History of slavery  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

The history of slavery covers many different forms of human exploitation across many cultures and throughout human history. Slavery, generally defined, refers to the systematic exploitation of labor for work and services without consent and/or the possession of other persons as property. There is no clear timeline for the formation of slavery in any formalized sense. Slavery can be traced to the earliest records, such as the Code of Hammurabi, which refers to slavery as an already established institution.

Slavery is rare among hunter-gatherer populations as slavery depends on a system of social stratification. Slavery also requires economic surpluses and a high population density to be viable. Due to these factors, the practice of slavery would have only proliferated after the invention of agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution about 11,000 years ago.

Origins

Slavery in antiquity

Evidence of slavery predates written records, and has existed in many cultures. Slavery is rare among hunter–gatherer populations, as slavery is a system of social stratification. Mass slavery also requires economic surpluses and a high population density to be viable. Due to these factors, the practice of slavery would have only proliferated after the invention of agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution about 11,000 years ago.

Slavery was known in civilizations as old as Sumer, as well as almost every other ancient civilization, including Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Ancient India, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the Islamic Caliphate, and the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas. Such institutions were a mixture of debt-slavery, punishment for crime, the enslavement of prisoners of war, child abandonment, and the birth of slave children to slaves.

See also

General

• Types of slavery:
  • Child slavery
  • Coolies
  • Forced labour
  • Gulag
  • Indentured servitude
  • Serfdom
  • Wage slavery
• Types of slave trades:
  • African slave trade
  • Arab slave trade
  • Atlantic slave trade
  • Blackbirding
  • Coastwise slave trade
  • Swedish slave trade
• Present-day slavery:
  • Slavery in modern Africa
  • Trafficking in human beings

People

• List of famous slaves
• Notable abolitionists
  • William Wilberforce - UK
• Types of slave soldiers:
  • Janissary
  • Mamluk
  • Saqaliba

Ideals and organisations

• • Anti-Slavery Society
  • Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking
  • Religious Society of Friends
  • Society for effecting the abolition of the slave trade
  • United States National Slavery Museum
• Abolitionism:
  • Compensated Emancipation
  • International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition

Other

• Asiento
• Bandeirantes
• Fazendas
• Guaraní
• History of slavery in the United States:
  • Origins of the American Civil War
  • North Carolina v. Mann
• Influx of disease in the Caribbean
• Kholop
• History of Liverpool
• Pedro Blanco
• Religion and slavery
• Sambo's Grave
• Serfdom in Russia
• Slave narrative
• Slave rebellion
• Slave ship
• Slavery at common law
• William Lynch Speech