, enslavement of individuals was used as a means to increase the influence a person had and expand connections.<ref name="Snell" /> This made slaves a permanent part of a master's lineage and the children of slaves could become closely connected with the larger family ties.<ref name="Lovejoy">{{Cite journal |last=Lovejoy |first=Paul E. |journal=[[Journal of African History]] |title=The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa: A Review of the Literature |year=1989 |page=30}}</ref> Children of slaves born into families could be integrated into the master's kinship group and rise to prominent positions within society, even to the level of chief in some instances. However, stigma often remained attached and there could be strict separations between slave members of a kinship group and those related to the master.<ref name="Snell">{{cite book |last=Snell |first=Daniel C. |title=The Cambridge World History of Slavery |year=2011 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=New York |pages=4–21 |editor=Keith Bradley and Paul Cartledge |chapter=Slavery in the Ancient Near East}}</ref> Slavery was practiced in many different forms: debt slavery, enslavement of war captives, military slavery, and criminal slavery were all practiced in various parts of Africa.<ref>{{cite book |last=Foner |first=Eric |title=Give Me Liberty: An American History |year=2012 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |location=New York |page=18}}</ref> Slavery for domestic and court purposes was widespread throughout Africa.

[[File:Kenneth Lu - Slave ship model ( (4811223749).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|A model showing a cross-section of a typical 1700s European slave ship on the [[Middle Passage]], [[National Museum of American History]]]]
When the [[Atlantic slave trade]] began, many of the local slave systems began supplying captives for chattel slave markets outside Africa. Although the Atlantic slave trade was not the only slave trade from Africa, it was the largest in volume and intensity. As Elikia M'bokolo wrote in {{lang|fr|[[Le Monde diplomatique]]}}:

{{blockquote|The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes. Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the [[Muslim world|Muslim countries]] (from the ninth to the nineteenth).... Four million enslaved people exported via the [[Red Sea]], another four million through the [[Swahili people|Swahili]] ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the [[Trans-Saharan trade|trans-Saharan]] caravan route, and eleven to twenty million (depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean.<ref>{{Cite web |last=M'bokolo |first=Elikia |date=April 1, 1998 |title=The impact of the slave trade on Africa |url=https://mondediplo.com/1998/04/02africa |access-date=February 7, 2021 |work=[[Le Monde diplomatique]] }}</ref>}}

The trans-Atlantic slave trade peaked in the late 18th century, when the largest number of slaves were captured on raiding expeditions into the interior of West Africa. These expeditions were typically carried out by [[List of kingdoms in pre-colonial Africa|African kingdoms]], such as the [[Oyo Empire]] ([[Yoruba people|Yoruba]]), the [[Ashanti Empire]],<ref name="apology"/> the kingdom of [[Dahomey]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/slav/hd_slav.htm |access-date=February 6, 2021 |website=metmuseum.org |title=The Transatlantic Slave Trade] |first=Alexander Ives |last=Bortolot |date=October 2003 }}</ref> and the [[Aro Confederacy]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://countrystudies.us/404.htm |access-date=February 6, 2021 |website=countrystudies.us |title=Nigeria – The Slave Trade |publisher=[[U.S. Library of Congress]] |archive-date=February 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207031844/http://countrystudies.us/404.htm}}</ref> It is estimated that about 15 percent of slaves died during the [[Middle Passage|voyage]], with mortality rates considerably higher in Africa itself in the process of capturing and transporting indigenous peoples to the ships.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rubinstein |first=W. D. |title= Genocide: a history |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=nMMAk4VwLLwC|page=76}} |publisher=Pearson Education |year=2004 |pages=76–78 |isbn=978-0-582-50601-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mancke |first1=Elizabeth |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=gsYlogeOEgYC|page=30}} |title=The Creation of the British Atlantic World |last2=Shammas |first2=Carole |pages=30–31 |date=May 31, 2005 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8018-8039-1}}</ref>

[[Mauritania]] was the last country in the world to officially ban slavery, in 1981,<ref name= NYER-2014>{{cite magazine |last1=Okeowo |first1=Alexis |title=Freedom Fighter: A slaving society and an abolitionist's crusade |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=September 8, 2014 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/08/freedom-fighter |access-date=October 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180106081042/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/08/freedom-fighter |archive-date=January 6, 2018}}</ref>  with legal prosecution of slaveholders established in 2007.<ref name=a>{{cite web |first=Terence |last=Corrigan |url=http://www.saiia.org.za/governance-and-aprm-opinion/mauritania-made-slavery-illegal-last-month.html |title=Mauritania: Country Made Slavery Illegal Last Month |work=South African Institute of International Affairs |publisher=The East African Standard |date=September 6, 2007 |access-date=January 21, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110804032958/http://www.saiia.org.za/governance-and-aprm-opinion/mauritania-made-slavery-illegal-last-month.html |archive-date=August 4, 2011}}</ref>

=== Middle East ===
{{See also|Islamic views on slavery|History of slavery in the Muslim world|Slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate|Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate|Slavery in the Mamluk Sultanate|Slavery in the Ottoman Empire}}
[[File:Arabslavers.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|19th-century engraving depicting an Arab slave-trading [[Caravan (travellers)|caravan]] transporting black African slaves across the [[Sahara Desert]]]]
In the earliest known records, slavery is treated as an established institution. The [[Code of Hammurabi]] ({{circa|1760&nbsp;BC}}), for example, prescribed death for anyone who helped a slave escape or who sheltered a fugitive.<ref name="wsu. edu">{{cite web|url=http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM |title=Mesopotamia: The Code of Hammurabi|quote=...&nbsp;the shepherd of the oppressed and of the slaves ... If any one buy from the son or the slave of another man |at=#7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514033802/http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM |archive-date=May 14, 2011}}</ref> The Bible [[The Bible and slavery|mentions slavery]] as an established institution.<ref name="Slavery"/> Slavery existed in [[Ancient Egypt|Pharaonic Egypt]], but studying it is complicated by terminology used by the [[Egyptians]] to refer to different classes of servitude over the course of history. Interpretation of the textual evidence of classes of slaves in [[ancient Egypt]] has been difficult to differentiate by word usage alone.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Shaw |first=Garry J. |title=Slavery, Pharaonic Egypt |date=October 26, 2012 |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Ancient History |place=Hoboken, New Jersey, USA |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]], Inc. |doi=10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah15006 |isbn=978-1-4443-3838-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/slavery.htm |title=Ancient Egypt: Slavery, its causes and practice |website=reshafim.org.il |access-date=March 6, 2019 |archive-date=August 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120830093437/http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/slavery.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The three apparent types of enslavement in ancient Egypt were chattel slavery, bonded labour, and forced labour.<ref name="David 91">{{cite book |title=The Ancient Egyptians (Beliefs & Practices) |last=David |first=Rosalie |date=April 1, 1998 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |page=91}}</ref><ref name="Everett 10–11">{{cite book |title=History of Slavery |last=Everett |first=Susanne |date=October 24, 2011 |publisher=Chartwell Books |pages=10–11}}</ref><ref name="Dunn">{{cite web |url=http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/slaves.htm|title=Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Egypt |last=Dunn |first=Jimmy |date=October 24, 2011 |access-date=April 9, 2016}}</ref>

Following the [[Early Muslim conquests|Islamic conquest]]s of the 7th and 8th century, slavery was regulated by the Islamic law, in parallel to the Middle East being more or less united by a succession of Islamic empires. The history of slavery in the Muslim Middle East was therefore reflected in the slavery of the Islamic empires that succeeded each other between the 7th and the 20th century. Slavery was hence reflected in the institution of [[slavery in the Rashidun Caliphate]] (632–661), [[slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate]] (661–750), [[slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate]] (750–1258), [[slavery in the Mamluk Sultanate]] (1258–1517) and [[slavery in the Ottoman Empire]] (1517–1922), before slavery was finally abolished in one Muslim country after another during the 20th century.

Historically, slaves in the [[Arab World]] came from many different regions, including [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] (mainly ''[[Zanj]]''),{{sfn|Lewis|1992|p=53}} the [[Caucasus]] (mainly [[Circassians]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lostmuseum.cuny.edu/archive/horrible-traffic-in-circassian |title=Horrible Traffic in Circassian Women – Infanticide in Turkey |work=New York Daily Times |date=August 6, 1856 |via=The Lost Museum Archive |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref> Central Asia (mainly [[Tartary|Tartars]]), and [[Central Europe|Central]] and Eastern Europe (mainly Slavs ''[[Saqaliba]]'').<ref name="Soldier Khan">{{cite web|url=http://www.avalanchepress.com/Soldier_Khan.php |title=Soldier Khan |publisher=Avalanche Press |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref> 
These slaves were trafficked to the Arab world from Africa via the Trans-Saharan slave trade, the [[Baqt]] treaty, the [[Red Sea slave trade]] and the [[Indian Ocean slave trade]]; from Asia via the [[Bukhara slave trade]]; and from Europe via the [[Prague slave trade]], the [[Venetian slave trade]] and the [[Barbary slave trade]], respectively.

[[File:360Niklas Stör Entführung in die Sklaverei.jpg|thumb|[[Ottoman wars in Europe|Ottoman wars]] saw Europeans dragged to that empire.]]

Between 1517 and 1917, most of the Middle East consisted of the [[Ottoman Empire]]. In the Ottoman capital of [[Constantinople]], about one-fifth of the population consisted of slaves.<ref name="ebhellie">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Hellie |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard Hellie |title=Slavery |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/slavery-sociology |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=May 6, 2023}}</ref> The city was a major centre of the slave trade in the 15th and later centuries.

Eastern European slaves were provided for [[slavery in the Ottoman Empire]] via the [[Crimean slave trade]] by Tatar raids on Slavic villages<ref name="slave trade" /> but also by conquest and the suppression of rebellions, in the aftermath of which entire populations were sometimes enslaved and sold across the Empire, reducing the risk of future rebellion.
The Ottomans also purchased slaves from traders who brought slaves into the Empire from Europe and Africa. It has been estimated that some 200,000 slaves – mainly [[Circassians]] – were imported into the [[Ottoman Empire]] between 1800 and 1909.<ref name="Abolition"/>
In 1908, women slaves were still sold in the Ottoman Empire.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/slavery_7.shtml |title=Sexual slavery – the harem |publisher=BBC – Religion & Ethics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090521234122/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/slavery_7.shtml |archive-date=May 21, 2009}}</ref>
German orientalist, [[Gustaf Dalman]], reported seeing slaves in Muslim houses in [[Aleppo]], belonging to Ottoman Syria, in 1899, and that boys could be bought as slaves in [[Damascus]] and Cairo in as late as 1909.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dalman |first=Gustaf |author-link=Gustaf Dalman |title=Work and Customs in Palestine, volume II |publisher=Dar Al Nasher |location=Ramallah |year=2020 |volume=2 (Agriculture) |language=en |translator-first=Robert |translator-last=Schick |editor-first=Nadia |editor-last=Abdulhadi-Sukhtian |pages=176–177 |isbn=978-9950-385-84-9}}</ref>

[[File:Persian slave.jpg|thumb|Persian slave in the [[Khanate of Khiva]], 19th century]]
A major center of slave trade to the Middle east was central Asia, where the [[Bukhara slave trade]] had supplied slaves to the Middle East for thousands of years from antiquity until the 1870s.
A slave market for captured Russian and [[Persian people|Persian]] slaves was the [[Khivan slave trade]] centred in the Central Asian [[khanate of Khiva]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.khiva.info/gb/history/freeings.htm |title=The Freeing of the Slaves |publisher=Khiva.info |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref>
In the early 1840s, the population of the Uzbek states of [[Emirate of Bukhara|Bukhara]] and Khiva included about 900,000 slaves.<ref name="Abolition">{{cite book |first=W. G. |last=Clarence-Smith |title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=nQbylEdqJKkC|page=13}} |year=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-522151-0 |page=13}}</ref>

By 1870, chattel slavery had been at least formally banned in most areas of the world, with the exception of Muslim lands in Caucasus, Africa, and the Persian Gulf.<ref name="Miers, S. 2003 p.16">Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p.16</ref>
While slavery was by the 1870s viewed as morally unacceptable in the West, slavery was not considered to be immoral in the Muslim world since it was an institution recognized ([[halal]]) in the Quran and morally justified under the guise of warfare against non-Muslims ([[kafir]] of [[Dar al-Harb]]), and non-Muslims were kidnapped and enslaved by Muslims around the Muslim world: in the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Baluchistan, India, South West Asia and the Philippines.<ref name="Miers, S. 2003 p.16"/> 
Slaves where marched in shackles to the coasts of Sudan, Ethiopia and Somali, placed upon [[dhow]]s and trafficked [[Indian Ocean slave trade|across the Indian Ocean]] to the Gulf of Aden, or [[Red Sea slave trade|across the Red Sea]] to Arabia and Aden, with weak slaves being thrown in the sea; or across the Sahara desert via the [[Trans-Saharan slave trade]] to the Nile, while dying from exposure and swollen feet.<ref name="Miers, S. 2003 p.16"/>

Ottoman anti slavery laws where not enforced in the late 19th-century, particularly not in Hejaz; the first attempt to ban the Red Sea slave trade in 1857, the [[firman of 1857]], resulted in a rebellion in the Hejaz Province, the [[Hejaz rebellion]], which resulted in Hejaz being exempted from the ban.<ref name="Miers, S. 2003 p. 17">Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 17</ref> The [[Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1880]] formally banned the Red Sea slave trade, but it was not enforced in the Ottoman Provinces in the Arabian Peninsula.<ref name="Miers, S. 2003 p. 17"/> In the late 19th century, the Sultan of Morocco stated to Western diplomats that it was impossible for him to ban slavery because such a ban would not be enforceable, but the British asked him to ensure that the [[slavery in Morocco|slave trade in Morocco]] would at least be handled discreet and away from the eyes of foreign witnesses.<ref name="Miers, S. 2003 p. 17"/>

Chattel slavery lasted in most of the Middle East until the 20th century. The [[Red Sea slave trade]] still provided enslaved people from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula after World War II. As recently as the 1960s, [[Slavery in Saudi Arabia|Saudi Arabia's slave population]] was estimated at 300,000.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Veenhoven |first1=Willem Adriaan |first2=Winifred Crum |last2=Ewing |first3=Stichting Plurale |last3=Samenlevingen |title=Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: A World Survey |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=tIfYPppdbeYC|page=452}} |access-date=May 31, 2012 |year=1975 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|BRILL]] |isbn=978-90-247-1779-8 |page=452}}</ref> Along with Yemen, the Saudis abolished slavery in 1962.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/slavery_8.shtml |title=Religion & Ethics – Islam and slavery: Abolition |publisher=BBC |access-date=May 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090521234119/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/slavery_8.shtml |archive-date=May 21, 2009}}</ref>

=== Americas ===
{{Further|Atlantic slave trade|Encomienda|Mita (Inca)|Institute for Trafficked, Exploited, and Missing Persons|Slavery in colonial Spanish America|Slavery in Brazil|Slavery in the United States}}
Enslavement in the Americas existed before European arrival and was used for numerous reasons.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gallay |first1=Alan |title=The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198758815 |chapter=Indian Slavery |quote=Slavery existed among the indigenous peoples of the Americas before the European arrival. Its character varied from place to place. In societies that practiced human sacrifice, slaves were captured from enemies for ritualistic purposes. This occurred, for instance, among the Aztecs in Mexico and the Indians of the Pacific Northwest. More commonly, native peoples captured enemies to procure slave laborers for agricultural production and public works projects, particularly in Central and South America. Captivity, however, was not the only rationale for enslavement.}}</ref> [[Aztec slavery|Slavery in Mexico]] can be traced back to the [[Aztecs]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/exhibits/aztec/aztec_social.html |title=Aztec Social Structure |publisher=[[University of Texas at Austin]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110223111026/http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/exhibits/aztec/aztec_social.html |archive-date=February 23, 2011}}</ref> Other [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Amerindians]], such as the [[Inca Empire|Inca]] of the Andes, the [[Tupí people|Tupinambá]] of Brazil, the [[Muscogee people|Creek]] of Georgia, and the [[Comanche]] of Texas, also practiced slavery.<ref name="Slavery"/>

[[Slavery in Canada]] was practiced by [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] and by [[European colonization of the Americas|European settlers]].<ref name="LawsonLawson2019">{{cite book |first1=Russell M. |last1=Lawson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ou6yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA16|title=Race and Ethnicity in America: From Pre-contact to the Present &#91;4 volumes&#93; |first2=Benjamin A. |last2=Lawson |date=October 11, 2019 |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |isbn=978-1-4408-5097-4 |page=16}}</ref> Slave-owning people of what became Canada were, for example, the fishing societies, such as the [[Yurok tribe|Yurok]], that lived along the Pacific coast from Alaska to California,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24156 |title=Slavery in the New World |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=February 25, 2011 }}</ref> on what is sometimes described as the Pacific or Northern Northwest Coast. Some of the [[indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast]], such as the [[Haida people|Haida]] and [[Tlingit people|Tlingit]], were traditionally known as fierce warriors and slave-traders, raiding as far as California. Slavery was hereditary, the slaves being [[prisoners of war]] and their descendants were slaves.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Kenneth M. |last=Ames |title=Slaves, Chiefs and Labour on the Northern Northwest Coast |journal=[[World Archaeology]] |volume=33 (The Archaeology of Slavery) |number=1 |date=June 2001 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1080/00438240120047591 |jstor=827885|s2cid=162278526 }}</ref> Some nations in British Columbia continued to segregate and ostracize the descendants of slaves as late as the 1970s.<ref name=AboriginalSlavery>
{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRHLy4xwcboC&q=%22Leland+Donald%22+OR+%22Donald,+Leland%22+%22Aboriginal+Slavery+on+the+Northwest+Coast+of+North+America%22 |title=Aboriginal Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America |first=Leland |last=Donald |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-520-91811-5 |access-date=December 25, 2019 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

{{multiple image
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| image1            = Slave ship diagram.png
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| image2            = African slave ship diagram.jpg
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}}

Slavery in America remains a contentious issue and played a major role in the history and evolution of some countries, triggering a [[Haitian Revolution|revolution]], [[American Civil War|a civil war]], and numerous rebellions.

The countries that controlled most of the transatlantic slave market in terms of number of slaves shipped were the UK, Portugal and France.
[[File:Slaves embarked to America from 1450 until 1800 by country.jpg|thumb|700x700px|'''Slaves embarked to America from 1450 until 1800 by country'''|center]]

In order to establish itself as an American empire, Spain had to fight against the relatively powerful civilizations of the [[New World]]. The [[Spanish people|Spanish]] conquest of the indigenous peoples in the Americas included using the Natives as forced labour. The [[Slavery in the Spanish New World colonies|Spanish colonies]] were the first Europeans to use African slaves in the New World on islands such as [[Cuba]] and [[Hispaniola]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2028.html?countryName=Haiti&countryCode=ha&regionCode=ca&#ha |title=The World Factbook |website=[[CIA]] |access-date=August 8, 2010 |archive-date=June 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629173336/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2028.html?countryName=Haiti&countryCode=ha&regionCode=ca&#ha}}</ref> It was argued by some contemporary writers to be intrinsically immoral.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sicut Dudem -Against the Enslavement of Black Natives of the Canary Islands |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/eugene04/eugene04sicut.htm |website=papalencyclicals.net |date=January 13, 1435 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Sublimus Dei – On the Enslavement and Evangelization of Indians |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/Paul03/p3subli.htm |website=papalencyclicals.net |date=May 29, 1537 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hanke |first1=Lewis |title=All Mankind Is One: A Study of the Disputation Between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda on the Religious and Intellectual Capacity of the American Indians |date=1974 |publisher=[[Northern Illinois University Press]] |isbn=0-87580-043-2 |page=xi}}"For the first time, and probably for the last, a colonizing nation organized a formal enquiry into the justice of the methods used to extend its empire. For the first time, too, in the modern world, we see an attempt to stigmatize an entire race as inferior, as born slaves according to the theory elaborated centuries before by Aristotle."</ref> [[Bartolomé de las Casas]], a 16th-century [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] [[friar]] and Spanish historian, participated in campaigns in Cuba (at [[Bayamo]] and [[Camagüey]]) and was present at the massacre of [[Hatuey]]; his observation of that massacre led him to fight for a social movement away from the use of natives as slaves. Also, the alarming decline in the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|native]] population had spurred the first [[Laws of Burgos|royal laws protecting the native population]]. The first African slaves arrived in Hispaniola in 1501.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ukcouncilhumanrights.co.uk/webbook-chap1.html |title=Health In Slavery |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003165601/http://www.ukcouncilhumanrights.co.uk/webbook-chap1.html |archive-date=October 3, 2006}}</ref> This era saw a growth in race-based slavery.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Panzer |first1=Joel S. |title=The Popes and Slavery |date=1996 |publisher=Alba House |isbn=0-8189-0764-9 |page=3}}"The earlier forms of servitude were varied, complex, and very often of a different sociological category than those which were prevalent after the 14th century. While all forms of servitude are certainly unacceptable to most people today, this has not always been the case. Formerly, the rules of war and society were such that servitude was often imposed as a penalty on criminals and prisoners of war, and was even freely chosen by many workers for economic reasons. Children born of those held in servitude were also at times considered to be in the same state as that of their parents. These types of servitude were the most common among those generally considered to establish the so-called 'just titles' of servitude."</ref> England played a prominent role in the Atlantic slave trade. The "[[Triangular trade#Atlantic triangular slave trade|slave triangle]]" was pioneered by [[Francis Drake]] and his associates, though English slave-trading would not take off until the mid-17th century.

Many whites who arrived in North America during the 17th and 18th centuries came under contract as indentured servants.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Galenson |first1=David W. |title=The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis |journal=[[The Journal of Economic History]] |date=Mar 1984 |volume=XLIV |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1017/S002205070003134X |jstor=2120553 |s2cid=154682898}}</ref> The transformation from indentured servitude to slavery was a gradual process in Virginia. The earliest legal documentation of such a shift was in 1640 where a black man, [[John Punch (slave)|John Punch]], was sentenced to lifetime slavery, forcing him to serve his master, [[Hugh Gwyn]], for the remainder of his life, for attempting to run away. This case was significant because it established the disparity between his sentence as a black man and that of the two white indentured servants who escaped with him (one described as Dutch and one as a Scotchman). It is the first documented case of a black man sentenced to lifetime servitude and is considered one of the first legal cases to make a racial distinction between black and white indentured servants.<ref>{{harvp|Bavis}}; {{harvp|Donoghue|2010|pp=943–974}}; {{harvp|Higginbotham|1978|p=7}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.virtualjamestown.org/practise.html |title=Slave Laws |publisher=Virtual Jamestown |access-date=November 4, 2013 }}</ref>

After 1640, planters started to ignore the expiration of indentured contracts and keep their servants as slaves for life. This was demonstrated by the 1655 case ''Johnson v. Parker'', where the court ruled that a black man, [[Anthony Johnson (colonist)|Anthony Johnson]] of Virginia, was granted ownership of another black man, [[John Casor]], as the result of a civil case.<ref name="Billings2009">{{cite book |first=Warren M. |last=Billings |title=The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606–1700: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=hIPuXIKdZaQC|page=286}} |year=2009 |publisher=ReadHowYouWant.com |isbn=978-1-4429-6090-9 |pages=286–87}}</ref> This was the first instance of a judicial determination in the [[Thirteen Colonies]] holding that a person who had committed no crime could be held in servitude for life.<ref name="Project">{{cite book |last=[[Federal Writers' Project]] |year=1954 |title=Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion |publisher=US History Publishers |page=76 |isbn=978-1-60354-045-2}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Danver|2010|p=322}}; {{harvp|Kozlowski|2010|p=78}}; {{harvp|Conway|2008|p=[https://archive.org/details/lookatthirteenth0000conw/page/5 5]}}; {{harvp|Toppin|2010|p=46}}; {{harvp|Foner|1980}}; {{harvp|Burnham|1993}}</ref>

==== Spanish colonial America ====
In Jamaica and elsewhere in the [[Caribbean]] area, the Spanish enslaved many of the [[Taino]] natives. Some of them escaped, and some hurled themselves and their children off of cliffs to avoid enslavement, but most died from European diseases and overwork.<ref name=discja>{{cite web |title=Jamaican History I |url=http://www.discoverjamaica.com/gleaner/discover/geography/history1.htm |publisher=Discover Jamaica |access-date=August 23, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130805083846/http://www.discoverjamaica.com/gleaner/discover/geography/history1.htm |archive-date=August 5, 2013}}</ref> The practice began under [[Christopher Columbus]], who was looking for [[gold]] to finance his future expeditions, and was continued by the other [[conquistador]]s who followed in his wake.

In 1519, [[Hernán Cortés]] brought the first [[Afro-Mexican#African slavery in Mexico|modern slave]] to Mexico.<ref name=World>{{cite book |last=Agurilar-Moreno |first=Manuel |title=Handbook to Life in the Aztec World |year=2006 |publisher=[[California State University]], Los Angeles}}</ref> In the mid-16th century, the Spanish New [[New Laws|Laws]], prohibited slavery of the indigenous people, including the [[Aztecs]]. A labour shortage resulted. This led to the African slaves being imported, as they were not susceptible to smallpox. In exchange, many Africans were afforded the opportunity to buy their freedom, while eventually others were granted their freedom by their masters.<ref name=World/> 

Spain practically did not trade in slaves until 1810 after the rebellions and independence of its American territories or viceroyalties. After the Napoleonic invasions, Spain had lost its industry and its American territories, except in Cuba and Puerto Rico, where the African slave trade to Cuba began on a massive scale from 1810 onwards. It was started by French planters exiled from the French lost colony Saint Domingue (Haiti) who settled in the eastern part of [[Cuba]].

In 1789, the Spanish Crown led an effort to reform slavery, as the demand for slave labour in Cuba was growing. The Crown issued a decree, {{lang|es|Código Negro Español}} (Spanish Black Code), that specified food and clothing provisions, put limits on the number of [[work hours]], limited punishments, required religious instruction, and protected marriages, forbidding the sale of young children away from their mothers. The British made other changes to the institution of slavery in Cuba. However, planters often flouted the laws and protested against them, considering them a threat to their authority and an intrusion into their personal lives.<ref name="Childs">{{cite book |last=Childs |first=Matt D. |title=1812 Aponte Rebellion in Cuba and the Struggle against Atlantic Slavery |year=2006 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |isbn=978-0-8078-5772-4}}</ref>

==== English and Dutch Caribbean ====
[[File:Slaves working on a plantation - Ten Views in the Island of Antigua (1823), plate III - BL.jpg|thumb|Planting the sugar cane, [[British West Indies]], 1823]]
[[File:Bussa statue.png|thumb|upright|[[Bussa Emancipation Statue|Statue of Bussa]], who led the largest slave rebellion in Barbadian history]]
In the early 17th century, the majority of the labour in Barbados was provided by European indentured servants, mainly [[English people|English]], [[Irish people|Irish]] and [[Scottish people|Scottish]], with [[Atlantic slave trade|African]] and native American slaves providing little of the workforce. The introduction of [[sugar cane]] in 1640 completely transformed society and the economy. Barbados eventually had one of the world's largest sugar industries.<ref name=beyond>{{Cite book |author-link=Arif Ali |last1=Ali |first1=Arif |title=Barbados: Just Beyond Your Imagination |pages=46, 48 |year=1997 |publisher=Hansib Publishing (Caribbean) Ltd |isbn=978-1-870518-54-3}}</ref> The workable sugar plantation required a large investment and a great deal of heavy labour. At first, Dutch traders supplied the equipment, financing, and African slaves, in addition to transporting most of the sugar to Europe. In 1644, the population of Barbados was estimated at 30,000, of which about 800 were of African descent, with the remainder mainly of English descent. By 1700, there were 15,000 free whites and 50,000 enslaved Africans. In Jamaica, although the African slave population in the 1670s and 1680s never exceeded 10,000, by 1800 it had increased to over 300,000. The increased implementation of [[Barbados Slave Code|slave codes]] or black codes, which created differential treatment between Africans and the white workers and ruling planter class. In response to these codes, several slave rebellions were attempted or planned during this time, but none succeeded.

[[File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 3444-7 Begrafenis bij plantageslaven2.jpg|thumb|Funeral at slave plantation, [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Dutch Suriname]]. 1840–1850.]]
The planters of the Dutch colony of Suriname relied heavily on African slaves to cultivate, harvest and process the commodity crops of coffee, cocoa, sugar cane and cotton plantations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Streissguth |first1=Tom |title=Suriname in Pictures |url=https://archive.org/details/surinameinpictur0000stre |url-access=registration |year=2009 |publisher=Twenty-First Century Books |isbn=978-1-57505-964-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/surinameinpictur0000stre/page/23 23]}}</ref> The Netherlands abolished slavery in Suriname in 1863.

Many slaves escaped the plantations. With the help of the native South Americans living in the adjoining rain forests, these runaway slaves established a new and unique culture in the interior that was highly successful in its own right. They were known collectively in English as [[Maroon (people)|Maroons]], in French as {{lang|fr|Nèg'Marrons}} (literally meaning "brown negroes", that is "pale-skinned negroes"), and in Dutch as {{lang|nl|Marrons}}. The Maroons gradually developed several independent tribes through a process of [[ethnogenesis]], as they were made up of slaves from different African ethnicities. These tribes include the [[Saramaka]], Paramaka, [[Ndyuka people|Ndyuka]] or Aukan, [[Kwinti]], [[Aluku]] or Boni, and Matawai. The Maroons often raided plantations to recruit new members from the slaves and capture women, as well as to acquire weapons, food and supplies. They sometimes killed planters and their families in the raids.<ref>{{Cite web |year=1777 |title=Extract of the Dutch Map Representing the Colony of Surinam |url=https://www.wdl.org/en/item/524/ |access-date=February 7, 2021 |website=wdl.org |last=Mentelle |first=Simon M. |publisher=Digital World Library via Library of Congress }}</ref> The colonists also mounted armed campaigns against the Maroons, who generally escaped through the rain forest, which they knew much better than did the colonists. To end hostilities, in the 18th century the European colonial authorities signed several peace treaties with different tribes. They granted the Maroons sovereign status and trade rights in their inland territories, giving them autonomy.

==== Brazil ====
[[File:Johann Moritz Rugendas in Brazil 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Public flogging of a slave in 19th-century [[Brazil]], by [[Johann Moritz Rugendas]]]]
[[File:Jacques Etienne Arago - Castigo de Escravos, 1839.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|''Slave punishment'' by [[Jacques Arago|Jacques Étienne Arago]], 1839]]

[[Slavery in Brazil]] began long before the [[Colonial Brazil|first Portuguese settlement]] was established in 1532, as members of one tribe would enslave captured members of another.<ref name="dominiopublico.gov.br">{{Cite web |url=http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/pesquisa/PesquisaObraForm.jsp |title=Domínio Público – Pesquisa Básica |language=pt-BR |trans-title=Public Domain – Basic Research |website=dominiopublico.gov.br }}</ref><!-- Need the correct URL as the provided URL only gives the search page -->

Later, Portuguese colonists were heavily dependent on indigenous labour during the initial phases of settlement to maintain the subsistence economy, and natives were often captured by expeditions called {{lang|pt|bandeiras}}. The importation of African slaves began midway through the 16th century, but the enslavement of indigenous peoples continued well into the 17th and 18th centuries.

During the Atlantic slave trade era, Brazil imported more African slaves than any other country. Nearly 5&nbsp;million slaves were brought from Africa to Brazil during the period from 1501 to 1866.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vergonha Ainda Maior: Novas informações disponíveis em um enorme banco de dados mostram que a escravidão no Brasil foi muito pior do que se sabia antes |trans-title=Even Greater Shame: New information available from a huge database shows that slavery in Brazil was far worse than previously known |url=http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/ricardo-setti/tema-livre/vergonha-ainda-maior-novas-informacoes-disponiveis-em-um-enorme-banco-de-dados-mostram-que-a-escravidao-no-brasil-foi-muito-pior-do-que-se-sabia-antes/ |website=Veja |access-date=March 16, 2015 |language=pt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150313000755/http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/ricardo-setti/tema-livre/vergonha-ainda-maior-novas-informacoes-disponiveis-em-um-enorme-banco-de-dados-mostram-que-a-escravidao-no-brasil-foi-muito-pior-do-que-se-sabia-antes/ |archive-date=March 13, 2015 }}</ref> Until the early 1850s, most African slaves who arrived on Brazilian shores were forced to embark at West Central African ports, especially in [[Luanda]] (in present-day Angola). Today, with the exception of Nigeria, the country with the largest population of people of African descent is Brazil.<ref name="cambriapress.com">{{Cite web |title=African Heritage and Memories of Slavery in Brazil and the South Atlantic World By Ana Lucia Araujo |url=http://www.cambriapress.com/cambriapress.cfm?template=4&bid=618 |access-date=February 7, 2021 |website=cambriapress.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322232722/https://www.cambriapress.com/pub.cfm?bid=618 |archive-date=March 22, 2023}}</ref>

Slave labour was the driving force behind the growth of the [[Sugarcane|sugar]] economy in Brazil, and sugar was the primary export of the colony from 1600 to 1650. Gold and diamond deposits were discovered in Brazil in 1690, which sparked an increase in the importation of African slaves to power this newly profitable market. Transportation systems were developed for the mining infrastructure, and population boomed from immigrants seeking to take part in gold and diamond mining. Demand for African slaves did not wane after the decline of the mining industry in the second half of the 18th century. Cattle ranching and foodstuff production proliferated after the population growth, both of which relied heavily on slave labour. 1.7&nbsp;million slaves were imported to Brazil from Africa from 1700 to 1800, and the rise of coffee in the 1830s further enticed expansion of the slave trade.

Brazil was the last country in the Western world to abolish slavery. Forty percent of the total number of slaves brought to the Americas were sent to Brazil.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=World History: A Concise Thematic Analysis, Volume 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kT8e2AuH478C&dq=brazil+slavery+history+percentage+sent&pg=PA444|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|date=2013-01-22|isbn=978-1-118-53273-7|language=en|first1=Steven|last1=Wallech|first2=Touraj|last2=Daryaee|first3=Craig|last3=Hendricks|first4=Anne Lynne|last4=Negus|first5=Peter P.|last5=Wan|first6=Gordon Morris|last6=Bakken|pages=444}}</ref>

==== Haiti ====
[[Slavery in Haiti]] began at an unknown time with slavery being already practiced by the native populations when [[Christopher Columbus]] on the island in 1492.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2007|p=227}}  European colonists would go and institutionalize slavery on the island and turn it into a major business which was devastating to the native population.<ref>{{cite book |last=Reséndez |first=Andrés |date=2016 |title=The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=Z2gpCgAAQBAJ|page=17}} |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |page=17 |isbn=978-0-547-64098-3 |author-link=Andrés Reséndez}}</ref> Following the indigenous [[Taíno]]'s near decimation from forced labour, disease and war, the Spanish, under [[Valladolid debate|advisement]] of the Catholic priest [[Bartolomé de las Casas]], and with the blessing of the Catholic church, who also wished [[Sublimis Deus|to protect]] the indigenous people, began engaging in earnest in the use of African slaves.{{Clarify|date=September 2023}} During the [[French colonial empire|French colonial period]] beginning in 1625, the economy of Haiti (then known as [[Saint-Domingue]]) was based on slavery, and the practice there was regarded as the most brutal in the world.
[[File:Fire in Saint-Domingo 1791, German copper engraving.jpg|thumb|Saint-Domingue [[slave revolt]] in 1791]]

Following the [[Treaty of Ryswick]] of 1697, [[Hispaniola]] was divided between [[Kingdom of France|France]] and [[Imperial Spain|Spain]]. France received the western third and subsequently named it Saint-Domingue. To develop it into sugarcane plantations, the French imported thousands of slaves from Africa. Sugar was a lucrative commodity crop throughout the 18th century. By 1789, approximately 40,000 white colonists lived in Saint-Domingue. The whites were vastly outnumbered by the tens of thousands of African slaves they had imported to work on their plantations, which were primarily devoted to the production of sugarcane. In the north of the island, slaves were able to retain many ties to African cultures, religion and language; these ties were continually being renewed by newly imported Africans. Blacks outnumbered whites by about ten to one.

The French-enacted {{lang|fr|[[Code Noir]]}} ("Black Code"), prepared by [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]] and ratified by [[Louis XIV]], had established rules on slave treatment and permissible freedoms. Saint-Domingue has been described as one of the most brutally efficient slave colonies; one-third of newly imported Africans died within a few years.<ref name="Farmer-LROB">{{cite news |last1=Farmer |first1=Paul |title=Who removed Aristide? |pages=28–31 |access-date= February 19, 2010 |date=April 15, 2004 |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/farm01_.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080608222428/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/farm01_.html |archive-date=June 8, 2008 |newspaper=[[London Review of Books]]}}</ref> Many slaves died from diseases such as [[smallpox]] and [[typhoid fever]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kiple |first1=Kenneth F. |title=The Caribbean Slave: A Biological History |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=veMLoyrX0BEC}} |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2002 |page=145 |isbn=978-0-521-52470-4}}</ref> They had [[birth rate]]s around 3 percent, and there is evidence that some women [[abortion|aborted]] fetuses, or committed [[infanticide]], rather than allow their children to live within the bonds of slavery.{{sfn|Campbell|2008|pp=27–53}}<ref name=Moitt>{{Cite book |last=Moitt |first=Bernard |title =Women and Slavery in the French Antilles, 1635–1848 |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |year=2001 |page=63}}</ref>

As in its [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana colony]], the [[New France|French colonial]] government allowed some rights to [[free people of color]]: the [[mixed-race]] descendants of white male colonists and black female slaves (and later, mixed-race women). Over time, many were released from slavery. They established a separate social class. White French [[Creole peoples|Creole]] fathers frequently sent their mixed-race sons to France for their education. Some men of color were admitted into the military. More of the free people of color lived in the south of the island, near [[Port-au-Prince]], and many intermarried within their community. They frequently worked as artisans and tradesmen, and began to own some property. Some became slave holders. The [[free people of color]] petitioned the colonial government to expand their rights.

Slaves that made it to Haiti from the trans-Atlantic journey and slaves born in Haiti were first documented in Haiti's archives and transferred to France's Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. {{As of|2015}}, these records are in The National Archives of France. According to the 1788 Census, Haiti's population consisted of nearly 40,000 whites, 30,000 free coloureds and 450,000 slaves.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coupeau |first=Steeve |title=The History of Haiti |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=tA-XfYZFNvkC|page=18}} |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |year=2008 |page=18 |isbn=978-0-313-34089-5}}</ref>

The [[Haitian Revolution]] of 1804, the only successful [[slave rebellion|slave revolt]] in human history, precipitated the end of slavery in all French colonies, which came in [[End of slavery in France#Proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies|1848]].

==== United States ====
[[File:Slave Trader, Sold to Tennessee.jpg|thumb|A [[coffle]] of slaves being driven on foot from [[Staunton, Virginia|Staunton]], Virginia, to Tennessee in 1850]]
[[Slavery in the United States]] was the legal institution of human chattel enslavement, primarily of Africans and [[African Americans]], that existed in the United States of America in the 18th and 19th centuries, after it gained independence from the British and before the end of the [[American Civil War]]. Slavery had been practiced in [[British America]] from [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|early colonial days]] and was legal in all [[Thirteen Colonies]], at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. By the time of the [[American Revolution]], the status of slave had been institutionalized as a racial caste associated with African ancestry.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Wood |first=Peter |year=2003 |title=The Birth of Race-Based Slavery |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/05/peter-h-wood-strange-new-land-excerpt.html |magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120071333/https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/05/peter-h-wood-strange-new-land-excerpt.html |archive-date=January 20, 2023}}</ref> The United States became polarized over the issue of slavery, represented by the [[slave and free states]] divided by the [[Mason–Dixon line]], which separated free Pennsylvania from slave Maryland and Delaware.

Congress, during the [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] administration, [[Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves|prohibited the importation of slaves]], effective 1808, although smuggling (illegal importing) was not unusual.<ref name="Julia Floyd Smith 1973, pp. 44-46">{{cite book |first=Julia Floyd |last=Smith |title=Slavery and Plantation Growth in Antebellum Florida, 1821–1860 |location=Gainesville |publisher=[[University of Florida Press]] |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-8130-0323-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BKIDcAAACAAJ&pg=PA44 |page=44 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Domestic slave trading, however, continued at a rapid pace, driven by labour demands from the development of cotton [[Plantations in the American South|plantations in the Deep South]]. Those states attempted to extend slavery into the new western territories to keep their share of political power in the nation. Such laws proposed to Congress to continue the spread of slavery into newly ratified states include the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act|Kansas-Nebraska Act]].

[[File:Mississippi Plantation.jpg|alt=A black family works a cotton plantation. A young boy stands in front of the camera. The photo is in black and white.|thumb|A Black family works a cotton plantation in Mississippi. The subtitle says "We'se done all dis's morning".]]
The treatment of slaves in the United States varied widely depending on conditions, times, and places. The power relationships of slavery corrupted many whites who had authority over slaves, with children showing their own cruelty. Masters and overseers resorted to physical punishments to impose their wills. Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling, [[Lynching in the United States|hanging]], beating, burning, mutilation, branding and imprisonment. Punishment was most often meted out in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but sometimes abuse was carried out to re-assert the dominance of the master or overseer of the slave.<ref name=Wilbert>{{cite book |last=Moore |first=Wilbert Ellis |title=American Negro Slavery and Abolition: A Sociological Study |year=1980 |publisher=Ayer Publishing}}</ref> Treatment was usually harsher on large plantations, which were often managed by overseers and owned by absentee slaveholders.

[[William Wells Brown]], who escaped to freedom, reported that on one plantation, slave men were required to pick {{convert|80|lbs|kg}} of cotton per day, while women were required to pick {{convert|70|lbs|kg}} per day; if any slave failed in their quota, they were subject to whip lashes for each pound they were short. The whipping post stood next to the cotton scales.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clinton |first=Catherine |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=B1of9_aq4zkC|page=8}} |title=Scholastic Encyclopedia of the Civil War |date=1999 |publisher=Scholastic Reference |isbn=978-0-590-37228-2 |page=8}}</ref> A New York man who attended a slave auction in the mid-19th century reported that at least three-quarters of the male slaves he saw at sale had scars on their backs from whipping.<ref name="McInnis2011">{{cite book |first=Maurie D. |last=McInnis |title=Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=R3W4M4UojrEC|page=129}} |year=2011 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=978-0-226-55933-9 |page=129}}</ref> By contrast, small slave-owning families had closer relationships between the owners and slaves; this sometimes resulted in a more humane environment but was not a given.<ref name=Wilbert/>

More than one million slaves were sold from the [[Upper South]], which had a surplus of labour, and taken to the Deep South in a forced migration, splitting up many families. New communities of African American culture were developed in the Deep South, and the total slave population in the South eventually reached 4&nbsp;million before liberation.<ref name="Stephen1999">{{cite book |last=Behrendt |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen D. Behrendt |title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience |year=1999 |publisher=Basic Civitas Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-465-00071-5 |chapter=Transatlantic Slave Trade |url=https://archive.org/details/africanaencyclop00appi}} Based on "records for 27,233 voyages that set out to obtain slaves for the Americas".</ref><ref name=SocialAspects>{{cite web |url=http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/manassas/social/introsoc.htm |title=Social Aspects of the Civil War |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714073725/http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/manassas/social/introsoc.htm |archive-date=July 14, 2007 |publisher=[[National Park Service]]}}</ref> In the 19th century, proponents of slavery often defended the institution as a "necessary evil". White people of that time feared that emancipation of black slaves would have more harmful social and economic consequences than the continuation of slavery. The French writer and traveler [[Alexis de Tocqueville]], in ''[[Democracy in America]]'' (1835), expressed opposition to slavery while observing its effects on American society. He felt that a multiracial society without slavery was untenable, as he believed that prejudice against black people increased as they were granted more rights. Others, like [[James Henry Hammond]] argued that slavery was a "positive good" stating: "Such a class you must have, or you would not have that other class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement."

The Southern state governments wanted to keep a balance between the number of slave and free states to maintain a political balance of power in [[United States Congress|Congress]]. The new [[Territories of the United States|territories]] acquired from [[British Empire|Britain]], [[French colonial empire|France]], and Mexico were the subject of major political compromises. By 1850, the newly rich cotton-growing South was threatening to secede from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]], and tensions continued to rise. Many white Southern Christians, including church ministers, attempted to justify their support for slavery as modified by Christian paternalism.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-33/why-christians-supported-slavery.html#storystream |title=Why Did So Many Christians Support Slavery? |website=christianitytoday.com |date=January 1992 |access-date=August 28, 2017 }}</ref> The largest denominations, the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, split over the slavery issue into regional organizations of the North and South.
[[File:Slavery21.jpg|thumb|200px|''Flogging a slave fastened to the ground'', illustration in an 1853 anti-slavery pamphlet]]

When [[Abraham Lincoln]] won the [[1860 United States presidential election|1860 election]] on a platform of halting the expansion of slavery, according to the [[1860 United States census|1860 U.S. census]], roughly 400,000 individuals, representing 8% of all U.S. families, owned nearly 4,000,000 slaves.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.civil-war.net/pages/1860_census.html |title=1860 Census Results |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040604075834/http://www.civil-war.net/pages/1860_census.html |archive-date=June 4, 2004}}</ref> One-third of Southern families owned slaves.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Ta-Nehisi |last=Coates |author-link=Ta-Nehisi Coates |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/08/small-truth-papering-over-a-big-lie/61136/ |title=Small Truth Papering Over a Big Lie |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |date=August 9, 2010 |access-date=September 29, 2015 }}</ref> The South was heavily invested in slavery. As such, upon Lincoln's election, seven states broke away to form the [[Confederate States of America]]. The first six states to secede held the greatest number of slaves in the South. Shortly after, over the issue of slavery, the United States erupted into an all-out [[American Civil War|Civil War]], with slavery legally ceasing as an institution following the war in December 1865.

In 1865, the United States ratified the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|13th Amendment]] to the [[United States Constitution]], which banned slavery and involuntary servitude "except as punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted," providing a legal basis for forced labor to continue in the country. This led to the system of [[convict leasing]], which affected primarily African Americans. The [[Prison Policy Initiative]], an American criminal justice think tank, cites the 2020 US prison population as 2.3 million, and nearly all able-bodied inmates work in some fashion. In [[Texas]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Alabama]] and [[Arkansas]], prisoners are not paid at all for their work. In other states, prisoners are paid between $0.12 and $1.15 per hour. [[Federal Prison Industries]] paid inmates an average of $0.90 per hour in 2017. Inmates who refuse to work may be indefinitely remanded into [[solitary confinement]] or have family visitation revoked. From 2010 to 2015 and [[2016 U.S. prison strike|again in 2016]] and [[2018 U.S. prison strike|in 2018]], some prisoners in the US [[Strike action|refused to work]], protesting for better pay, better conditions, and for the end of forced labor. Strike leaders were punished with indefinite solitary confinement. Forced prison labor occurs in both government-run prisons and [[Private prisons in the United States|private prisons]]. [[CoreCivic]] and [[GEO Group]] constitute half the market share of private prisons, and they made a combined revenue of $3.5 billion in 2015. The value of all labor by inmates in the United States is estimated to be in the billions. In [[California]], 2,500 incarcerated workers fought wildfires for only $1 per hour through the CDCR's [[California fire camps|Conservation Camp Program]], which saves the state as much as $100 million a year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lowe |first=Jaime |date=2021-07-27 |title=What Does California Owe Its Incarcerated Firefighters? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/07/california-inmate-firefighters/619567/ |access-date=2023-08-29 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref>

=== Asia-Pacific ===
{{See also|History of slavery in Asia}}

==== East Asia ====
[[File:Chinese Slave trade.jpg|thumb|upright|A contract from the [[Tang dynasty]] recording the purchase of a 15-year-old slave for six bolts of plain silk and five [[Ancient Chinese coinage|coins]]]]
{{See also|Slavery in China}}
Slavery existed in ancient China as early as the [[Shang dynasty]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Pargas |first1=Damian Alan |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=wdBCDwAAQBAJ|page=523}} |title=Critical Readings on Global Slavery (4 vols.) |last2=Roşu |first2=Felicia |date=December 7, 2017 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|BRILL]] |isbn=978-90-04-34661-1}}</ref> Slavery was employed largely by governments as a means of maintaining a public labour force.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/news-events/events-archive/events2013/ancient-slavery |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306234824/https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/news-events/events-archive/events2013/ancient-slavery |archive-date=March 6, 2019 |title=Slavery and forced labour in Ancient China and the Ancient Mediterranean |work=The University of Edinburgh |publisher=[[University of Edinburgh]] |access-date=March 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ober |first1=Josiah |last2=Scheidel |first2=Walter |last3=Shaw |first3=Brent D. |last4=Sanclemente |first4=Donna |date=April 18, 2007 |title=Toward Open Access in Ancient Studies: The Princeton-Stanford Working Papers in Classics |journal=Hesperia |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=229–242 |doi=10.2972/hesp.76.1.229 |s2cid=145709968 |issn=0018-098X}}</ref>  Until the [[Han dynasty]], slaves were sometimes discriminated against but their legal status was guaranteed.  As can be seen from the some historical records as "Duansheng, [[Marquess|Marquis]] of Shouxiang, had his [[territory]] confiscated because he killed a female slave" (''[[Dongguan Hanji|Han dynasty records in DongGuan]]''), "[[Wang Mang]]'s son Wang Huo murdered a slave, Wang Mang severely criticized him and forced him to commit suicide" (''[[Book of Han]]: Biography of Wang Mang''), Murder against slaves was as taboo as murder against free people, and perpetrators were always severely punished. Han dynasty can be said to be very distinctive compared to other countries of the [[Ancient history|same period]](In most cases, lords were free to kill their slaves) in terms of slaves [[human rights]].

After the [[Northern and Southern dynasties|Southern and Northern Dynasties]],  Due to years of poor harvests, the influx of foreign tribes, and the resulting wars,  The number of slaves exploded. They became a class and were called "{{interlanguage link|jianmin|zh|贱民}} ([[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 贱民)", The word literally means "inferior person".  As stated in [[Tang Code|''The commentary of Tang Code'']]: "Slaves and inferior people are legally equivalent to [[livestock]] products",  They always had a low social status, and even if they were deliberately murdered, the perpetrators received only a year in prison, and were punished even when they reported the crimes of their lords.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-14 |title=Outline of the Senmin system during the Ritsuryo period |url=https://rikkyo.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/547/files/KJ00007959919.pdf}}</ref>  However, in the Later period of the dynasty, perhaps because the increase in the number of slaves slowed down again, the penalties for crimes against them became harsh again.  For example, the famous contemporary female poet [[Yu Xuanji]], she was publicly executed for murdering her own slave.

Many [[Han Chinese]] were enslaved in the process of the [[Mongol conquest of China|Mongol invasion]] of [[China proper]].{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=146-147}} According to Japanese historians Sugiyama Masaaki (杉山正明) and Funada Yoshiyuki (舩田善之), Mongolian slaves were owned by [[Han Chinese]] during the [[Yuan dynasty]].<ref>杉山正明《忽必烈的挑战》，社会科学文献出版社，2013年，第44–46頁</ref><ref>船田善之《色目人与元代制度、社会 – 重新探讨蒙古、色目、汉人、南人划分的位置》,〈蒙古学信息〉2003年第2期</ref> Slavery has taken various forms throughout China's history. It was reportedly abolished as a legally recognized institution, including in a 1909 law<ref name="EncAnt">{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=R. Owen |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=_SeZrcBqt-YC|page=156}} |title=Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition [Two Volumes] |date=November 2006 |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |isbn=978-0-313-01524-3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Zhao |first=Gang |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=8jKsAAAAIAAJ|page=15}} |title=Man and Land in Chinese History: An Economic Analysis |date=1986 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8047-1271-2}}</ref> fully enacted in 1910,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Huang |first=Philip C. |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=wtkwLVoh9O0C|page=17}} |title=Code, Custom, and Legal Practice in China: The Qing and the Republic Compared |date=2001 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8047-4111-8}}</ref> although the practice continued until at least 1949.{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=146-147}} Tang Chinese soldiers and pirates enslaved Koreans, Turks, Persians, Indonesians, and people from Inner Mongolia, central Asia, and northern India.<ref>{{Cite journal |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=rBIUAQAAMAAJ|page=63}} |title=Kao-li maid-servant |journal=Memoirs of the Research Department of the Tōyō Bunko |issue=2 |year=1928 |page=63 |issn=0082-562X |location=Tokyo |publisher=[[Tōyō Bunko]]}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Lee|1997|p=49}}; {{harvp|Davis|1988|p=51}}; {{harvp|Salisbury|2004|p=316}}</ref> The greatest source of slaves came from southern tribes, including Thais and aboriginals from the southern provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou. Malays, Khmers, Indians, and "black skinned" peoples (who were either Austronesian [[Negrito]]s of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, or Africans, or both) were also purchased as slaves in the Tang dynasty.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schafer |first1=Edward H. |year=1963 |title=The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of Tʻang Exotics |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=jqAGIL02BWQC|page=45}} |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |pages=45–46 |isbn=978-0-520-05462-2}}</ref>

In the 17th century [[Qing dynasty]], there was a hereditarily servile people called ''Booi Aha'' ({{lang-mnc|booi niyalma}}; Chinese transliteration: 包衣阿哈), which is a Manchu word literally translated as "household person" and sometimes rendered as "[[nucai]]." The Manchu was establishing close personal and paternalist relationship between masters and their slaves, as Nurhachi said, "The Master should love the slaves and eat the same food as him".<ref>{{Citation |last=Granet |first=Marcel |author1-link=Marcel Granet |title=Chinese Civilization
|chapter=The History of Civilization |year=2013 |orig-date=1930 |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315005508-24 |pages=500–503 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London |doi=10.4324/9781315005508-24 |isbn=978-1-315-00550-8}}</ref> However, booi aha "did not correspond exactly to the Chinese category of "bond-servant slave" (Chinese:奴僕); instead, it was a relationship of personal dependency on a master which in theory guaranteed close personal relationships and equal treatment, even though many western scholars would directly translate "booi" as "bond-servant" (some of the "booi" even had their own servant).{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=146–147}} [[Hui people|Chinese Muslim]] (Tungans) Sufis who were charged with practicing xiejiao (heterodox religion), were punished by exile to Xinjiang and being sold as a slave to other Muslims, such as the Sufi [[Baig|begs]].<ref>{{cite book |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=90CN0vtxdY0C|page=69}} |title=Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China |first=Jonathan Neaman |last=Lipman |year=2004 |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |location=Seattle |page=69 |isbn=978-0-295-97644-0 |access-date=November 28, 2010}}</ref> [[Han Chinese]] who committed crimes such as those dealing with opium became slaves to the begs, this practice was administered by Qing law.<ref>{{cite book |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=xQk97ET1aQMC|page=148}} |title=Opium regimes: China, Britain, and Japan, 1839–1952 |last1=Brook |first1=Timothy |first2=Bob Tadashi |last2=Wakabayashi |year=2000 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |page=148 |isbn=978-0-520-22236-6 |access-date=November 28, 2010}}</ref> Most Chinese in [[Altishahr]] were exile slaves to Turkestani Begs.{{sfn|Millward|1998|p=145}} While free Chinese merchants generally did not engage in relationships with East Turkestani women, some of the Chinese slaves belonging to begs, along with Green Standard soldiers, Bannermen, and Manchus, engaged in affairs with the East Turkestani women that were serious in nature.{{sfn|Millward|1998|p=206}}

[[File:Gesang School (i.e. kisaeng school).jpg|thumb|[[Kisaeng]], women from outcast or slave families who were trained to provide entertainment, conversation, and sexual services to men of the upper class]]
[[Slavery in Korea]] existed since before the [[Three Kingdoms of Korea]] period, in the first century BCE.{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=392–393}} Slavery has been described as "very important in medieval Korea, probably more important than in any other [[East Asian]] country, but by the 16th century, population growth was making [it] unnecessary".<ref name="Klein2014">{{cite book |first=Martin A. |last=Klein |title=Historical Dictionary of Slavery and Abolition |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=ULeCBAAAQBAJ|page=13}} |year=2014 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] Publishers |isbn=978-0-8108-7528-9 |page=13}}</ref> Slavery went into decline around the 10th century but came back in the late [[Goryeo]] period when Korea also experienced multiple [[slave rebellion]]s.{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=392-393}} In the [[Joseon]] period of Korea, members of the slave class were known as {{lang|ko-latn|nobi}}. The nobi were socially indistinct from freemen (i.e., the [[Chungin|middle]] and [[Sangmin|common]] classes) other than the ruling [[yangban]] class, and some possessed property rights, and legal and civil rights. Hence, some scholars argue that it is inappropriate to call them "slaves",<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Young-hoon |last1=Rhee |first2=Donghyu |last2=Yang |title=Korean Nobi in American Mirror: Yi Dynasty Coerced Labor in Comparison to the Slavery in the Antebellum Southern United States |url=https://ideas.repec.org/p/snu/ioerwp/no26.html |website=Working Paper Series |date=December 1999 |publisher=Institute of Economic Research, [[Seoul National University]] |access-date=February 14, 2017 |archive-date=November 6, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106230507/https://ideas.repec.org/p/snu/ioerwp/no26.html}}</ref> while some scholars describe them as [[serfs]].{{sfn|Campbell|2004|pp=153–157}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Palais |first1=James B. |title=Views on Korean social history |publisher=Institute for Modern Korean Studies, [[Yonsei University]] |isbn=978-89-7141-441-5 |page=50 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=xxi5AAAAIAAJ}} |access-date=February 15, 2017 |quote=Another target of his critique is the insistence that slaves (nobi) in Korea, especially in Choson dynasty, were closer to serfs (nongno) than true slaves (noye) in Europe and America, enjoying more freedom and independence than what a slave would normally be allowed.|year=1998}}</ref> The nobi population could fluctuate up to about one-third of the total, but on average the nobi made up about 10% of the total population.{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=392–393}} In 1801, the majority of government nobi were emancipated,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kim |first1=Youngmin |last2=Pettid |first2=Michael J. |title=Women and Confucianism in Choson Korea: New Perspectives |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |isbn=978-1-4384-3777-4 |page=141 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=UwgUa6WWFBMC|page=141}} |access-date=February 14, 2017 |date=2011}}</ref> and by 1858, the nobi population stood at about 1.5 percent of the Korean population.{{sfn|Campbell|2004|pp=162-163}} During the [[Joseon]] period, the [[nobi]] population could fluctuate up to about one-third of the population, but on average the nobi made up about 10% of the total population.{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=392–393}} The nobi system declined beginning in the 18th century.{{sfn|Campbell|2004|p=157}} Since the outset of the Joseon dynasty and especially beginning in the 17th century, there was harsh criticism among prominent thinkers in Korea about the nobi system. Even within the Joseon government, there were indications of a shift in attitude toward the nobi.<ref name="Kim">{{cite book |last1=Kim |first1=Youngmin |last2=Pettid |first2=Michael J. |title=Women and Confucianism in Choson Korea: New Perspectives |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |isbn=978-1-4384-3777-4 |pages=140–41 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=UwgUa6WWFBMC|page=140}} |access-date=February 14, 2017 |date=2011}}</ref> [[Yeongjo of Joseon|King Yeongjo]] implemented a policy of gradual [[emancipation]] in 1775,<ref name="Klein2014"/> and he and his successor [[Jeongjo of Joseon|King Jeongjo]] made many proposals and developments that lessened the burden on nobi, which led to the emancipation of the vast majority of government nobi in 1801.<ref name="Kim" /> In addition, population growth,<ref name="Klein2014"/> numerous escaped slaves,{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=392–393}} growing commercialization of agriculture, and the rise of the independent small farmer class contributed to the decline in the number of nobi to about 1.5% of the total population by 1858.{{sfn|Campbell|2004|pp=162–163}} The hereditary nobi system was officially abolished around 1886–87,{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=392–393}}{{sfn|Campbell|2004|pp=162–163}} and the rest of the nobi system was abolished with the [[Gabo Reform]] of 1894.{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=392–393}}<ref>{{cite book |author=Korean National Commission for UNESCO |title=Korean History: Discovery of Its Characteristics and Developments |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=ZvdxAAAAMAAJ}} |year=2004 |publisher=Hollym |isbn=978-1-56591-177-2 |page=14}}</ref> However, slavery did not completely disappear in Korea until 1930, during Imperial Japanese rule. During the [[Korea under Japanese rule|Imperial Japanese occupation of Korea]] around World War II, some Koreans were used in forced labour by the Imperial Japanese, in conditions which have been compared to slavery.{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=392–393}}<ref name="Tierney1999"/> These included women forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II, known as "[[comfort women]]".{{sfn|Rodriguez|1997|pp=392–393}}<ref name="Tierney1999">{{cite book |first=Helen |last=Tierney |title=Women's Studies Encyclopedia |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=9E4GgV6pBB8C|page=277}} |date=1999 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-313-31071-3 |page=277}}</ref>

After [[Japan–Portugal relations#History|the Portuguese first made contact with Japan]] in 1543, slave trade developed in which Portuguese purchased Japanese as slaves in Japan and sold them to various locations overseas, including Portugal, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hoffman |first=Michael |date=May 26, 2013 |title=The rarely, if ever, told story of Japanese sold as slaves by Portuguese traders |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/05/26/books/the-rarely-if-ever-told-story-of-japanese-sold-as-slaves-by-portuguese-traders/ |newspaper=The Japan Times |access-date=March 2, 2014 |archive-date=May 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505094146/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/05/26/books/the-rarely-if-ever-told-story-of-japanese-sold-as-slaves-by-portuguese-traders/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=May 10, 2007 |title=Europeans had Japanese slaves, in case you didn't know… |url=http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/05/10/europeans-had-japanese-slaves-in-case-you-didnt-know/ |newspaper=Japan Probe |access-date=January 7, 2018 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304030813/http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/05/10/europeans-had-japanese-slaves-in-case-you-didnt-know/}}</ref> Many documents mention the slave trade along with protests against the enslavement of Japanese. Japanese slaves are believed to be the first of their nation to end up in Europe, and the Portuguese purchased numbers of Japanese slave girls to bring to Portugal for sexual purposes, as noted by the Church<ref>{{Cite book |title=Early Encounters between East Asia and Europe: Telling Failures |first1=Ralf |last1=Hertel |first2=Michael |last2=Keevak |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-317-14718-3}}</ref> in 1555. Japanese slave women were even sold as [[concubine]]s to Asian [[lascar]] and African crew members, along with their European counterparts serving on Portuguese ships trading in Japan, mentioned by Luis Cerqueira, a Portuguese Jesuit, in a 1598 document.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2004 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=4z_JJfG-hyYC|page=408}} |page=408 |title=Race, Ethnicity and Migration in Modern Japan: Imagined and imaginary minorities |isbn=978-0-415-20857-4 |editor=Michael Weiner |edition=illustrated |access-date=February 2, 2014}}</ref> Japanese slaves were brought by the Portuguese to [[Macau]], where they were enslaved to Portuguese or became slaves to other slaves.<ref>{{cite book |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2005 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ|page=479}}
|page=479 |title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience |volume=3 |isbn=978-0-19-517055-9|editor1-last=Appiah |editor1-first=Kwame Anthony |editor1-link=Kwame Anthony Appiah |editor2-last=Gates |editor2-first=Henry Louis Jr. |editor2-link=Henry Louis Gates Jr. |access-date=February 13, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2010 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=A0XNvklcqbwC|page=187}} |page=187 |title=Encyclopedia of Africa |volume=1 |isbn=978-0-19-533770-9 |editor1-last=Appiah |editor1-first=Kwame Anthony |editor1-link=Kwame Anthony Appiah |editor2-last=Gates |editor2-first=Henry Louis Jr. |editor2-link=Henry Louis Gates Jr. |access-date=February 13, 2021}}</ref> Some Korean slaves were bought by the Portuguese and brought back to Portugal from Japan, where they had been among the tens of thousands of Korean prisoners of war transported to Japan during the [[Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–98)]].<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2003 |url=https://archive.org/details/specterofgenocid00robe |url-access=registration |quote=Hideyoshi korean slaves guns silk. |page=[https://archive.org/details/specterofgenocid00robe/page/277 277] |title=The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective |isbn=978-0-521-52750-7 |editor=Robert Gellately |editor2=Ben Kiernan |edition=reprint |access-date=February 2, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |publisher=Harvard University, Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies |year=2001 |page=18 |title=Reflections on Modern Japanese History in the Context of the Concept of "genocide" |first=Gavan |last=McCormack |others=Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies |issue=Issue 2001, Part 1 of Occasional papers in Japanese studies}}</ref> Historians pointed out that at the same time Hideyoshi expressed his indignation and outrage at the Portuguese trade in Japanese slaves, he was engaging in a mass slave trade of Korean prisoners of war in Japan.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2002 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=FliQAgAAQBAJ|page=170}} |page=170 |title=Tanegashima – The Arrival of Europe in Japan |isbn=978-1-135-78871-1 |first=Olof G. |last=Lidin |access-date=February 2, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=2012 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=6yjTKhcy0jYC|page=60}} |volume=21 of Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes |title=Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan |isbn=978-0-520-95238-6 |first=Amy |last=Stanley |others=Matthew H. Sommer |access-date=February 2, 2014}}</ref>
Fillippo Sassetti saw some Chinese and Japanese slaves in Lisbon among the large slave community in 1578, although most of the slaves were black.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=1985 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=YmauWWluaqcC}} |quote=countryside.16 Slaves were everywhere in Lisbon, according to the Florentine merchant Filippo Sassetti, who was also living in the city during 1578. Black slaves were the most numerous, but there were also a scattering of Chinese |page=208 |title=The memory palace of Matteo Ricci |first=Jonathan D. |last= Spence |isbn=978-0-14-008098-8 |edition=illustrated, reprint |access-date=May 5, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |language=pt |publisher=UNICAMP. Universidade Estadual de Campinas|year=1999|quote=Idéias e costumes da China podem ter-nos chegado também através de escravos chineses, de uns poucos dos quais sabe-se da presença no Brasil de começos do Setecentos.17 Mas não deve ter sido através desses raros infelizes que a influência chinesa nos atingiu, mesmo porque escravos chineses (e também japoneses) já existiam aos montes em Lisboa por volta de 1578, quando Filippo Sassetti visitou a cidade,18 apenas suplantados em número pelos africanos. Parece aliás que aos últimos cabia o trabalho pesado, ficando reservadas aos chins tarefas e funções mais amenas, inclusive a de em certos casos secretariar autoridades civis, religiosas e militares. |page=19 |title=A China no Brasil: influências, marcas, ecos e sobrevivências chinesas na sociedade e na arte brasileiras |first=José Roberto Teixeira |last=Leite |isbn=978-85-268-0436-4}}</ref><ref name="pinto92">{{cite book |first=Jeanette |last=Pinto |location=Bombay |publisher=Himalaya Pub. House |year=1992 |quote=ing Chinese as slaves, since they are found to be very loyal, intelligent and hard working' ... their culinary bent was also evidently appreciated. The Florentine traveller Fillippo Sassetti, recording his impressions of Lisbon's enormous slave population circa 1580, states that the majority of the Chinese there were employed as cooks. |page=18 |title=Slavery in Portuguese India, 1510–1842 |isbn=978-81-7040-587-0}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Boxer|1968|p=225}}: "be very loyal, intelligent, and hard-working. Their culinary bent (not for nothing is Chinese cooking regarded as the Asiatic equivalent to French cooking in Europe) was evidently appreciated. The Florentine traveller Filipe Sassetti recording his impressions of Lisbon's enormous slave population circa 1580, states that the majority of the Chinese there were employed as cooks. Dr. John Fryer, who gives us an interesting ...".</ref><ref>{{cite book |publisher=UNICAMP. Universidade Estadual de Campinas |year=1999 |language=pt |page=19 |title=A China No Brasil: Influencias, Marcas, Ecos E Sobrevivencias Chinesas Na Sociedade E Na Arte Brasileiras |trans-title=China in Brazil: Influences, Marks, Echoes and Chinese Survivals in Brazilian Society and Art |isbn=978-85-268-0436-4 |first=José Roberto Teixeira |last=Leite}}</ref>

The Portuguese also valued Oriental slaves more than the black Africans and the Moors for their rarity. Chinese slaves were more expensive than Moors and blacks and showed off the high status of the owner.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=Macmillan Reference US |date=1998 |page=737 |title=Macmillan encyclopedia of world slavery |volume=2 |isbn=978-0-02-864781-4 |first1=Paul |last1=Finkelman |first2=Joseph Calder |last2=Miller |oclc=39655102 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=5s0YAAAAIAAJ}}}}</ref> The Portuguese attributed qualities like intelligence and industriousness to Chinese, Japanese and Indian slaves.<ref>{{harvp|de Sande|2012}}; {{harvp|Saunders|1982|p=168}}; {{harvp|Boxer|1968|p=225}}: "be very loyal, intelligent, and hard-working. Their culinary bent (not for nothing is Chinese cooking regarded as the Asiatic equivalent to French cooking in Europe) was evidently appreciated. The Florentine traveller Filipe Sassetti recording his impressions of Lisbon's enormous slave population circa 1580, states that the majority of the Chinese there were employed as cooks. Dr. John Fryer, who gives us an interesting ...".</ref><ref name="pinto92"/> King [[King Sebastian|Sebastian of Portugal]] feared rampant slavery was having a negative effect on Catholic proselytization, so he commanded that it be banned in 1571.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=25066328 |title=Slavery in Medieval Japan |journal=Monumenta Nipponica |last=Nelson |first=Thomas |volume=59 |pages=463–492 |number=4 |date=Winter 2004}}</ref> [[Hideyoshi]] was so disgusted that his own Japanese people were being sold ''en masse'' into slavery on [[Kyushu]], that he wrote a letter to Jesuit Vice-Provincial Gaspar Coelho on July 24, 1587, to demand the Portuguese, Siamese (Thai), and Cambodians stop purchasing and enslaving Japanese and return Japanese slaves who ended up as far as India.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Sophia University]] |year=2004 |page=465 |title=Monumenta Nipponica |first=Jōchi |last=Daigaku}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |year=2013 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=lani3dFCC9UC|page=144}} |page=144 |title=Religion in Japanese History |isbn=978-0-231-51509-2 |first=Joseph Mitsuo |last=Kitagawa |edition=illustrated, reprint |access-date=February 2, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2013 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=J0KvyZp9VKAC|page=37}} |page=37 |title=Nature and Origins of Japanese Imperialism |isbn=978-1-134-91843-0 |first=Donald |last=Calman |access-date=February 2, 2014}}</ref> Hideyoshi blamed the Portuguese and Jesuits for this slave trade and banned Christian proselytizing as a result.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=Xlibris Corporation |year=2008 |title=Foreigners in Japan: A Historical Perspective |isbn=978-1-4691-0244-3 |first=Gopal |last=Kshetry}}{{self-published source|date=January 2019}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=January 2019}}<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2012 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=kruXu_m64ccC|page=223}} |title=Japanese and the Jesuits |isbn=978-1-134-88112-3 |last1=Moran |first1= J.F. |access-date=February 2, 2014}}</ref> In 1595, a law was passed by Portugal banning the selling and buying of Chinese and Japanese slaves.<ref>{{cite book |title=Legacies of slavery: comparative perspectives |first=Maria Suzette Fernandes |last=Dias |year=2007 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-84718-111-4 |page=71}}</ref>

====South Asia====
[[Slavery in India]] was widespread by the 6th century BC, and perhaps even as far back as the [[Vedic period]].<ref>footnote 2: (...) While it is likely that the institution of slavery existed in India during the Vedic period, the association of the Vedic 'Dasa' with 'slaves' is problematic and likely to have been a later development.</ref> Slavery intensified during the [[Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent|Muslim domination of northern India]] after the 11th century.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Levi |first=Scott C. |date=November 2002 |title=Hindus Beyond the Hindu Kush: Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=277–288 |doi=10.1017/S1356186302000329 |jstor=25188289 |s2cid=155047611 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/3960723 |quote=Sources such as the Arthasastra, the Manusmriti and the Mahabharata demonstrate that institutionalized slavery was well established in India by beginning of the common era}}</ref> Slavery existed in [[Portuguese India]] after the 16th century. The Dutch, too, largely dealt in Abyssian slaves, known in India as Habshis or Sheedes.<ref name="tribuneindia.com">{{cite news |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020720/windows/slice.htm |title=Windows – Slice of history |newspaper=The Tribune}}</ref> Arakan/Bengal, Malabar, and [[Coromandel Coast|Coromandel]] remained the largest sources of forced labour until the 1660s.

Between 1626 and 1662, the Dutch exported on an average 150–400 slaves annually from the Arakan-Bengal coast. During the first 30 years of Batavia's existence, Indian and Arakanese slaves provided the main labour force of the Dutch East India Company, Asian headquarters. An increase in Coromandel slaves occurred during a famine following the revolt of the Nayaka Indian rulers of South India (Tanjavur, Senji, and Madurai) against Bijapur overlordship (1645) and the subsequent devastation of the Tanjavur countryside by the Bijapur army. Reportedly, more than 150,000 people were taken by the invading Deccani Muslim armies to Bijapur and Golconda. In 1646, 2,118 slaves were exported to Batavia, the overwhelming majority from southern Coromandel. Some slaves were also acquired further south at Tondi, Adirampatnam, and Kayalpatnam. Another increase in slaving took place between 1659 and 1661 from Tanjavur as a result of a series of successive Bijapuri raids. At Nagapatnam, Pulicat, and elsewhere, the company purchased 8,000–10,000 slaves, the bulk of whom were sent to Ceylon, while a small portion were exported to Batavia and Malacca. Finally, following a long drought in Madurai and southern Coromandel, in 1673, which intensified the prolonged Madurai-Maratha struggle over Tanjavur and punitive fiscal practices, thousands of people from Tanjavur, mostly children, were sold into slavery and exported by Asian traders from Nagapattinam to Aceh, Johor, and other slave markets.

In September 1687, 665 slaves were exported by the English from Fort St. George, Madras. And, in 1694–96, when warfare once more ravaged South India, a total of 3,859 slaves were imported from Coromandel by private individuals into Ceylon.<ref>{{harvp|Subrahmanyam|1997|pp=201–253}}; {{harvp|Prakash|1998|p=5}}; {{harvp|Prakash|1985}}; {{harvp|Richards|2012}}; {{harvp|Raychaudhuri|Habib|1982}}; {{harvp|Arasaratnam|1995}}; {{harvp|Vink|1998}}; {{harvp|Arasaratnam|1996}}; {{harvp|Love|1913}}</ref><ref>V.B. Lieberman, ''Burmese Administrative Cycles: Anarchy and Conquest, c. 1580–1760'' (Princeton, N.J., 1984); G.D. Winius, "The 'Shadow Empire' of Goa in the Bay of Bengal," ''Itinerario'' 7, no. 2 (1983); D.G.E. Hall, "Studies in Dutch relations with Arakan," ''Journal of the Burma Research Society'' 26, no. 1 (1936):; D.G.E. Hall, "The Daghregister of Batavia and Dutch Trade with Burma in the Seventeenth Century," ''Journal of the Burma Research Society'' 29, no. 2 (1939)</ref><ref>VOC 1479, OBP 1691, fls. 611r–627v, Specificatie van Allerhande Koopmansz. tot Tuticurin, Manaapar en Alvatt.rij Ingekocht, 1670/71–1689/90; W. Ph. Coolhaas and J.van Goor, eds, Generale Missiven van Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden van Indiaan Heren Zeventien der Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (The Hague, 1960–present), passim; T. Raychaudhuri, ''Jan Company in Coromandel, 1605–1690: A Study on the Interrelations of European Commerce and Traditional Economies'' (The Hague, 1962)</ref><ref>For exports of Malabar slaves to Ceylon, Batavia, see Generale Missiven VI; H.K. s'Jacob ed., ''De Nederlanders in Kerala, 1663–1701: De Memories en Instructies Betreffende het Commandement Malabar van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie'', Rijks Geschiedkundige Publication, Kleine serie 43 (The Hague, 1976); R. Barendse, "Slaving on the Malagasy Coast, 1640–1700," in S. Evers and M. Spindler, eds, ''Cultures of Madagascar: Ebb and Flow of Influences'' (Leiden, 1995). See also M.O. Koshy, ''The Dutch Power in Kerala'' (New Delhi, 1989); K.K. Kusuman, ''Slavery in Travancore'' (Trivandrum, 1973); M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz, ''De Vestiging der Nederlanders ter Kuste Malabar'' (The Hague, 1943); H. Terpstra, ''De Opkomst der Westerkwartieren van de Oostindische Compagnie'' (The Hague, 1918).</ref> The volume of the total Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade has been estimated to be about 15–30% of the Atlantic slave trade, slightly smaller than the trans-Saharan slave trade, and one-and-a-half to three times the size of the Swahili and Red Sea coast and the Dutch West India Company slave trades.<ref>Of 2,467 slaves traded on 12 slave voyages from Batavia, India, and Madagascar between 1677 and 1701 to the Cape, 1,617 were landed with a loss of 850 slaves, or 34.45%. On 19 voyages between 1677 and 1732, the mortality rate was somewhat lower (22.7%). See Shell, "Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, 1680–1731," p. 332. Filliot estimated the average mortality rate among slaves shipped from India and West Africa to the Mascarene Islands at 20–25% and 25–30%, respectively. Average mortality rates among slaves arriving from closer catchment areas were lower: 12% from Madagascar and 21% from Southeast Africa. See Filliot, La Traite des Esclaves, p. 228; A. Toussaint, La Route des Îles: Contribution Ã l'Histoire Maritime des Mascareignes (Paris, 1967); Allen, "The Madagascar Slave Trade and Labor Migration."</ref>

According to Sir [[Henry Bartle Frere]] (who sat on the Viceroy's Council), there were an estimated 8 or 9&nbsp;million slaves in India in 1841. About 15% of the population of [[Malabar District|Malabar]] were slaves. Slavery was legally abolished in the possessions of the [[East India Company]] by the [[Indian Slavery Act, 1843]].<ref name="Slavery"/>

==== South East Asia ====
{{Main|Slavery in Brunei|Slavery in Indonesia|Slavery in  Malaysia}}
The hill tribe people in [[Indochina]] were "hunted incessantly and carried off as slaves by the Siamese (Thai), the Anamites (Vietnamese), and the Cambodians".<ref name="Bowie1996">{{cite journal |last=Bowie |first=Katherine A. |year=1996 |volume=44 |journal=Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia |title=Slavery in Nineteenth-Century Northern Thailand: Archival Anecdotes and Village Voices |url=https://www.academia.edu/785022 |publisher=Yale University Southeast Asia Studies Monograph Series |pages=16–33}}</ref> A Siamese military campaign in Laos in 1876 was described by a British observer as having been "transformed into slave-hunting raids on a large scale".<ref name="Bowie1996"/> The census, taken in 1879, showed that 6% of the population in the [[Monarchies of Malaysia|Malay]] sultanate of [[Perak]] were slaves.<ref name="Abolition"/> Enslaved people made up about two-thirds of the population in part of [[North Borneo]] in the 1880s.<ref name="Abolition"/>

==== Oceania ====
Slaves (''he mōkai'') had a recognised social role in traditional [[Māori people|Māori society]] in New Zealand.<ref>{{cite book |last=Klein |first=Martin A. |chapter=Maori |title=Historical Dictionary of Slavery and Abolition |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=ULeCBAAAQBAJ}} |series=Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements Series |edition=2 |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |year=2014 |page=253 |isbn=978-0-8108-7528-9 |access-date=February 23, 2019 |quote=Slaves called ''mokai'' were an important part of pre-colonial Maori society.}}</ref> [[Blackbirding]] occurred on islands in the Pacific Ocean and Australia, especially in the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web | title=Blackbirding: Australia's history of kidnapping Pacific Islanders | work=ABC News | date=September 16, 2017 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-17/blackbirding-australias-history-of-kidnapping-pacific-islanders/8860754 }}</ref>

=== Europe ===
==== Ancient Greece and Rome ====
{{Main|Slavery in ancient Greece|Slavery in ancient Rome|Black Sea slave trade}}
[[File:Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bibel in Bildern 1860 038.png|thumb|250px|''[[Ishmaelites]] purchase [[Joseph (Genesis)|Joseph]]'', by [[Schnorr von Carolsfeld]], 1860]]
Records of [[slavery in Ancient Greece]] begin with [[Mycenaean Greece]]. [[Classical Athens]] had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 6th and 5th centuries BC.<ref>{{Cite journal |editor-last=Berneker |editor-first=Erich |date=August 1, 1957 |last=Lauffer |first=Siegfried |title=Die Bergwerkssklaven von Laureion, I. Teil |trans-title=The Mine Slaves of Laureion, Part I |journal=Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Romanistische Abteilung |volume=74 |issue=1 |page=916 |doi=10.7767/zrgra.1957.74.1.403 |s2cid=179216974 |issn=2304-4934 |language=de}}</ref> As the [[Roman Republic]] expanded outward, entire populations were enslaved, across Europe and the Mediterranean. Slaves were used for labour, as well as for amusement (e.g., [[gladiator]]s and [[sexual slavery|sex slaves]]). This oppression by an elite minority eventually led to [[slave rebellion|slave revolts]] (see [[Roman Servile Wars]]); the [[Third Servile War]] was led by [[Spartacus]].

By the late Republican era, slavery had become an economic pillar of Roman wealth, as well as Roman society.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dl.ket.org/latinlit/mores/slaves/ |title=Slavery in Ancient Rome |publisher=Dl.ket.org |access-date=August 29, 2010 |archive-date=February 22, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100222010557/http://www.dl.ket.org/latinlit/mores/slaves/}}</ref> It is estimated that 25% or more of the population of [[Ancient Rome]] was enslaved, although the actual percentage is debated by scholars and varied from region to region.<ref name="Harper2011">{{cite book |last=Harper |first=Kyle |title=Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275–425 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=IPU8ZAcrOtIC|page=59}} |access-date=August 11, 2016 |year=2011 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-139-50406-5 |pages=59–60}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/slavery_01.shtml |title=Resisting Slavery in Ancient Rome |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=November 5, 2009 |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref> Slaves represented 15–25% of [[Roman Italy|Italy]]'s population,<ref name="Scheidel">{{cite web |url=http://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/scheidel/050704.pdf |title=The Roman slave supply |first=Walter |last=Scheidel |author-link=Walter Scheidel |publisher=[[Stanford University]]}}</ref> mostly war captives,<ref name="Scheidel"/> especially from [[Gaul]]<ref name=Joshel545560>{{Cite book |last=Joshel |first=Sandra R. |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=ovvgg3EyTyQC|page=55}} |title=Slavery in the Roman World |date=August 6, 2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-53501-4}}</ref> and [[Epirus]]. Estimates of the number of slaves in the [[Roman Empire]] suggest that the majority were scattered throughout the [[Roman Province|provinces]] outside of Italy.<ref name="Scheidel"/> Generally, slaves in Italy were indigenous Italians.<ref>{{cite book |last=Santosuosso |first=Antonio |year=2001 |title=Storming the Heavens |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |isbn=978-0-8133-3523-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/stormingheavenss00sant_0/page/43/mode/2up |pages=43–44}}</ref> Foreigners (including both slaves and freedmen) born outside of Italy were estimated to have peaked at 5% of the total in the capital, where their number was largest. Those from outside of Europe were predominantly of Greek descent. Jewish slaves never fully assimilated into Roman society, remaining an identifiable minority. These slaves (especially the foreigners) had higher death rates and lower birth rates than natives and were sometimes subjected to mass expulsions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Noy |first1=David |title=Foreigners at Rome: Citizens and Strangers |date=2000 |publisher=Duckworth with the Classical Press of Wales |isbn=978-0-7156-2952-9}}</ref> The average recorded age at death for the slaves in Rome was seventeen and a half years (17.2 for males; 17.9 for females).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harper |first1=James |title=Slaves and Freedmen in Imperial Rome |date=April 1972 |journal=[[The American Journal of Philology]] |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |volume=93 |issue=2 |pages=341–342 |jstor=293259 |doi=10.2307/293259}}</ref>

==== Medieval and early modern Europe ====
{{Main|Balkan slave trade|Barbary slave trade|Crimean slave trade|Slavery in the Byzantine Empire|Slavery in medieval Europe}}
[[File:Gniezno Boleslaus II.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Adalbert of Prague]] pleads with [[Boleslaus II, Duke of Bohemia]] for the release of slaves.]]
[[Slavery in medieval Europe|Slavery in early medieval Europe]] was so common that the [[Catholic Church]] repeatedly prohibited it, or at least the export of Christian slaves to non-Christian lands, as for example at the [[Koblenz#Middle Ages|Council of Koblenz]] (922), the [[Council of London (1102)]] (which aimed mainly at the sale of English slaves to Ireland)<ref name="Thomas">{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Hugh |author1-link=Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton |title=The Slave Trade: History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440–1870 |date=2006 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=978-0-7538-2056-8 |page=35}}</ref> and the Council of Armagh (1171). [[Serfdom]], on the contrary, was widely accepted. In 1452, [[Pope Nicholas V]] issued the [[papal bull]] {{lang|la|[[Dum Diversas]]}}, granting the kings of Spain and Portugal the right to reduce any "Saracens (Muslims), pagans and any other unbelievers" to perpetual slavery, legitimizing the slave trade as a result of war.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Curran |editor-first=Charles E. |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=gghti96kHscC|page=67}} |title=Change in Official Catholic Moral Teachings |date=2003 |publisher=Paulist Press |isbn=978-0-8091-4134-0 |last=Hayes |first=Diana |author-link=Diana L. Hayes |chapter=Reflections on Slavery}}</ref> The approval of slavery under these conditions was reaffirmed and extended in his {{lang|la|[[Romanus Pontifex]]}} bull of 1455. Large-scale trading in slaves was mainly confined to the South and East of [[Early Middle Ages|early medieval]] Europe: the [[Byzantine Empire]] and the [[Muslim world]] were the destinations, while [[paganism|pagan]] [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] (along with the [[Caucasus]] and [[Tartary]]) were important sources. [[Viking]], [[Arab people|Arab]], [[Greeks|Greek]], and [[Radhanite]] [[Jews|Jewish]] merchants were all involved in the slave trade during the Early Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Slave trade |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |date=May 14, 2020 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/slave-trade |access-date=February 13, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13798-slave-trade |last1=Singer |first1=Isido Singer |first2=Joseph |last2=Jacobs |title=Slave-trade |publisher=Jewishencyclopedia.com |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages\S\L\Slavery.htm |title=Slavery Encyclopedia of Ukraine |publisher=Encyclopediaofukraine.com |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref> The trade in European slaves reached a peak in the 10th century following the [[Zanj Rebellion]], which dampened the use of African slaves in the Arab world.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Michael Moïssey |last1=Postan |first2=Edward |last2=Miller |title=The Cambridge Economic History of Europe: Trade and industry in the Middle Ages |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=cHRvtwTLcMAC|page=417}} |access-date=May 31, 2012 |year=1987 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-08709-4 |page=417}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Carole Elizabeth |last=Boyce Davies |title=Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=nkVxNVvex-sC|page=1002}} |access-date=May 31, 2012 |year=2008 |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |isbn=978-1-85109-705-0 |page=1002}}</ref>

In Britain, slavery continued to be practiced following the fall of Rome, while sections of [[Æthelstan]]'s and [[Hywel the Good]]'s laws dealt with slaves in [[Kingdom of England|medieval England]] and [[medieval Wales]] respectively.<ref name="Jurasinski 2015 p. 96">{{cite book |last=Jurasinski |first=S. |title=The Old English Penitentials and Anglo-Saxon Law |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |series=Studies in Legal History |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-107-08341-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QJfwCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 |access-date=May 11, 2023 |page=96 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="Foot 2011 p. 139">{{cite book |last=Foot |first=S. |title=AEthelstan: The First King of England |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |series=The English Monarchs Series |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-300-12535-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GcicU-6AmVcC&pg=PA139 |access-date=May 11, 2023 |page=139 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The trade particularly picked up after the Viking invasions, with major markets at [[Chester]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goose |first=Nigel |date=October 18, 2007 |title=Victoria county history: a history of the county of Chester, vol. V, 2, The city of Chester: culture, buildings and institutions – Edited by Christopher P. Lewis and Alan T. Thacker Victoria county history: a history of the county of Durham, vol. IV, Darlington – Edited by Gillian Cookson Victoria county history: a history of the County of Oxford, vol. XV, Carterton, Minster Lovell, and environs (Bampton Hundred part three) – Edited by S. Townley |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/ches/vol5/pt1/pp16-33 |journal=The Economic History Review |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=830–832 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2007.00401_3.x |issn=0013-0117|doi-access=free }}</ref> and [[Bristol]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Clapham |first=John H. |author-link=John Clapham (economic historian) |title=A Concise Economic History of Britain from the Earliest Times |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=5RU9AAAAIAAJ|page=63}} |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press|CUP Archive]] |page=63 |id=GGKEY:HYPAY3GPAA5}}</ref> supplied by Danish, Mercian, and Welsh raiding of one another's borderlands. At the time of the ''[[Domesday Book]]'', nearly 10% of the [[Norman England|English]] population were slaves.<ref>{{cite web |title=Medieval English society |url=http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123%2013%20Society.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050214015701/http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123%2013%20Society.htm |archive-date=February 14, 2005 |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin]] |access-date=September 5, 2009}}</ref> [[William the Conqueror]] introduced a law preventing the sale of slaves overseas.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hudson |first1=John |title=The Oxford History of the Laws of England |volume=II (871–1216) |date=2012 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-163003-3 |edition=First |pages=424–425}}</ref> According to historian [[John Gillingham]], by 1200 slavery in the British Isles was non-existent.<ref name=Gillingham8-9>{{citation |last=Gillingham |first=John |author-link=John Gillingham |title=French chivalry in twelfth-century Britain? |date=Summer 2014 |magazine=The Historian |pages=8–9}}</ref> Slavery had never been authorized by statute within England and Wales, and in 1772, in the case [[Somerset v Stewart]], Lord Mansfield declared that it was also unsupported within England by the common law. The slave trade was abolished by the [[Slave Trade Act 1807]], although slavery remained legal in possessions outside Europe until the passage of the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]] and the [[Indian Slavery Act, 1843]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Saxon Slave-Market in Bristol|url=http://www.buildinghistory.org/bristol/saxonslaves.shtml|access-date=February 6, 2021|website=Building History |date=July 2006}}</ref> 
However, when England began to have colonies in the Americas, and particularly from the 1640s, African slaves began to make their appearance in England and remained a presence until the eighteenth century. In Scotland, slaves continued to be sold as chattels until late in the eighteenth century (on the second May 1722, an advertisement appeared in the ''[[Edinburgh Evening Courant]]'', announcing that a stolen slave had been found, who would be sold to pay expenses, unless claimed within two weeks).<ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=Erskine May on Slavery in Britain (Vol. III, Chapter XI) |url=http://www.pdavis.nl/ErskineMay.htm |access-date=November 2, 2017}}</ref> For nearly two hundred years in the [[history of coal mining]] in Scotland, miners were bonded to their "maisters" by a 1606 Act "Anent Coalyers and Salters". The [[Colliers and Salters (Scotland) Act 1775]] stated that "many colliers and salters are in a state of slavery and bondage" and announced emancipation; those starting work after July 1, 1775, would not become slaves, while those already in a state of slavery could, after 7 or 10 years depending on their age, apply for a decree of the Sheriff's Court granting their freedom. Few could afford this, until a further law in 1799 established their freedom and made this slavery and bondage illegal.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite web |first1=James |last1=Barrowman |title=Slavery In The Coal-Mines Of Scotland |date=September 14, 1897 |publisher=Scottish Mining Website |url=http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/429.html |access-date=November 2, 2017}}</ref>

[[File:Captain walter croker horror stricken at algiers 1815.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|A British captain witnessing the miseries of slaves in [[Ottoman Algeria]], 1815.]]
The [[Byzantine–Ottoman Wars|Byzantine-Ottoman wars]] and the [[Ottoman wars in Europe]] brought large numbers of slaves into the Islamic world.<ref>{{cite book |last=Phillips |first=William D. Jr. |title=Slavery from Roman times to the Early Transatlantic Trade |year=1985 |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |location=Manchester |isbn=978-0-7190-1825-1 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=0B8NAQAAIAAJ|page=37}} |page=37}}</ref> 
To staff its bureaucracy, the Ottoman Empire established a [[Janissaries|janissary system]] which seized hundreds of thousands of Christian boys through the [[devşirme]] system. They were well cared for but were legally slaves owned by the government and were not allowed to marry. They were never bought or sold. The empire gave them significant administrative and military roles. The system began about 1365; there were 135,000 janissaries in 1826, when the system ended.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Janissaries |url=https://ospreypublishing.com/the-janissaries-pb |access-date=February 7, 2021 |first=David |last=Nicolle |publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]] |year=1995}}</ref> After the [[Battle of Lepanto (1571)|Battle of Lepanto]], 12,000 Christian galley slaves were recaptured and freed from the [[Ottoman fleet]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trivia-library.com/b/famous-battles-in-history-the-turks-and-christians-at-lepanto.htm |title=Famous Battles in History The Turks and Christians at Lepanto |publisher=Trivia-library.com |access-date=August 29, 2010 |archive-date=November 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171119044231/https://www.trivia-library.com/b/famous-battles-in-history-the-turks-and-christians-at-lepanto.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> 
Eastern Europe suffered a series of [[Mongol and Tatar states in Europe|Tatar invasions]], the goal of which was to loot and capture slaves for selling them to Ottomans as [[jasyr]].<ref name="slave trade">{{cite journal |first=Mikhail |last=Kizilov |author-link=Mikhail Kizilov |title=Slave Trade in the Early Modern Crimea From the Perspective of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources |issue=1 |pages=1–31 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2971600 |journal=[[Journal of Early Modern History]] |volume=11 |doi=10.1163/157006507780385125 |year=2007}}</ref> Seventy-five Crimean Tatar raids were recorded into [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Poland–Lithuania]] between 1474 and 1569.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Warfare, State and Society on the Black Sea Steppe, 1500–1700 |year=2007 |first=Brian |last=Davies |page=17 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-23986-8}}</ref>

[[File:Targ niewolnikow w Kordowie.jpg|thumb|right|[[Slavs|Slavic]] and African slaves in Córdoba, illustration from [[Cantigas de Santa Maria]], 13th Century]]
[[Spain in the Middle Ages|Medieval Spain]] and [[History of Portugal|Portugal]] were the scene of almost constant Muslim invasion of the predominantly Christian area. Periodic raiding expeditions were sent from [[Al-Andalus]] to ravage the Iberian Christian kingdoms, bringing back booty and slaves. In a raid against Lisbon in 1189, for example, the [[Almohad dynasty|Almohad]] caliph [[Yaqub al-Mansur]] took 3,000 female and child captives, while his governor of [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]], in a subsequent attack upon [[Silves Municipality, Portugal|Silves]], Portugal, in 1191, took 3,000 Christian slaves.<ref>{{cite web|first=James William |last=Brodman |url=http://libro.uca.edu/rc/rc1.htm |title=Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain: The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier |publisher=Libro.uca.edu |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref> From the 11th to the 19th century, North African [[Barbary corsairs|Barbary Pirates]] engaged in raids on European coastal towns to capture Christian slaves to sell at [[Barbary slave trade|slave markets]] in places such as Algeria and Morocco.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_02.shtml |title=British Slaves on the Barbary Coast |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080310231703/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_02.shtml |archive-date=March 10, 2008}}</ref>

The maritime town of [[Lagos, Portugal|Lagos]] was the first slave market created in Portugal (one of the earliest colonizers of the Americas) for the sale of imported African slaves&nbsp;– the {{lang|pt|[[Mercado de Escravos]]}}, opened in 1444.<ref name="Goodman">{{cite book |first1=Joan E. |last1=Goodman |first2=Tom |last2=McNeely |title=A Long and Uncertain Journey: The 27,000 Mile Voyage of Vasco Da Gama |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=Ziv7J90u-mAC}} |access-date=May 31, 2012 |year=2001 |publisher=Mikaya Press |isbn=978-0-9650493-7-5}}</ref><ref name="Oliveira">{{Cite book |last1=Marques |first1=António Henrique R. de Oliveira |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=OlKTVOp3VYwC}}|title=History of Portugal: From Lusitania to empire |date=1972 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-03159-2 |pages=158–160, 362–370}}</ref> In 1441, the first slaves were brought to Portugal from northern Mauritania.<ref name="Oliveira"/> By 1552, black African slaves made up 10% of the population of [[Lisbon]].<ref>{{cite book |first=K. J. P. |last=Lowe |title=Black Africans In Renaissance Europe |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=d2dN5vh2200C|page=156}} |access-date=May 31, 2012 |year=2005 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-81582-6 |page=156}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Northrup |title=Africa's Discovery of Europe: 1450 to 1850|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=RzJzjQ4eOgQC|page=8}} |access-date=May 31, 2012 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-514084-2 |page=8}}</ref> In the second half of the 16th century, the Crown gave up the monopoly on slave trade, and the focus of European trade in African slaves shifted from import to Europe to slave transports directly to tropical colonies in the Americas&nbsp;– especially Brazil.<ref name="Oliveira"/> In the 15th century one-third of the slaves were resold to the African market in exchange of gold.<ref name="Klein2010">{{cite book |first=Herbert S. |last=Klein |title=The Atlantic Slave Trade |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=_QiGQbD7m7EC}} |year=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-139-48911-9}}</ref>

Until the late 18th century, the [[Crimean Khanate]] (a Muslim Tatar state) maintained a [[Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe|massive slave trade]] with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East.<ref name="slave trade"/> The slaves were captured in southern Russia, [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Poland-Lithuania]], [[Moldavia]], [[Wallachia]], and [[Circassia]] by [[Tatars|Tatar]] horsemen<ref>{{cite book |first=Orest |last=Subtelny |title=Ukraine: A History |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=HNIs9O3EmtQC|page=106}} |access-date=May 31, 2012 |year=2000 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |isbn=978-0-8020-8390-6 |page=106}}</ref> and sold in the Crimean port of [[Feodosiya|Kaffa]].<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst373/readings/inalcik6.html |first=Halil |last=Inalcik |chapter=Servile Labor in the Ottoman Empire |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911101051/http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst373/readings/inalcik6.html |archive-date=September 11, 2009 |title=The Mutual Effects of the Islamic and Judeo-Christian Worlds: The East European Pattern |editor1-first=Abraham |editor1-last=Ascher |editor2-first=Tibor |editor2-last=Halasi-Kun |editor3-first=Béla K. |editor3-last=Kiràly |location=New York |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |date=1979 |pages=25–43}}</ref> About 2&nbsp;million mostly Christian slaves were exported over the 16th and 17th centuries<ref>Darjusz Kołodziejczyk, as reported by {{cite journal |first=Mikhail |last=Kizilov |author-link=Mikhail Kizilov |title=Slaves, Money Lenders, and Prisoner Guards:The Jews and the Trade in Slaves and Captivesin the Crimean Khanate |url=https://www.academia.edu/3706285 |journal=The Journal of Jewish Studies |year=2007 |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=189–210 |doi=10.18647/2730/JJS-2007}}</ref> until the Crimean Khanate was destroyed by the [[Russian Empire]] in 1783.<ref name="Crimea">{{cite web |url=http://www2.econ.hit-u.ac.jp/~areastd/mediterranean/mw/pdf/18/10.pdf |title=The Crimean Tatars and their Russian-Captive Slaves |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605131551/http://www.econ.hit-u.ac.jp/~areastd/mediterranean/mw/pdf/18/10.pdf |archive-date=June 5, 2013 |first=Eizo |last=Matsuki}}</ref> [[File:Recovery of Tartar captives.PNG|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Crimean Khanate|Crimean Tatar]] raiders enslaved more than 1 million Eastern Europeans.<ref>{{cite web|last=Glyn Williams |first=Brian |title=The Sultan's Raiders: The Military Role of the Crimean Tatars in the Ottoman Empire |url=http://www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/Crimean_Tatar_-_complete_report_01.pdf |publisher=[[The Jamestown Foundation]] |year=2013 |page=27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021092115/http://www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/Crimean_Tatar_-_complete_report_01.pdf |archive-date=October 21, 2013 |author-link=Brian Glyn Williams}}</ref>]]
In [[Kievan Rus'|Kievan Rus]] and [[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Muscovy]], slaves were usually classified as [[kholop]]s. According to David P. Forsythe, "In 1649 up to three-quarters of Muscovy's peasants, or 13 to 14 million people, were serfs whose material lives were barely distinguishable from slaves. Perhaps another 1.5 million were formally enslaved, with Russian slaves serving Russian masters."<ref name="Human Rights">{{Cite book|last=Forsythe|first=David P.|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=1QbX90fmCVUC|page=464}}|title=Encyclopedia of Human Rights|date=August 27, 2009|publisher=OUP USA|isbn=978-0-19-533402-9}}</ref> Slavery remained a major institution in [[Tsardom of Russia|Russia]] until 1723, when [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] converted the household slaves into house serfs. Russian agricultural slaves were formally converted into serfs earlier in 1679.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24160 |title=Historical survey: Ways of ending slavery |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016025606/http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24160 |archive-date=October 16, 2014}}</ref> Slavery in Poland was forbidden in the 15th century; in Lithuania, slavery was formally abolished in 1588; they were replaced by the second serfdom.

In Scandinavia, [[thrall]]dom was abolished in the mid-14th century.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1920 |entry=Träldom |entry-url=https://runeberg.org/nfcj/0106.html |access-date=February 6, 2021 |via= Project Runeberg |language=sv |encyclopedia=Nordisk familjebok |pages=159–160}}</ref>

During the [[Age of Enlightenment]], individuals, whether religious or not, held diverse and inconsistent beliefs about race and slavery and despite discussions on individual rights and freedoms; slavery was not abolished, but expanded significantly.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tyson |first1=Thomas N |last2=Oldroyd |first2=David |title=Accounting for slavery during the Enlightenment: Contradictions and interpretations |journal=Accounting History |date=May 2019 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=212-215,217-218 |doi=10.1177/1032373218759971}}</ref> The secular enlightenment allowed for scientific racism to emerge as a basis for slavery.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=Nathan G. |title=Race in a Godless World: Atheism, Race, and Civilization, 1850-1914 |date=2019 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=9781479835003|page=7-8}}</ref> It allowed for coexistence of conflicting views on the moral status of black enslavement and the inferior physical status of those people being enslaved, based on the science at the time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Curran |first1=Andrew S. |title=The Anatomy of Blackness: Science & Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment |date=2013 |publisher=Johns Hopkins Univ. Press |isbn=9781421409658 |pages=215, 220–221}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Enlightenment, Freedom, and Slavery |url=https://www.monticello.org/slavery/jefferson-slavery/thomas-jefferson-liberty-slavery/a-society-dependent-on-slavery/enlightenment-freedom-and-slavery/#:~:text=Enlightenment%20philosophy%20strongly%20influenced%20Jefferson's,on%20a%20hierarchy%20of%20races. |website=Monticello |language=en}}</ref> The theory of polygenesis (multiple independent human origins) generally lead to support or symapathy with slavery and this was used by nonreligious individuals to counter religious theories of monogenesis (single origin to one couple).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Alexander |first1=Nathan G. |title=Atheism and Polygenesis in the Nineteenth Century: Charles Bradlaugh's Racial Anthropology |journal=Modern Intellectual History |date=2019 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=836, 838 |doi=10.1017/S1479244317000622 }}</ref>

====Nazi Germany====
[[File:Buchenwald Forced Labor Railroad 85877.jpg|thumb|Prisoners forced to work on the Buchenwald–Weimar rail line, 1943]]
{{main|Forced labour under German rule during World War II}}
During the [[Second World War]], [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|Nazi Germany effectively enslaved about 12 million people]], both those considered undesirable and citizens of conquered countries, with the avowed intention of treating these ''[[Untermenschen]]'' (sub-humans) as a permanent slave-class of inferior beings who could be worked until they died, and who possessed neither the rights nor the legal status of members of the [[Aryan race]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=May 30, 2001|title=Nazi slave fund passes final hurdle|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1360426.stm|access-date=February 6, 2021}}</ref>

Besides Jews, the harshest deportation and forced labour policies were applied to the populations of Poland,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nathaninc.com/sites/default/files/Pub%20PDFs/Forced%20Labor%20Under%20the%20Third%20Reich%2C%20Part%20Two.pdf |title=Forced Labour under Third Reich |last1=Beyer |first1=John |last2=Schneider |first2=Stephan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403025028/http://www.nathaninc.com/sites/default/files/Pub%20PDFs/Forced%20Labor%20Under%20the%20Third%20Reich%2C%20Part%20Two.pdf |access-date=February 1, 2023 |archive-date=April 3, 2017}}</ref> Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. By the end of the war, half of Belarus' population had been killed or deported.<ref>{{cite conference |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267884530 |title=Kleine Ostarbeiter: Child Forced Labor in Nazi Germany and German Occupied Eastern Europe |first1=Johannes-Dieter |last1=Steinert |conference=127th Annual Meeting American Historical Association |quote=...apart from Jewish forced labourers – workers from Belarus, Ukraine and Russia had to endure the worst working and living conditions. Moreover, German occupation policies in the Soviet Union were far more brutal than in any other country, and German deportation practices the most inhuman.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Holocaust in Belarus |url=https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/resistance-during-holocaust/holocaust-belarus#:~:text=Timothy%20Snyder%20estimates%20that%20%E2%80%9Chalf,entirely%20destroyed%20by%20the%20war. |website=Facing History and Ourselves |date=May 12, 2020 |access-date=December 29, 2020 |quote=The non-Jewish population was subjected to Nazi terror, too. Hundreds of thousands were deported to Germany as slave laborers, thousands of villages and towns were burned or destroyed, and millions were starved to death as the Germans plundered the entire region. Timothy Snyder estimates that 'half of the population of Soviet Belarus was either killed or forcibly displaced during World War II: nothing of the kind can be said of any other European country.'}}</ref>

==== Communist states ====
{{main|Gulag}}
[[File:Belomorkanal3.jpg|thumb|Workers being forced to haul rocks up a hill in a Gulag]]

Between 1930 and 1960, the [[Soviet Union]] created a system of, according to [[Anne Applebaum]] and the "perspective of the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]]", slave labor camps called the ''Gulag'' ({{langx|ru|ГУЛаг|GULag}}).<ref>For sources about forced slave labor in GULAG camps, see {{harvp|Applebaum|2003|p=xv|loc=Introduction}}: "Gulag is the word an acronym for ''Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei'' or Central Administration of Camps. Over time, it has also indicated not only the administration of concentration camps, but also the very system of Soviet slave labor, in all its forms and varieties"; {{harvp|Gregory|Lazarev|2003|p=112}}: "From the perspective of the Kremlin, Magadan existed as the center of a domestic colony based on slave labor."; {{harvp|Barnes|2011|pp=7, 36, 262}}; {{harvp|Dobson|2012|pp=735–743}}</ref>

Prisoners in these camps were worked to death by a combination of extreme production quotas, physical and psychological brutality, hunger, lack of medical care, and the harsh environment. [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], who survived eight years of Gulag incarceration, provided firsthand testimony about the camps with the publication of ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'', after which he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref>{{harvp|Gregory|Lazarev|2003|p=vii}}: "Much has been written, and much is still to be written, about the Gulag. We all know of its status as an "archipelago" (in Solzhenitsyn's words) of penal slavery, inflicted on millions and held as a threat over the rest of the population."</ref>{{sfn|Applebaum|2003}} Fatality rate was as high as 80% during the first months in many camps. Hundreds of thousands of people, possibly millions, died as a direct result of forced labour under the Soviets.<ref>For sources about life in the Gulag camps, please see: {{harvp|Conquest|1978}}; {{harvp|Lester|Krysinska|2008|pp=170–179}}; {{harvp|Anderson|Tollison|1985|p=295}}: "This is the fact that the forced labor system of the Gulag is an example of slavery in the absence of well-defined and enforced property rights in slaves."; {{harvp|Meltzer|1993}}</ref>

[[Golfo Alexopoulos]] suggests comparing labor in the Gulag with "other forms of slave labor" and notes its "violence of human exploitation" in ''Illness and Inhumanity in Stalin's Gulag'':<ref name=":1Illness">{{cite book|title=Illness and Inhumanity in Stalin's Gulag |first1=Golfo |last1=Alexopoulos |series=Yale University Press |url=https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300179415/illness-and-inhumanity-stalins-gulag |publisher=Yale University/The Hoover Institution |location=New Haven, CT |date=2017 |page=5}}</ref>

<blockquote>
Stalin's Gulag was, in many ways, less a concentration camp than a forced labor camp and less a prison system than a system of slavery. The image of the slave appears often in Gulag memoir literature. As Varlam Shalamov wrote: ''"Hungry and exhausted, we leaned into a horse collar, raising blood blisters on our chests and pulling a stone-filled cart up the slanted mine floor. The collar was the same device used long ago by the ancient Egyptians."'' Thoughtful and rigorous historical comparisons of Soviet forced labor and other forms of '''slave labor''' would be worthy of scholarly attention, in my view. For as in the case of global slavery, the Gulag found legitimacy in an elaborate narrative of difference that involved the presumption of dangerousness and guilt. This ideology of difference and the violence of human exploitation have left lasting legacies in contemporary Russia.
</blockquote>

Historian Anne Applebaum writes in the introduction of her book that the word ''GULAG'' has come to represent ''"the system of Soviet slave labor itself, in all its forms and varieties"'':<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |publisher=Anchor |last=Applebaum |first=Anne |author-link=Anne Applebaum |title=Gulag: A History |chapter=Introduction |date=2007 |url=http://victimsofcommunism.org/gulag-an-introduction/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905220152/http://victimsofcommunism.org/gulag-an-introduction/ |archive-date=September 5, 2017}}</ref>

<blockquote>
The word ''"GULAG"'' is an acronym for ''Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei'', or Main Camp Administration, the institution which ran the Soviet camps. But over time, the word has also come to signify the system of Soviet slave labor itself, in all its forms and varieties: labor camps, punishment camps, criminal and political camps, women's camps, children's camps, transit camps. Even more broadly, "Gulag" has come to mean the Soviet repressive system itself, the set of procedures that Alexander Solzhenitsyn once called "our meat grinder": the arrests, the interrogations, the transport in unheated cattle cars, the forced labor, the destruction of families, the years spent in exile, the early and unnecessary deaths.
</blockquote>Applebaum's introduction has been criticized by Gulag researcher Wilson Bell,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wilson Bell |url=https://tru.academia.edu/WilsonBell |website=[[Academia.edu]]}}</ref> stating that her book "is, ''aside from the introduction'', a well-done overview of the Gulag, but it did not offer an interpretative framework much beyond [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|Solzhenitsyn]]'s paradigms".<ref>{{Cite journal |date=November 14, 2017 |title=New directions in Gulag studies: a roundtable discussion |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00085006.2017.1384665 |journal=Canadian Slavonic Papers |page=2 |doi=10.1080/00085006.2017.1384665 |last1=Barenberg |first1=Alan |last2=Bell |first2=Wilson T. |last3=Kinnear |first3=Sean |last4=Maddox |first4=Steven |last5=Viola |first5=Lynne |volume=59 |issue=3–4 |s2cid=165354205|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Contemporary slavery ==
{{See also|Slavery in contemporary Africa|Child slavery|Trafficking of children|Illegal immigration#Slavery|Slavery in the 21st century}}
[[File:Maps Global Slavery Index 2024.svg|thumb|402x402px|Modern incidence of slavery, as a percentage of the population, by country (2024)]]
Even though slavery is now outlawed in every country, the number of slaves today is estimated as between 12&nbsp;million and 29.8&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/08/freedom-fighter |title=A Mauritanian Abolitionist's Crusade Against Slavery |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=September 8, 2014 |access-date=September 29, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Forced labour – Themes">{{cite web |url=http://www.ilo.org/global/Themes/Forced_Labour/lang--en/index.htm |title=Forced labour – Themes |publisher=[[International Labour Organization]] |access-date=March 14, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209072059/http://www.ilo.org/global/Themes/Forced_Labour/lang--en/index.htm |archive-date=February 9, 2010}}</ref><ref name=WFF>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/category/press-release/ |title=Inaugural Global Slavery Index Reveals More Than 29 Million People Living In Slavery |website=Global Slavery Index 2013 |date=October 4, 2013 |access-date=October 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407232555/http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/category/press-release/ |archive-date=April 7, 2016 }}</ref> According to a broad definition of slavery, there were 27&nbsp;million people in slavery in 1999, spread all over the world.{{sfn|Bales|1999|p=9|loc=Chapter 1}} In 2005, the [[International Labour Organization]] provided an estimate of 12.3&nbsp;million forced labourers.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour |isbn=978-92-2-115360-3 |publisher=International Labour Organisation |year=2005}}</ref> [[Siddharth Kara]] has also provided an estimate of 28.4&nbsp;million slaves at the end of 2006 divided into three categories: [[bonded labour]]/[[debt bondage]] (18.1&nbsp;million), forced labour (7.6&nbsp;million), and trafficked slaves (2.7&nbsp;million).<ref name="Dhaliwal"/> Kara provides a dynamic model to calculate the number of slaves in the world each year, with an estimated 29.2&nbsp;million at the end of 2009.

[[File:Mali1974-151 hg.jpg|thumb|[[Tuareg people|Tuareg]] society is traditionally hierarchical, ranging from nobles, through vassals, to dark-skinned slaves.<ref>{{cite news |last=Fortin |first=Jacey |title=Mali's Other Crisis: Slavery Still Plagues Mali, And Insurgency Could Make It Worse |newspaper=International Business Times |date=January 16, 2013 |url=http://www.ibtimes.com/malis-other-crisis-slavery-still-plagues-mali-insurgency-could-make-it-worse-1017280}}</ref>]]

According to a 2003 report by [[Human Rights Watch]], an estimated 15&nbsp;million children in [[debt bondage in India]] work in slavery-like conditions to pay off their family's debts.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Coursen-Neff |first1=Zama |last2=Tribune |first2=International Herald |date=January 30, 2003 |title=For 15 million in India, a childhood of slavery |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/opinion/IHT-meanwhile-for-15-million-in-india-a-childhood-of-slavery.html |access-date=February 11, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 23, 2003 |title=Child Slaves Abandoned to India's Silk Industry |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2003/01/23/child-slaves-abandoned-indias-silk-industry |access-date=February 11, 2021 |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]}}</ref>

[[Slavoj Žižek]] asserts that new forms of contemporary slavery have been created in the post-Cold War era of global [[capitalism]], including migrant workers deprived of basic civil rights on the [[Arabian Peninsula]], the total control of workers in Asian [[sweatshops]] and the use of forced labor in the exploitation of natural resources in [[Central Africa]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Žižek |first=Slavoj |author-link=Slavoj Žižek |date=2018 |title=The Courage of Hopelessness: A Year of Acting Dangerously |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=POZFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 |publisher=Melville House |page=29 |isbn=978-1-61219-003-7 |access-date=July 11, 2018 |archive-date=July 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727165255/https://books.google.com/books?id=POZFDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA29 |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

=== Distribution ===
In June 2013, [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] released a report on slavery. It placed [[Slavery in Russia|Russia]], [[Laogai|China]], and Uzbekistan in the worst offenders category. Cuba, Iran, North Korea, [[Slavery in Sudan|Sudan]], Syria, and Zimbabwe were at the lowest level. The list also included Algeria, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait among a total of 21 countries.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/27-million-people-said-to-live-in-modern-slavery/?_r= |work=[[The New York Times]] |title=27 Million People Said to Live in 'Modern Slavery' |date=June 20, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/19/19042103-modern-day-slavery-state-dept-says-millions-of-human-trafficking-victims-go-unidentified |access-date=February 12, 2021 |first=Matthew |last=DeLuca |title='Modern-day slavery': State Dept. says millions of human trafficking victims go unidentified |publisher=[[NBC News]] |date=June 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130623030127/http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/19/19042103-modern-day-slavery-state-dept-says-millions-of-human-trafficking-victims-go-unidentified |archive-date=June 23, 2013}}</ref>

In Kuwait, there are more than 600,000 migrant domestic workers who are vulnerable to forced labor and legally tied to their employers, who often illegally take their passports.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sebastian |first1=Clare |title=She escaped domestic slavery, now she helps other survivors |url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/30/world/francisca-awah-tip-report-hero/index.html |access-date=February 7, 2021 |publisher=CNN |date=July 30, 2018}}</ref> In 2019, online slave markets on apps such as Instagram were uncovered.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pinnell |first1=Owen |last2=Kelly |first2=Jess |title=Kuwait moves on Instagram slave traders after BBC investigation |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50266663 |access-date=February 7, 2021 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=November 1, 2019}}</ref>

In the preparations for the [[2022 FIFA World Cup|2022 World Cup in Qatar]], thousands of Nepalese, the largest group of labourers, faced slavery in the form of denial of wages, confiscation of documents, and inability to leave the workplace.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Qatar's World Cup 'slaves' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-world-cup-slaves |last=Pattisson |first=Pete |date=2013-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926223628/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-world-cup-slaves |archive-date=26 Sep 2013 |access-date=2024-01-16 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2016, the United Nations gave Qatar 12 months to end migrant worker slavery or face investigation.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Booth |first1=Robert |title=UN gives Qatar a year to end forced labour of migrant workers |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/24/un-gives-qatar-year-end-forced-labour-migrant-workers |access-date=February 7, 2021 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=March 24, 2016}}</ref>

The [[Walk Free Foundation]] reported in 2018 that slavery in wealthy Western societies is much more prevalent than previously known, in particular the United States and Great Britain, which have 403,000 (one in 800) and 136,000 slaves respectively. Andrew Forrest, founder of the organization, said that "The United States is one of the most advanced countries in the world yet has more than 400,000 modern slaves working under forced labour conditions."<ref>{{cite news |last=Helmore |first=Edward |date=July 19, 2018 |title=Over 400,000 people living in 'modern slavery' in U.S., report finds |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/19/us-modern-slavery-report-global-slavery-index |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=July 21, 2018}}</ref> An estimated 40.3&nbsp;million are enslaved globally, with North Korea having the most slaves at 2.6&nbsp;million (one in 10). Of the estimated 40.3 million people in contemporary slavery, 71% are women and 29% are men. The report found of the 40.3 million in modern slavery, 15.4 million are in [[forced marriage]]s and 24.9 million are in [[Forced labour|forced labor]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Global Slavery Index |url=https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/highlights/ |access-date=June 20, 2022 |website=globalslaveryindex.org}}</ref> The foundation defines contemporary slavery as "situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power, or deception."<ref>{{cite news |last=Tutton |first=Mark |date=July 19, 2018 |title=Modern slavery in developed countries more common than thought |url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/19/world/global-slavery-index-2018/index.html |publisher=[[CNN]] |access-date= July 21, 2018}}</ref>

==== China ====
{{see also|Xinjiang internment camps}}In March 2020, the Chinese government was found to be using the [[Uyghurs|Uyghur]] minority for forced labour, inside [[sweat shops]]. According to a report published then by the [[Australian Strategic Policy Institute|Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)]], no fewer than around 80,000 Uyghurs were [[Persecution of Uyghurs in China|forcibly removed]] from the region of [[Xinjiang]] and used for forced labour in at least twenty-seven corporate factories.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Xu |first1=Vicky Xiuzhong |last2=Cave |first2=Danielle |last3=Leiboid |first3=James |last4=Munro |first4=Kelsey |last5=Ruser |first5=Nathan |date=February 2020 |title=Uyghurs for Sale |url=https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale |access-date=January 20, 2021 |website=Australian Strategic Policy Institute |archive-date=August 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200824215335/https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale}}</ref> According to the Business and Human Rights resource center, corporations such as [[Abercrombie & Fitch]], [[Adidas]], [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]], [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], [[BMW]], [[Fila (company)|Fila]], [[Gap Inc.|Gap]], [[H&M]], [[Inditex]], [[Marks & Spencer]], [[Nike, Inc.|Nike]], [[The North Face|North Face]], [[Puma (brand)|Puma]], [[PVH (company)|PVH]], [[Samsung]], and [[Uniqlo|UNIQLO]] have each sourced products from these factories prior to the publication of the ASPI report.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.business-humanrights.org/ |title=China: 83 major brands implicated in report on forced labour of ethnic minorities from Xinjiang assigned to factories across provinces; Includes company responses – Business & Human Rights Resource Centre |website=business-humanrights.org}}</ref>

==== Libya ====
{{main|Slavery in Libya#Slavery in the post-Gaddafi era}}
During the [[Second Libyan Civil War]], Libyans started capturing [[Slavery in Libya|Sub-Saharan African migrants]] trying to get to Europe through Libya and selling them on slave markets or holding them hostage for [[ransom]]<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Quackenbush |first=Casey |title=The Libyan Slave Trade Has Shocked the World. Here's What You Should Know |date=December 1, 2017 |magazine=[[Time Magazine|Time]]}}</ref> Women are often raped, used as [[sex slave]]s, or sold to [[brothel]]s.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39567632 |title=African migrants 'sold in slave markets' |date=April 11, 2017 |publisher=BBC News }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=April 12, 2017 |publisher=[[Nation Media Group]] |url=http://www.nation.co.ke/news/africa/African-migrants-sold-as-slaves-in-Libya-/1066-3886812-5hy4xoz/index.html |title=African migrants sold as 'slaves' for $200 in Libya |agency=[[Agence France-Presse]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170412082356/http://www.nation.co.ke/news/africa/African-migrants-sold-as-slaves-in-Libya-/1066-3886812-5hy4xoz/index.html |archive-date=April 12, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://boingboing.net/2017/04/11/international-organization-for.html |title=West African migrants are kidnapped and sold in Libyan slave markets |website=[[Boing Boing]] |date=April 11, 2017 |last=Doctorow |first=Cory |author1-link=Cory Doctorow}}</ref> Child migrants suffer from abuse and [[child rape]] in Libya.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39109585 |title=Libya exposed as child migrant abuse hub |first=Paul |last=Adams |date=February 28, 2017 |publisher=[[BBC News]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://alwaght.com/en/News/89562/Immigrant-Women,-Children-Raped,-Starved-in-Libya%E2%80%99s-Hellholes-Unicef |title=Immigrant Women, Children Raped, Starved in Libya's Hellholes: Unicef |work=::ALWAGHT |date=February 28, 2017 |access-date=November 19, 2017 |archive-date=March 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330130812/http://alwaght.com/en/News/89562/Immigrant-Women%2C-Children-Raped%2C-Starved-in-Libya%E2%80%99s-Hellholes-Unicef}}</ref>

==== Mauritania ====
[[Slavery in Mauritania|Mauritania]], was the last country to abolish slavery (in 1981), it is estimated that 20% of its population of 3 million people are enslaved as bonded labourers,<ref name=BBC /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1458_abolition/page4.shtml |title=The Abolition season on BBC World Service |publisher=[[BBC News]] |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref><ref name="cnnmauritania">{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slaverys.last.stronghold/index.html |title=Slavery's last stronghold |first=John D. |last=Sutter |date=March 2012 |access-date=May 28, 2012 |publisher=[[CNN]]}}</ref> with black [[Haratin]] being slaves and Berbers and Arabs the owners.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mauritania |url=https://www.genocidewatch.com/mauritania |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=genocidewatch |language=en}}</ref> Slavery in Mauritania was criminalized in August 2007.<ref name=BBC /> However, although slavery, as a practice, was legally banned in 1981, it was not a crime to own a slave until 2007.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/17/un-there-is-hope-for-mauritanias-slaves/ |publisher=[[CNN]] |title=UN: There is hope for Mauritania's slaves |date=March 17, 2012 |access-date=January 3, 2014 |archive-date=March 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323013339/https://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/17/un-there-is-hope-for-mauritanias-slaves/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Although many slaves have escaped or have been freed since 2007, {{As of|2012|lc=y}}, only one slave owner had been sentenced to serve time in prison.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Anti-slavery law still tough to enforce |url=https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2012/12/11/anti-slavery-law-still-tough-enforce |access-date=February 6, 2021 |website=[[The New Humanitarian]] |date=December 11, 2012}}</ref>

==== North Korea ====
{{see also|Human rights in North Korea}}
North Korea's human rights record is often considered to be the worst in the world and has been globally condemned, with the [[United Nations]], the [[European Union]] and groups such as [[Human Rights Watch]] all critical of the country's record. Forms of [[torture]], forced labour, and abuses are all widespread. Most international human rights organizations consider North Korea to have no contemporary parallel<ref>{{cite web |title=Issues North Korea |work=[[Amnesty International]] UK |url=https://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/North-Korea |access-date=July 1, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702014419/http://amnesty.org.uk/issues/North-Korea |archive-date=July 2, 2014}}</ref> with respect to violations of liberty.<ref>{{cite book |title=Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea |chapter=VII. Conclusions and Recommendations |publisher=United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights |date=February 17, 2014 |chapter-url=http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoIDPRK/Report/A.HRC.25.CRP.1_ENG.doc |access-date=July 1, 2014 |page=365 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227104633/http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoIDPRK/Report/A.HRC.25.CRP.1_ENG.doc |archive-date=February 27, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=World Report 2014: North Korea |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |date=January 21, 2014 |url=https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/north-korea |access-date=July 1, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707145323/http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/north-korea |archive-date=July 7, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=North Korea |work=[[Christian Solidarity Worldwide]] |url=http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/country.asp?s=id&urn=North_Korea |access-date=July 1, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714132616/http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/country.asp?s=id&urn=North_Korea |archive-date=July 14, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=ICNK welcomes UN inquiry on North Korea report, calls for action |work=[[International Coalition to Stop Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea]] |date=February 20, 2014 |url=http://www.stopnkcrimes.org/bbs/board.php?bo_table=statements&wr_id=54 |access-date=July 1, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006073948/http://www.stopnkcrimes.org/bbs/board.php?bo_table=statements&wr_id=54 |archive-date=October 6, 2014}}</ref>

==== Taiwan ====
Taiwan's migrant worker population—estimated in 2018 to be up to 660,000 in number—have reportedly faced slavery-like conditions involving sexual abuse in the [[Migrant caregivers in Taiwan|domestic work]] sector<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-01-25 |title=Modern day slavery |url=https://www.columban.org.fj/media-and-publications/the-far-east-magazine/archive/2018/the-far-east-january/february-2018/modern-day-slavery |access-date=2024-05-19 |website=[[Missionary Society of St. Columban]] |language=en |quote="Many of them are locked in the house of their Taiwanese employers, never allowed to have a day off, and virtually under the control of their employer," Fr O’Neill said. "Some are also victims of sexual abuse – raped by the husband who is their employer. They run away and become undocumented workers, then they are lured by the illegal brokers to find work. Some of them end up in brothels and become victims of sex trafficking." |archive-date=May 22, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522092216/https://www.columban.org.fj/media-and-publications/the-far-east-magazine/archive/2018/the-far-east-january/february-2018/modern-day-slavery |url-status=dead }}</ref> and forced labor in [[Fishing industry in Taiwan|fishing]] sectors.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y7RnfnUAVY&t=81s |title=Death By Fishing: How Taiwan's Seafood Got Tainted With Blood {{!}} CNA Correspondent |date=2022-03-03 |type=Television production |language=en |publisher=[[CNA (TV network)|CNA]] |access-date=2024-05-19 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-15 |title=Greenpeace Condemns Biden Administration's Top Tier Ranking of Taiwan in latest Trafficking in Persons Report |url=https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/greenpeace-condemns-biden-administrations-top-tier-ranking-of-taiwan-in-latest-trafficking-in-persons-report/ |access-date=2024-05-19 |website=[[Greenpeace]] |language=en-US}}</ref> Taiwan is among a minority of places in the world that legally allows labor brokers to charge migrant workers for services which elsewhere are covered by employers as human resource costs.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last=Peter Bengtsen |date=October 31, 2023 |title=Debt Bondage in Space, and Taiwan |url=https://thediplomat.com/2023/10/debt-bondage-in-space-and-taiwan/ |website=The Diplomat |language=en-US}}</ref> A few Taiwanese universities have reportedly tricked students from [[Eswatini]],<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 November 2018 |title=Swaziland: Students in Taiwan Forced to Work 'Like Slaves' in Frozen Chicken Factory |url=https://allafrica.com/stories/201811200377.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120141436/https://allafrica.com/stories/201811200377.html |archive-date=20 November 2018 |work=[[AllAfrica]]}}</ref> [[Uganda]] and [[Sri Lanka]] into forced labour at factories as payment for the university programs.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Huang Rongwen |date=2022-02-10 |title=Exploitation cases of Sri Lankan students in Taiwan expose education sector flaws |url=https://themorning.lk//articles/188339 |access-date=2024-05-20 |website=[[The Morning (Sri Lanka)]] |publication-place=[[National Changhua University of Education]] |archive-date=May 22, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522092218/https://www.themorning.lk/articles/188339 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Some charity groups in 2007 also insisted that foreign women—mostly from China and Southeast Asia—were being forced into prostitution, although local police in [[Tainan]] disagreed and said they deliberately came to Taiwan "to sell sex".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Max Hirsch |date=2007-05-23 |title=Officials divided on sex slave issue |url=https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/05/23/2003362069 |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=[[Taipei Times]]}}</ref>

==== Yemen ====
{{See also|Slavery in Yemen}}
Despite being formally abolished in the 1960s, [[slavery in Yemen]] remains a significant issue exacerbated by ongoing conflict and socio-economic instability.  An estimated 85,000 people remaining enslaved as of 2022.  The Iran-backed Houthi militias have been accused of reinstating traditional slavery systems. Reports indicate that over 1,800 Yemenis have been forced into servitude by prominent Houthi leaders, with the Houthis dividing society into hierarchical classes of masters and slaves.
<ref>{{Cite web |title=Exclusive - Houthis Restore Slavery in Yemen |url=https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/1810456/exclusive-houthis-restore-slavery-yemen |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=english.aawsat.com |language=en}}</ref><ref name="tj-yemen">{{Cite web |last=Srebrnik |first=Henry |date=February 4, 2024 |title="Henry Srebrnik: The world ignores slavery in Yemen" |url=https://tj.news/tj-comment/henry-srebrnik-the-world-ignores-slavery-in-yemen|access-date=October 24, 2024 |website=Telegraph-Journal}}</ref> 
This modern slavery encompasses various forms, such as forced labor, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, and child recruitment.
<ref name="mideast-yemen">{{Cite web |title=Yemen's Houthis and STC accused of forcing Ethiopian women into 'sexual slavery' |url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yemen-ethiopia-women-forced-houthis-stc-sexual-slavery |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=Middle East Eye |language=en}}</ref> 
Vulnerable populations include the Al Muhamashīn community, Ethiopian migrants, and children who are subjected to severe discrimination and exploitation.
<ref name="mideast-yemen" /> 
<ref name="tj-yemen" /> 
Despite legal prohibitions against slavery in Yemen, enforcement is weak due to political instability and ongoing civil war.
<ref>{{Cite web |title=Yemen |url=https://antislaverylaw.ac.uk/country/yemen/ |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=Antislavery in Domestic Legislation |language=en-US}}</ref> 
International organizations have documented these abuses, highlighting the need for stronger interventions to combat slavery and human trafficking in the region.
<ref name="mideast-yemen" />

=== Economics ===
While American slaves in 1809 were sold for around $40,000 (in inflation adjusted dollars), a slave nowadays can be bought for just $90, making replacement more economical than providing long-term care.<ref name="Economics and Slavery">{{cite web |title=Economics and Slavery |url=http://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/slavery/economic.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020104039/http://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/slavery/economic.pdf |archive-date=October 20, 2013 |access-date=August 18, 2013 |publisher=Du.edu |url-status=dead }}</ref> Slavery is a multibillion-dollar industry with estimates of up to $35&nbsp;billion generated annually.<ref name="investvine">{{cite web |url=http://investvine.com/modern-day-slavery-in-southeast-asia-thailand-and-cambodia/ |title=Modern day slavery in Southeast Asia: Thailand and Cambodia |first=Laurence |last=Bradford |website=Inside Investor |date=July 23, 2013 |access-date=July 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150323032459/http://investvine.com/modern-day-slavery-in-southeast-asia-thailand-and-cambodia/ |archive-date=March 23, 2015}}</ref>

=== Trafficking ===
Victims of [[human trafficking]] are typically recruited through deceit or trickery (such as a false job offer, false migration offer, or false marriage offer), sale by family members, recruitment by former slaves, or outright abduction. Victims are forced into a "debt slavery" situation by coercion, deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, threat, physical force, debt bondage or even [[force-feeding]] with drugs to control their victims.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/end-human-trafficking/trafficking-faq/page.do?id=1108432&n1=3&n2=39&n3=738 |title=Trafficking FAQs – Amnesty International USA |publisher=[[Amnesty International]] |date=March 30, 2007 |access-date=August 29, 2010 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090708085725/http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/end-human-trafficking/trafficking-faq/page.do?id=1108432&n1=3&n2=39&n3=738 |archive-date=July 8, 2009 }}</ref> "Annually, according to U.S. government-sponsored research completed in 2006, approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders, which does not include millions trafficked within their own countries. Approximately 80% of transnational victims are women and girls, and up to 50% are minors, reports the U.S. State Department in a 2008 study.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 5, 2008 |title=Lost Daughters – An ongoing tragedy in Nepal |url=https://womennewsnetwork.net/2008/12/05/lostdaughternepal808/ |access-date=February 6, 2021 |website=Women News Network |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162847/https://womennewsnetwork.net/2008/12/05/lostdaughternepal808/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

While the majority of trafficking victims are women who are [[forced prostitution|forced into prostitution]] (in which case the practice is called sex trafficking), victims also include men, women and children who are forced into [[manual labour]].<ref name="state. gov">{{cite web|url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46606.htm |title=US State Department Trafficking report |publisher=State.gov |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref> Because of the illegal nature of human trafficking, its extent is unknown. A U.S. government report, published in 2005, estimates that about 700,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year. This figure does not include those who are trafficked internally.<ref name="state. gov"/> Another research effort revealed that roughly 1.5&nbsp;million individuals are trafficked either internally or internationally each year, of which about 500,000 are sex trafficking victims.<ref name="Dhaliwal"/>

== Abolitionism ==
{{Main|Abolitionism}}
{{For timeline|Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom}}
{{Campaignbox Suppression of the Slave Trade}}
{{Anti-Slavery Society Convention 1840|align=right|size=300px|thumb|caption=A painting of the 1840 [[World Anti-Slavery Convention]] at [[Exeter Hall]] in London<ref name="npg">{{Cite news |title=The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840 – National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw00028/The-Anti-Slavery-Society-Convention-1840 |access-date=February 11, 2021 |publisher=[[NPR]] |author-link=Benjamin Robert Haydon |first=Benjamin Robert |last=Haydon |year=1841 |location=London}} Donated by [[Anti-Slavery International|British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society]] in 1880</ref>}}

Slavery has existed, in one form or another, throughout recorded human history&nbsp;– as have, in various periods, movements to free large or distinct groups of slaves.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

=== In antiquity ===
Emperor [[Ashoka]], who ruled the [[Maurya Empire]] in the [[Indian subcontinent]] from 269 to 232 BCE, abolished the slave trade but not slavery.<ref>{{cite web |last=Clarence-Smith |first=William |url=http://www2.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/Research/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Conf10_ClarenceSmith.pdf |title=Religions and the abolition of slavery – a comparative approach |access-date=August 28, 2013 |archive-date=March 29, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329055714/http://www.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/Research/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Conf10_ClarenceSmith.pdf}}</ref> The [[Qin dynasty]], which ruled China from 221 to 206 BCE, abolished slavery and discouraged serfdom. However, many of its laws were overturned when the dynasty was overthrown.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Cengage Learning]] |isbn=978-0-618-99238-6 |title=The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History |year=2009 |page=165}}</ref> Slavery was again abolished by [[Wang Mang]] in China in 17 CE but was reinstituted after his assassination.<ref name="Greenwood Publishing Group">{{cite book |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-313-33143-5 |title=Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition |year=2011 |page=155}}</ref>

=== Americas ===
The [[Spanish colonization of the Americas]] sparked a discussion about the right to enslave Native Americans. A prominent critic of [[slavery in the Spanish New World colonies]] was the Spanish missionary and bishop, [[Bartolomé de las Casas]], who was the first to document the European maltreatment of and cruelty towards American natives.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Dussel |first=Enrique |author-link=Enrique Dussel |title=Bartolomé de Las Casas |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |date=January 4, 2021 |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bartolome-de-Las-Casas |access-date=February 13, 2021}}</ref>

In the United States, all of the northern states had abolished slavery by 1804, with New Jersey being the last to act.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Green|first=Howard L.|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=plHxL2XIKloC|page=84}}|title=Words that Make New Jersey History: A Primary Source Reader|date=1995|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-2113-8|page=84|quote=1804: With passage of the law excerpted here, New Jersey became the last state in the North to abolish slavery.}}</ref> Abolitionist pressure produced a series of small steps towards emancipation. After the [[Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves]] went into effect on January 1, 1808, the importation of slaves into the United States was prohibited,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Foner |first=Eric |date=December 30, 2007 |title=Opinion {{!}} Forgotten Step Toward Freedom (Published 2007) |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/opinion/30foner.html |access-date=February 6, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> but not the [[Slavery in the United States#Internal slave trade|internal slave trade]], nor involvement in the international slave trade externally. Legal slavery persisted outside the northern states, but [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]] took an active role in opposing slavery by supporting the [[Underground Railroad]], and violent clashes between anti-slavery and pro-slavery Americans occurred, including in [[Bleeding Kansas]], a series of political and armed disputes in 1854–1858 as to whether Kansas would join the United States as a slave or free state. By 1860, the total number of slaves reached almost four million, and the American Civil War, beginning in 1861, led to the end of slavery in the United States.<ref name=SocialAspects /> Slaves in areas controlled by the Confederacy were legally emancipated in 1863, when Lincoln issued the [[Emancipation Proclamation]], and slavery was banned nationwide, except as punishment for a crime, in 1865, with the ratification of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution]].

Many of the freed slaves became sharecroppers and indentured servants. In this manner, some became tied to the very parcel of land into which they had been born a slave having little freedom or economic opportunity because of [[Jim Crow laws]] which perpetuated discrimination, limited education, promoted persecution without due process and resulted in continued poverty. Fear of reprisals such as unjust incarcerations and lynchings deterred upward mobility further.
[[File:Olaudah Equiano, frontpiece from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.png|thumb|upright|[[Olaudah Equiano]]. His autobiography, published in 1789, helped in the creation of the Slave Trade Act 1807 which ended the African slave trade for Britain and its colonies.]]
[[File:Joseph Jenkins Roberts.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Joseph Jenkins Roberts]], born in Virginia, was the first president of [[Liberia]], which was founded in 1822 for freed American slaves.]]

=== Europe ===
France abolished slavery in 1794 during the Revolution,<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Dorigny |editor1-first=Marcel |title=The Abolitions of Slavery: From L. F. Sonthonax to Victor Schoelcher, 1793, 1794, 1848 |date=2003 |publisher=UNESCO Publishing |location=Paris |page=vi |isbn=978-1-57181-432-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbNNFxiAMeAC |access-date=August 16, 2022 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> but it was restored in 1802 under Napoleon.<ref name="dwyer">{{cite journal |last=Dwyer |first=Philip |title=Remembering and Forgetting in Contemporary France: Napoleon, Slavery, and the French History Wars |journal=French Politics, Culture & Society |year=2008 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=110–122 |publisher=[[Berghahn Books]] |doi=10.3167/fpcs.2008.260306|jstor=42843569}}</ref> It has been asserted that, before the Revolution, slavery was illegal in metropolitan France (as opposed to its colonies),<ref name="peabody">{{cite journal |last=Peabody |first=Sue |year=1984 |title=Race, Slavery, and the Law in Early Modern France |journal=The Historian |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=501–510 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1994.tb01322.x |jstor=24448702}}</ref> but this has been refuted.<ref name="chatman">{{cite journal |last=Chatman |first=Samuel L. |year=2000 |title='There are no Slaves in France': A Re-Examination of Slave Laws in Eighteenth Century France |journal=The Journal of Negro History |volume=85 |issue=3 |pages=144–153 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] on behalf of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History |doi=10.2307/2649071 |jstor=2649071 |s2cid=141017958}}</ref>

One of the most significant milestones in the campaign to abolish slavery throughout the world occurred in England in 1772, with British Judge [[William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield|Lord Mansfield]], whose opinion in [[Somersett's Case]] was widely taken to have held that slavery was illegal in England. This judgement also laid down the principle that slavery contracted in other jurisdictions could not be enforced in England.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wise |first=Steven M. |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=A76TPwAACAAJ}} |title=Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial that Led to the End of Human Slavery |date=2006 |publisher=Pimlico |isbn=978-1-84413-430-4}}</ref> The last person to be deemed a slave in a British court was [[Bell (Belinda)]] who was transported to the Americas in 1772 as a "slave for life" by a [[Perth, Scotland|Perth]] court.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rothschild |first=Emma |title=The inner life of empires: an eighteenth-century history |date=2013 |publisher=Princeton Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-691-15612-5 |edition=1. paperback pr |location=Princeton, NJ}}</ref>

[[Sons of Africa]] was a late 18th-century British group that campaigned to end slavery. Its members were Africans in London, freed slaves who included [[Ottobah Cugoano]], [[Olaudah Equiano]] and other leading members of London's black community. It was closely connected to the [[Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade]], a non-denominational group founded in 1787, whose members included [[Thomas Clarkson]]. British Member of Parliament [[William Wilberforce]] led the anti-slavery movement in the United Kingdom, although the groundwork was an anti-slavery essay by Clarkson. Wilberforce was urged by his close friend, Prime Minister [[William Pitt the Younger]], to make the issue his own and was also given support by reformed Evangelical [[John Newton]]. The [[Slave Trade Act 1807|Slave Trade Act]] was passed by the British Parliament on March 25, 1807, making the slave trade illegal throughout the [[British Empire]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://royalnavy.mod.uk/history/battles/royal-navy-and-the-slave-trade/ |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090128205546/royalnavy.mod.uk/history/battles/royal-navy-and-the-slave-trade/ |archive-date=January 28, 2009 |title=Royal Navy and the Slave Trade : Battles: History: Royal Navy |access-date=September 29, 2015}}</ref> Wilberforce also campaigned for abolition of slavery in the British Empire, which he lived to see in the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]].

After the 1807 act abolishing the slave trade was passed, these campaigners switched to [[Blockade of Africa|encouraging other countries]] to follow suit, notably France and the British colonies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British [[West Africa Squadron]] seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2007/03/20/abolition_navy_feature.shtml |title=Devon – Abolition – Sailing against slavery |publisher=[[BBC]] |date=February 28, 2007 |access-date=September 29, 2015}}</ref> Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pdavis.nl/Background.htm#WAS |title=The West African Squadron and slave trade |publisher=Pdavis.nl |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref>

=== Worldwide ===
In 1839, the world's oldest international human rights organization, [[Anti-Slavery International]], was formed in Britain by [[Joseph Sturge]], which campaigned to outlaw slavery in other countries.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=9462&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html |title=Anti-Slavery International: UNESCO Education |publisher=[[UNESCO]] |date=November 13, 2002 |access-date=September 29, 2015}}</ref> There were celebrations in 2007 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the United Kingdom through the work of the British [[Anti-Slavery International|Anti-Slavery Society]].

In the 1860s, [[David Livingstone]]'s reports of atrocities within the Arab slave trade in Africa stirred up the interest of the British public, reviving the flagging abolitionist movement. The Royal Navy throughout the 1870s attempted to suppress "this abominable Eastern trade", at [[Zanzibar]] in particular. In 1905, the French abolished indigenous slavery in most of [[French West Africa]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yale.edu/agrarianstudies/colloqpapers/16peterson.pdf |title=Home Page &#124; Agrarian Studies |publisher=[[Yale University]] |access-date=September 30, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502161407/http://www.yale.edu/agrarianstudies/colloqpapers/16peterson.pdf |archive-date=May 2, 2013}}</ref>

On December 10, 1948, the [[United Nations General Assembly]] adopted the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]], which declared freedom from slavery is an internationally recognized [[human rights|human right]]. Article 4 of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] states:

{{blockquote|No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/law.shtml |title=The law against slavery |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=October 5, 2008}}</ref>}}

In 2014, for the first time in history, major leaders of many religions, [[Buddhism|Buddhist]], [[Hinduism|Hindu]], [[Christianity|Christian]], [[Judaism|Jewish]], and [[Islam|Muslim]]<!--alphabetical--> met to sign a shared commitment against modern-day slavery; the declaration they signed calls for the elimination of slavery and human trafficking by 2020.<ref name="The Huffington Post">{{cite news |last1=Belardelli |first1=Giulia |date=December 2, 2014 |title=Pope Francis And Other Religious Leaders Sign Declaration Against Modern Slavery |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/pope-francis-and-other-re_n_6256640 |newspaper=[[HuffPost]]}}</ref> The signatories were: [[Pope Francis]], [[Mata Amritanandamayi|Mātā Amṛtānandamayī]], Bhikkhuni Thich Nu [[Chân Không]] (representing Zen Master [[Thích Nhất Hạnh]]), Datuk K Sri Dhammaratana, Chief High Priest of Malaysia, Rabbi [[Abraham Skorka]], Rabbi David Rosen, Abbas Abdalla Abbas Soliman, Undersecretary of State of Al Azhar Alsharif (representing Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar), Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi, Sheikh Naziyah Razzaq Jaafar, Special advisor of Grand Ayatollah (representing Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Basheer Hussain al Najafi), Sheikh Omar Abboud, Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Metropolitan Emmanuel of France (representing Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.)<ref name="The Huffington Post"/>

Groups such as the [[American Anti-Slavery Group]], [[Anti-Slavery International]], [[Free the Slaves]], the Anti-Slavery Society, and the Norwegian Anti-Slavery Society continue to campaign to eliminate slavery.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

[[UNESCO]] has been working to break the silence surrounding the memory of slavery since 1994, through [[The Slave Route Project]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Routes of Enslaved Peoples |url=https://www.unesco.org/en/routes-enslaved-peoples?hub=70211 |access-date=July 13, 2023 |publisher=UNESCO}}</ref>

==Apologies==

On May 21, 2001, the [[National Assembly of France]] passed the [[Christiane Taubira|Taubira]] law, recognizing slavery as a [[crime against humanity]]. Apologies on behalf of African nations, for their role in trading their countrymen into slavery, remain an open issue since slavery was practiced in Africa even before the first Europeans arrived and the [[Atlantic slave trade]] was performed with a high degree of involvement of several African societies. The black slave market was supplied by well-established slave trade networks controlled by local African societies and individuals.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Boahen |first1=A. Adu.|title=Topics in West African history|date=1986|publisher=Longman Group|last2=Ajayi |first2=J. F. Ade.|last3= Tidy|first3= Michael|isbn=0-582-58504-X|edition=2|location=Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex, England|oclc=15580435}}</ref>

<blockquote>There is adequate evidence citing case after case of African control of segments of the trade. Several African nations such as the Calabar and other southern parts of Nigeria had economies depended solely on the trade. African peoples such as the Imbangala of Angola and the Nyamwezi of Tanzania would serve as middlemen or roving bands warring with other African nations to capture Africans for Europeans.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.africawithin.com/kwaku/afrikan_involvement.htm |title=Afrikan Involvement In Atlantic Slave Trade |first=Kwaku |last=Person-Lynn |publisher=Africawithin.com |access-date=August 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080418072244/http://africawithin.com/kwaku/afrikan_involvement.htm |archive-date=April 18, 2008}}</ref></blockquote>

Several historians have made important contributions to the global understanding of the African side of the Atlantic slave trade. By arguing that African merchants determined the assemblage of trade goods accepted in exchange for slaves, many historians argue for African agency and ultimately a shared responsibility for the slave trade.<ref>{{Citation |last=Ball |first=Jeremy R.|url=https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8469 |work=H-Net Reviews |date=November 2003 |access-date=February 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050122054905/http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=13661080113274 |archive-date=January 22, 2005 |title=Alcohol and Slaves |type=Review}}</ref>

In 1999, President [[Mathieu Kérékou]] of Benin issued a national apology for the central role Africans played in the Atlantic slave trade.<ref name="apology">{{Cite news |last1=Gates |first1=Henry Louis Jr. |author1-link=Henry Louis Gates Jr. |date=April 22, 2010 |title=Opinion {{!}} Ending the Slavery Blame-Game |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/opinion/23gates.html |access-date=February 13, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> [[Luc Gnacadja]], minister of environment and housing for Benin, later said: "The slave trade is a shame, and we do repent for it."<ref name="Dahomey">{{Cite news |last=Services |first=Tribune News |title=Benin Officials Apologize for Role in U.S. Slave Trade |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2000-05-01-0005010158-story.html |access-date=February 6, 2021 |website=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref> Researchers estimate that 3&nbsp;million slaves were exported out of the [[Slave Coast of West Africa|Slave Coast]] bordering the [[Bight of Benin]].<ref name="Dahomey"/> President [[Jerry Rawlings]] of Ghana also apologized for his country's involvement in the slave trade.<ref name="apology"/>

The issue of an apology is linked to [[reparations for slavery]] and is still being pursued by entities across the world. For example, the Jamaican Reparations Movement approved its declaration and action plan. In 2007, British Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] made a formal apology for Great Britain's involvement in slavery.<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 14, 2007 |title=Blair 'sorry' for UK slavery role |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6451793.stm |access-date=February 6, 2021 |publisher=[[BBC News]] }}</ref>

On February 25, 2007, the [[Virginia|Commonwealth of Virginia]] resolved to 'profoundly regret' and apologize for its role in the institution of slavery. Unique and the first of its kind in the U.S., the apology was unanimously passed in both Houses as Virginia approached the 400th anniversary of the founding of [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6394981.stm |title=Virginia 'sorry' for slavery role |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=February 25, 2007 |access-date=August 29, 2010}}</ref>

On August 24, 2007, [[Mayor of London]] [[Ken Livingstone]] issued a public apology for London's role in Atlantic slave trade, which took place at an event commemorating the 200th anniversary of the British slave trade's abolition. In his speech, Livingstone described the slave trade as "the racial murder of not just those who were transported but generations of enslaved African men, women and children. To justify this murder and torture black people had to be declared inferior or not human... We live with the consequences today."<ref name="jump">{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/aug/24/london.humanrights |title=Livingstone weeps as he apologises for slavery |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=August 24, 2007 |access-date=January 7, 2020 |location=London |first=Hugh |last=Muir |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107154804/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/aug/24/london.humanrights |archive-date=January 7, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> City officials in [[Liverpool]], which was a large slave trading port, apologized in 1999.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2007/02/15/abolition_liverpool_apology_feature.shtml |title=Liverpool's slavery apology |publisher=[[BBC News]]  |date=September 24, 2014 |first=Paul |last=Coslett |access-date=January 7, 2020}}</ref>

On July 30, 2008, the [[United States House of Representatives]] passed a resolution apologizing for American slavery and subsequent discriminatory laws.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Congress Apologizes for Slavery, Jim Crow |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93059465 |access-date=February 6, 2021 |publisher=[[NPR]]}}</ref> In June 2009, the [[U.S. Senate]] passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery". The news was welcomed by President [[Barack Obama]], the nation's first president of African descent.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iyMeHvk7WyJys7iAyehSzik11Yqg |title=Obama praises 'historic' Senate slavery apology |work=Google News |agency=[[Agence France-Presse]] |date=June 19, 2009 |access-date=July 22, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225121342/https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iyMeHvk7WyJys7iAyehSzik11Yqg |archive-date=February 25, 2014}}</ref> Some of President Obama's ancestors may have been slave owners.<ref>{{cite news |first1=David |last1=Nitkin |first2=Harry |last2=Merritt |title=A New Twist to an Intriguing Family History |date=March 2, 2007 |url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/politics/bal-te.obama02mar02,0,3453027.story |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930033339/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/politics/bal-te.obama02mar02%2C0%2C3453027.story |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]]}}</ref>

In 2010, Libyan leader [[Muammar Gaddafi]] apologized for Arab involvement in the slave trade, saying: "I regret the behavior of the Arabs... They brought African children to North Africa, they made them slaves, they sold them like animals, and they took them as slaves and traded them in a shameful way."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Akhalbey |first1=Francis |title=Watch Gaddafi apologize on behalf of Arabs for their cruel treatment of Africans during the Arab slave trade |url=https://face2faceafrica.com/article/watch-gaddafi-apologize-on-behalf-of-arabs-for-their-cruel-treatment-of-africans-during-the-arab-slave-trade |website=Face2Face Africa |access-date=February 27, 2022 |language=en |date=November 15, 2019}}</ref>

=== Reparations ===
{{Main|Reparations for slavery}}
There have been movements to achieve reparations for those formerly held as slaves or for their descendants. Claims for reparations for being held in slavery are handled as a [[Private law|civil law]] matter in almost every country. This is often decried as a serious problem, since former slaves' relatives lack of money means they often have limited access to a potentially expensive and futile [[Service of process|legal process]]. Mandatory systems of fines and reparations paid to an as yet undetermined group of claimants from fines, paid by unspecified parties, and collected by authorities have been proposed by advocates to alleviate this "civil court problem." Since in almost all cases there are no living ex-slaves or living ex-slave owners these movements have gained little traction. In nearly all cases the judicial system has ruled that the [[statute of limitations]] on these possible claims has long since expired.

In June 2023, [[Brattle Group|The Brattle Group]] presented a report at an event at the [[University of the West Indies]] in which reparations were estimated, for harms both during and after the period of transatlantic chattel slavery, at over 100 trillion dollars.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Kim |date=July 10, 2023 |title=Brattle Consultants Quantify Reparations for Transatlantic Chattel Slavery in Pro Bono Paper |url=https://www.brattle.com/insights-events/publications/brattle-consultants-quantify-reparations-for-transatlantic-chattel-slavery-in-pro-bono-paper/ |access-date=July 29, 2023 |website=Brattle |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Mahon |first=Leah |date=August 2023 |title=£18 Trillion What Britain owes in reparation |pages=6–7 |work=[[The Voice (British newspaper)|The Voice]]}}</ref>

== Media ==
{{further|List of films featuring slavery}}
[[File:Spartacus sheetA.jpg|thumb|upright|Poster for ''[[Spartacus (film)|Spartacus]]'']]
Film has been the most influential medium in the presentation of the history of slavery to the general public around the world.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Michael T. |last2=Wall |first2=David C. |title=The Politics of Cine-Memory |date=February 19, 2013 |series=A Companion to the Historical Film |pages=445–467 |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] Ltd. |isbn=978-1-118-32267-3 |doi=10.1002/9781118322673.ch22}}</ref> The American film industry has had a complex relationship with slavery and until recent decades often avoided the topic. Films such as ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' (1915)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stokes |first=Melvyn |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=fGJFpiTjbKwC}} |title=D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time |date=January 15, 2008 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-804436-9}}</ref> and ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1939) became controversial because they gave a favourable depiction. In 1940 ''[[Santa Fe Trail (film)|The Santa Fe Trail]]'' gave a liberal but ambiguous interpretation of [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]'s attacks on slavery.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Morsberger |first=Robert E. |title=Slavery and 'The Santa Fe Trail,' or, John Brown on Hollywood's Sour Apple Tree |journal=American Studies |year=1977 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=87–98 |url=https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/amerstud/article/view/2290/2249 |access-date=May 16, 2013 |archive-date=November 6, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106183301/https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/amerstud/article/view/2290/2249 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[Civil Rights Movement]] in the 1950s made defiant slaves into heroes.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Hernán |last1=Vera |first2=Andrew M. |last2=Gordon |title=Screen saviors: Hollywood fictions of whiteness |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=6ZAPD2YdBXYC|page=54}} |year=2003 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |pages=54–56 |isbn=978-0-8476-9947-6}}</ref> The question of slavery in American memory necessarily involves its depictions in feature films.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Worthington-Smith |first1=Hammet |last2=Deburg |first2=William L. Van |author2-link=William L. Van Deburg |year=1984 |title=Slavery & Race in American Popular Culture. |journal=Black American Literature Forum |volume=18 |issue=4 |page=181 |doi=10.2307/2904301 |jstor=2904301 |issn=0148-6179}}</ref>

Most Hollywood films used American settings, although [[Spartacus (film)|''Spartacus'' (1960)]], dealt with an actual revolt in the Roman Empire known as the [[Third Servile War]]. The revolt failed, and all the rebels were executed, but their spirit lived on according to the film.{{sfn|Davis|2002|loc=Chapter 2}} ''Spartacus'' stays surprisingly close to the historical record.{{sfn|Davis|2002|loc=Chapter 3}}

''[[The Last Supper (1976 film)|The Last Supper]]'' (''La última cena'' in Spanish) was a 1976 film directed by Cuban [[Tomás Gutiérrez Alea]] about the teaching of Christianity to slaves in Cuba, and emphasizes the role of ritual and revolt. ''[[Burn!]]'' takes place on the imaginary Portuguese island of Queimada (where the locals speak Spanish) and it merges historical events that took place in Brazil, Cuba, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, and elsewhere.

Historians agree that films have largely shaped historical memories, but they debate issues of accuracy, plausibility, moralism, [[sensationalism]], how facts are stretched in search of broader truths, and suitability for the classroom.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Steven |last=Mintz |title=Spielberg's Amistad and the History Classroom |journal=The History Teacher |year=1998 |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=370–73 |jstor=494885 |doi=10.2307/494885}}</ref>{{sfn|Davis|2002|loc=Chapter 2}} Berlin argues that critics complain if the treatment emphasizes historical brutality, or if it glosses over the harshness to highlight the emotional impact of slavery.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Ira |last=Berlin |title=American Slavery in History and Memory and the Search for Social Justice |journal=[[Journal of American History]] |year=2004 |volume=90 |issue=4 |pages=1251–1268 |jstor=3660347 |doi=10.2307/3660347}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{div col}}
* [[Bodmin manumissions]], the names and details of slaves freed in Medieval [[Bodmin]]
* [[International Day for the Abolition of Slavery]]
* [[International Slavery Museum]]
* [[Involuntary servitude]]
* [[List of slaves]]
* [[List of slave owners]]
* [[Mukataba]]
* [[Slave rebellion]]
* [[Slavery in the 21st century]]
* [[Slave-owning slaves]]
* [[Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery]]
* [[Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation]]
*[[Decree of the Abolition of Slavery of April 27, 1848]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

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* {{cite book |last=Salisbury |first=Joyce E. |url={{Google books|id=T9AZAQAAIAAJ|plainurl=yes}} |title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life: The medieval world |author-link=Joyce E. Salisbury |year=2004 |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |page=316 |isbn=978-0-313-32543-4 |access-date=January 9, 2011}}
* {{cite journal |last=de Sande |first=Duarte |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]], Ltd. |year=2012 |volume=25 |title=Japanese Travellers in Sixteenth-century Europe: A Dialogue Concerning the Mission of the Japanese Ambassadors to the Roman Curia (1590) |isbn=978-1-4094-7223-0 |journal=Works Issued by the Hakluyt Society |series=Third Series |editor-first=Derek |editor-last=Massarella |issue=25 |issn=0072-9396}}
* {{cite book |last=Saunders |first=A.C. de C.M. |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1982 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=g0TCPWGGVqgC|page=168}} |page=168 |title=A Social History of Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal, 1441–1555 |isbn=978-0-521-23150-3 |edition=illustrated |access-date=February 2, 2014}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Subrahmanyam |first=Sanjay |year=1997 |title=Slaves and Tyrants: Dutch Tribulations in Seventeenth-Century Mrauk-U |journal=[[Journal of Early Modern History]] |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=201–253 |doi=10.1163/157006597x00028 |issn=1385-3783}}
* {{cite book |last=Toppin |first=Edgar |year=2010 |title=The Black American in United States History |publisher=Allyn & Bacon |isbn=978-1-4759-6172-0}}
* {{cite thesis |last=Vink |first=Markus P. M. |date=June 1998 |title=Encounters on the Opposite Coast: Cross-Cultural Contacts between the Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka State of Madurai in the Seventeenth Century |type=PhD |volume=1 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota]] |isbn=978-0-591-92325-4 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/304436379 |access-date=February 14, 2021 |id={{ProQuest|304436379}}}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
=== Surveys and reference ===
; Books
* {{cite book |last1=Beckert |first1=Sven |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=kIPZCwAAQBAJ}} |title=Empire of Cotton: A Global History |date=2014 |publisher=[[Knopf Doubleday]] |isbn=978-0-385-35325-0 |author-link=Sven Beckert}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Davies |first=Stephen |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-first=Ronald |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |chapter-url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=yxNgXs3TkJYC}} |year=2008 |publisher=Sage; [[Cato Institute]] |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n285 |isbn=978-1-4129-6580-4 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |pages=464–469 |chapter=Slavery, World}}
* {{cite book |last=Davis |first=David Brion |author-link=David Brion Davis |date=1988 |orig-date=1966 |title=[[The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture]] |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-505639-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Davis |first=David Brion |author-link=David Brion Davis |title=The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770–1823 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=xkAm6BKNU9MC}} |year=1999 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-988083-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Drescher |first=Seymour |title=Abolition: A History of Slavery and Antislavery |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=ltAhAwAAQBAJ&|page=281}} |year=2009 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-139-48296-7 |page=281}}
* {{cite book |last=Eden |first=Jeff |title=Slavery and Empire in Central Asia |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=5eRfDwAAQBAJ}} |year=2018 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-108-63732-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Gordon |first=Murray |title=Slavery in the Arab World |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=5l81hwFPvzYC}} |year=1989 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-0-941533-30-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Greene |first=Jacqueline Dembar |title=Slavery in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=M-oCPAAACAAJ}} |year=2001 |publisher=Turtleback Books |isbn=978-0-613-34472-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Heuman |first=Gad J. |title=The Slavery Reader |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=LVmqmz8L6NYC}} |year=2003 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |isbn=978-0-415-21304-2}}
* {{cite book |last1=Hogendorn |first1=Jan |last2=Johnson |first2=Marion |title=The Shell Money of the Slave Trade |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=Uhq94TIsRQwC}} |year=2003 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-54110-7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lal |first1= K.S. |url=http://www.voi.org/books/mssmi/ |title=Muslim Slave System in Medieval India |year=1994 |publisher= Aditya Prakashan |isbn=978-81-85689-67-8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512073030/http://voi.org/books/mssmi/ |archive-date=May 12, 2008 |author-link=K. S. Lal}}
* {{cite book |last1=Miers |first1=Suzanne |last2=Kopytoff |first2=Igor |title=Slavery in Africa: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=V4ZIL4BlVagC}} |year=1979 |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |location=Madison |isbn=978-0-299-07334-3}}
* {{Cite book |last=Montejo |first=Esteban |editor-last=Barnet |editor-first=Miguel |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=INy4DAAAQBAJ=}} |title=Biography of a Runaway Slave: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition |date=2016 |publisher=[[Northwestern University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8101-3342-6 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* {{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Kenneth |title=Slavery and the British Empire: From Africa to America |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=SGcwgJz5rQMC}} |year=2007 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-156627-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Postma |first=Johannes |title=The Atlantic Slave Trade |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=FAhyHQAACAAJ}} |year=2005 |publisher=[[University Press of Florida]] |isbn=978-0-8130-2906-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Reséndez |first=Andrés |title=The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=Z2gpCgAAQBAJ}} |year=2016 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |isbn=978-0-547-64098-3 |author-link=Andrés Reséndez}}
* {{cite book |first1=Junius P. |last1=Rodriguez |author1-link=Junius P. Rodriguez |title=Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion |volume=2 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=RXsBJzA61lcC}} |year=2007 |location=Westport, Conn |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |isbn=978-0-313-33273-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Shell |first=Robert Carl-Heinz |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=hjsiAAAACAAJ}} |author-link=Robert Carl-Heinz Shell |date=1994 |title=Children of Bondage: A Social History of the Slave Society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652–1838 |location=Hanover, NH |publisher=[[University Press of New England]] [for] [[Wesleyan University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8195-5273-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Westermann |first=William Linn |title=The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=FF-uCZRXiO4C}} |year=1955 |publisher=American Philosophical Society |isbn=978-0-87169-040-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Williams|first=Eric|author-link=Eric Williams|date=2021|title=Capitalism and Slavery, Third Edition|url=https://uncpress.org/book/9781469663685/capitalism-and-slavery-third-edition/|location= |publisher=[[The University of North Carolina Press]]|page= |isbn=978-1469663678|access-date=}}

; Journal articles and reviews
* {{cite journal |last=Bartlett |first=Will |s2cid=220850066 |date=May 1994 |doi=10.1177/0143831x94152010 |issue=2 |journal=Economic and Industrial Democracy |pages=296–298 |title=Review: Property and Contract in Economics |volume=15}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Burczak |first=Theodore |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=161–183 |title=Ellerman's Labor Theory of Property and the Injustice of Capitalist Exploitation |journal=Review of Social Economy |date=June 2001 |doi=10.1080/00346760110035572 |jstor=29770104 |s2cid=144866813}}
* {{cite journal |last=Devine |first=Pat |title=Review: Property and Contract in Economics |journal=Economic Journal |volume=103 |issue=421 |date=November 1, 1993 |pages=1560–1561 |doi=10.2307/2234490 |jstor=2234490}}
* {{cite journal |last=Lawson |first=Colin |title=Review: Property and Contract in Economics |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |volume=71 |issue=4 |year=1993 |pages=792–793 |jstor=4211433}}
* {{cite journal |last=Lutz |first=Mark A. |title=Book Reviews: Property and Contract in Economics |journal=Review of Social Economy |volume=53 |issue=1 |year=1995 |pages=141–147 |doi=10.1080/00346769500000007}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Pole |first1=J. R. |date=June 1977 |title=Review: Slavery and Revolution: The Conscience of the Rich |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=503–513 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00011171 |jstor=2638543 |s2cid=162624457}}
* {{cite journal |last=Smith |first=Stephen C. |date=December 1994 |doi=10.1006/jcec.1994.1115 |issue=3 |journal=[[Journal of Comparative Economics]] |pages=463–466 |title=Property and Contract in Economics |volume=19}}
* {{cite journal |last=Woltjer |first=Geert |s2cid=195243866 |date=March 1996 |doi=10.1007/bf00149085 |issue=1 |journal=European Journal of Law and Economics |pages=109–112 |title=Book review: Property and Contract in Economics |volume=3}}

==== United States ====
* {{cite book |last1=Baptist |first1=Edward |author-link1=Edward E. Baptist |title=The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=dSrXCwAAQBAJ}} |year=2016 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-09768-5}}
* {{cite book|title=Slavery's Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development|editor1-first=Sven|editor1-last=Beckert|editor2-first=Seth|editor2-last=Rockman|editor1-link=Sven Beckert|url=http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15556.html|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]]|year=2016|isbn=978-0-8122-2417-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Berlin |first=Ira |title=Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=zYGVfP6Z_WoC}} |year=2009 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-02082-5}}
* {{cite book |last1=Berlin |first1=Ira |last2=Favreau |first2=Marc |last3=Miller |first3=Steven |title=Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Freedom |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=F7lmyOu-qfgC}} |year=2011 |publisher=New Press |isbn=978-1-59558-763-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Blackmon |first=Douglas A. |title=Slavery by Another Name: The re-enslavement of black americans from the civil war to World War Two |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=2v-BYWrjl9IC}} |year=2012 |publisher=Icon Books Limited |isbn=978-1-84831-413-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Boles |first=John B. |title=Black Southerners, 1619–1869|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=Y8AeBgAAQBAJ|page=PR3}} |year=2015 |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |isbn=978-0-8131-5786-3 |page=3}}
* {{cite book |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=93iMgRBSgb4C}}|last=Engerman |first=Stanley Lewis |author-link=Stanley Engerman |date=1999 |title=Terms of Labor: Slavery, Serfdom, and Free Labor |location=Stanford, CA |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-3521-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Genovese |first=Eugene D. |author-link=Eugene D. Genovese |title=Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=kCmAy_iBmagC}} |year=2011 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-77272-5}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=King |first1=Richard H. |last2=Genovese |first2=Eugene |year=1977 |title=Marxism and the Slave South |journal=American Quarterly |volume=29 |issue=1 |page=117 |doi=10.2307/2712264 |jstor=2712264 |issn=0003-0678}}
* {{cite web |last=Mintz |first=S. |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/slav_fact.cfm |title=Slavery Facts & Myths |website=Digital History |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061106053657/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/slav_fact.cfm |archive-date=November 6, 2006}}
* {{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Edmund Sears |author-link=Edmund Morgan (historian) |date=1975 |title=[[American Slavery, American Freedom|American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia]] |location=New York |publisher=Norton |isbn=978-0-393-05554-2}}; [https://www.jstor.com/stable/2638543 online review]
* {{cite book |last=Parish |first=Peter J. |title=Slavery: History and Historians |date=1989 |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |isbn=978-0-06-437001-1 |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book |last=Parish |first=Peter J. |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=hilKDwAAQBAJ}} |title=Slavery: History And Historians |date= 2018 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-429-97694-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Ulrich Bonnell |author-link=Ulrich Bonnell Phillips |title=American Negro Slavery: A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Régime |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=SDQOAAAAIAAJ|page=1}} |year=1918 |publisher=D. Appleton |page=1}}
* {{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Ulrich Bonnell |author-link=Ulrich Bonnell Phillips |title=Life and Labor in the Old South |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=R44EqSwR_0kC}} |year=2007 |publisher=[[University of South Carolina Press]] |isbn=978-1-57003-678-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Resendez |first=Andres |title=The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2gpCgAAQBAJ&q=Rese%CC%81ndez%2C%20Andre%CC%81s.%202017.%20The%20other%20slavery%3A%20the%20uncovered%20story%20of%20indian%20enslavement%20in%20America.&pg=PP1 |year=2016 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |page=448 |isbn=978-0-544-60267-0 |via=[[Google Books]]}}
* {{cite book |last=Sellers |first=James Benson |title=Slavery in Alabama |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=lAe6BQAAQBAJ|page=294}} |year=1994 |publisher=[[University of Alabama Press]] |isbn=978-0-8173-0594-9}}
* {{cite book|first=Kenneth Milton |last=Stampp|title=The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Antebellum South|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=xHB8vgAACAAJ}}|year=1969|publisher=A.A. Knopf}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Trenchard |first=David |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |chapter-url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=yxNgXs3TkJYC}} |year=2008 |publisher=Sage; [[Cato Institute]] |location= Thousand Oaks, CA |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n286 |isbn=978-1-4129-6580-4 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |pages=469–70 |chapter=Slavery in America}}
* {{Cite book |last=Vorenberg |first=Michael |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=f-UQWNPD5qgC}} |title=Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment |date=May 21, 2001 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-65267-4}}
* {{cite book |editor1-first=Allen |editor1-last=Weinstein |editor-last2=Gatell |editor2-first=Frank Otto |editor3-first=David |editor3-last=Sarasohn |title=American Negro Slavery: A Modern Reader |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=l6cENhgb_DQC}} |year=1979 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-502470-8}}

==== Slavery in the modern era ====
* {{cite book |last1=Brass |first1=Tom |last2=van der Linden |first2=Marcel |title=Free and unfree labour: the debate continues |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=pNknAQAAIAAJ}} |year=1997 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-3-906756-87-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Brass |first=Tom |title=Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Unfree Labour: Case Studies and Debates |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=VXlACwAAQBAJ}} |year=2015 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=978-1-317-82735-1}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Bales |editor-first=Kevin |title=Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=q1GtJL8DDfoC}} |year=2005 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-93207-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Bales |first=Kevin |title=Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=6Tf5xKoQQYcC}} |date=2007 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-25470-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Craig |first=Gary |date=2007 |title=Contemporary Slavery in the UK: Overview and Key Issues |location=York |publisher=Joseph Rowntree Foundation |url=http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/2016-contemporary-slavery-UK.pdf |isbn=978-1-85935-573-2 |access-date=December 17, 2007 |archive-date=June 14, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614012656/http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/2016-contemporary-slavery-UK.pdf |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |last=Hawk |first=David R. |date=2012 |title=The Hidden Gulag: The Lives and Voices of "those Who Are Sent to the Mountains" |url=http://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/HRNK_HiddenGulag2_Web_5-18.pdf |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea |isbn=978-0-615-62367-2 |access-date=September 21, 2012 |archive-date=March 13, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150313045221/http://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/HRNK_HiddenGulag2_Web_5-18.pdf |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |last1=Nazer |first1=Mende |last2=Lewis |first2=Damien |title=Slave: My True Story |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=hSGqFr-YUNkC}} |date=2009 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-0-7867-3897-7}}
* {{cite book |first=Jesse |last=Sage|title=Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=RwtfBwAAQBAJ}}|year=2015|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-1-250-08310-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Sowell |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Sowell |title=Black Rednecks and White Liberals |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gMLieJOtWwIC |date=2010 |publisher=ReadHowYouWant.com |isbn=978-1-4596-0221-2 |chapter=The Real History of Slavery}}

== External links ==
{{sister project links||d=Q8463|c=Category:Slavery|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|s=no|species=no}}
{{NIE Poster|year=1905}}

=== Historical ===
* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/slavery/ Slavery in America: A Resource Guide] at the [[Library of Congress]]
* [http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/bib/ The Bibliography of Slavery and World Slaving], [[University of Virginia]]: a searchable database of 25,000 scholarly works on slavery and the slave trade
* [https://library.uncg.edu/slavery/ Digital Library on American Slavery] at [[University of North Carolina at Greensboro]]
* {{cite web |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/slav_fact.cfm |title=Slavery Fact Sheets |website=Digital History |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140209215003/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/slav_fact.cfm |archive-date=February 9, 2014|publisher=[[University of Houston]]}}
* [https://www.pdavis.nl/index.htm#WAS The West African Squadron and slave trade], history of the Victorian Royal Navy
* [https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/ Slavery and the Making of America] at [[WNET]]
* {{cite web |title=Understanding Slavery |url=http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/slavery/ |publisher=Discovery Education |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326073920/http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/slavery/ |archive-date=March 26, 2010}}
* [https://london.ac.uk/senate-house-library/our-collections/special-collections/archives-manuscripts/subject-guides-to-archives#slavery-archive-sources Slavery archival sources], University of London, [[Senate House Library]]
* [http://www.memoirestbarth.com/EN/ Mémoire St Barth (archives & history of slavery, slave trade and their abolition)], Comité de Liaison et d'Application des Sources Historiques 2010
* [http://www.archieven.nl/nl/zoeken?miview=inv2&mivast=0&mizig=210&miadt=239&micode=20&milang=nl#inv3t0 Archives of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie (MCC), 1720–1889 'Trade Company of Middelburg'], Inventory of the archives of the Dutch slave trade across the Atlantic {{in lang|nl}}
* [https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Slave_Ships_and_the_Middle_Passage Slave Ships and the Middle Passage] at ''[[Encyclopedia Virginia]]''
* [https://www.slavevoyages.org/ The Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American slave trade databases] at [[Emory University]]

=== Modern ===
* [https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/ 2018 Global Slavery Index] at the Walk Free Foundation

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[[Category:Slavery| ]]
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