Slavery

Slavery is involuntary servitude to another person or persons, such that the persons held in bondage are considered to be property. It reduces a person to the status of chattel who can be owned by another person. The selling price of a slave varied from less than that of horse to as many as a dozen horses. The master controls and commands the slave, either through property-like ownership of the slave or by right to command him. Slavery still exists today in remote parts of Africa such as the Sudan where Arabs own black slaves.

Slavery is best known to Americans as a peculiar institution of the Southern states before emancipation in the American Civil War and Reconstruction. This was a case of racial slavery--the slaves were black, the owners were white. see The South.

Slavery was found in the history of most civilizations. Slavery flourishes where there is a high demand for labor and not enough workers. When the workers are plentiful, slavery dies out because it is unprofitable. That is it was cheaper to free a slave and hire low cost paid labor than to keep slaves. Typically, when it had almost died out, it was made illegal by the government, as in Brazil.

Bible approves?

Slave owners in the ante-bellum South cited Ephesians 6:5, “slaves, obey your masters” in arguments for the Christian endorsement of slavery. Another Bible verse states that thieves should be sold into slavery. Under the Mosaic Law, slaves could be kept for six years. (See "Slavery" in the Bible, below.)

The slavery system diminished a person to the point where they would be regarded as a thing or an object to be owned. Christian abolitionists disagreed with this valuation, and advanced an interpretation of the Bible which presented human value in terms of God's parental love for all people as His children (see human rights).

Ancient history

Most ancient civilizations, including Greece and Rome, had slavery on a large scale.

In Egypt Hebrews were slaves. The primary slave market in ancient Greece was on an island in the Aegean sea known as "Delos". From there slaves were traded and used throughout the Greek city-states. In ancient Athens about 30% of the population consisted of slaves.

Often prisoners of wars in ancient history were used as slaves, particularly during the Roman Empire. Probably over 25% of the population was enslaved in the Roman Empire. Christianity helped lessen the harshness by which Romans treated slaves; however, later Christian nations like Spain, England, and the Netherlands would continue in the use of slaves. According to the Domesday Book census in 1086, 10% of England's population was enslaved.

Medieval Europe

Painting of a slave market in late medieval Eastern Europe.

Slavery in Poland was forbidden in the 15th century; in Lithuania, slavery was formally abolished in 1588; they were replaced by the second enserfment. Slavery remained a major institution in Russia until the 1723, when the Peter the Great converted the household slaves into house serfs. Russian agricultural slaves were formally converted into serfs earlier in 1679.

Present-day slavery

Slavery was also pervasive among Arabs into the twenty-first century. As recently as the 1950s, Saudi Arabia had an estimated 450 000 slaves, 20% of the population. It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery in Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War. In Mauritania it is estimated that up to 600,000 men, women and children, or 20% of the population, are currently enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour. Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in August 2007. In Niger, slavery is also a current phenomenon; a Nigerien study has found that more than 800,000 people, or almost 8% of the population, are slaves.

1492-1865

In 1455, a "papal bull" (formal letter by the pope) justified a "right" of Christian nations to enslave any non-Christian in the name of exploration. The Spanish had already been enslaving South American natives on a limited basis, but with the rise of sugar plantations the need for a larger slave force arose. Millions of African slaves were brought by the Spanish and Portuguese to Mexico, Peru, the Caribbean and Brazil. The growth of sugar—which had first been introduced to Europe when the Muslims ruled Spain—was exploding in popularity throughout the entire western world. Soon France, the Netherlands and Britain were also establishing profitable sugar plantations in the new world. The plantation system began in Brazil, where rich white plantation owners were the highest rung in the social hierarchy and black slaves were at the bottom. Obviously life on a sugar plantation was very hard work for a slave.

Africa

Slavery was widespread within Africa itself, and the richest in Africa were not those owning the most land, but those who owned the most slaves. In the Sahara Desert, slaves worked in caravans and were used in gold and salt mining. Slaves were usually prisoners of war from other areas of Africa, or debtors, or enemies or the king, but many women outside of those three categories were also enslaved in African societies. Polygamy—the practice of having more than one wife—was common in Africa, as was the existence of harems, from which African women were often sold to join Arabian or Middle Eastern harems.

Slave trade

The trading of slaves with other countries was encouraged in Africa, and was considered an important component of the African economy. Slave trade across the Atlantic (the Trans-Atlantic slave trade) became a booming business for Europeans and Africans alike, by which African rulers sold their people to Europeans for goods such as iron, alcohol, tobacco and most importantly, guns. Trans-Atlantic trade led to the degrading use of "chattel" slaves, whereby the slaves were treated purely as property of the owner. The slaves served as sailors, skilled craftsmen or farmers. The journey across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage, led to the death of 10-20% of the African slaves. But an even higher percentage lost their lives in the journey from their homes in Africa to the African coast, where they were to board the slave ships.

• After kidnapping potential slaves, merchants forced them to walk in slave caravans to the European coastal forts, sometimes as far as 1,000 miles. Shackled and underfed, only half the people survived these death marches. [2]

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was one component in a system of routes known as the "Triangular Trade" between South America, New England, and the West Coast of Africa. The three main items that were exchanged were sugar, rum and slaves. European goods, mainly guns, were used to buy slaves from Africa. The slaves were then shipped to the Americas. Then, from America, sugar, rum and tobacco were brought back to Europe, completing the "triangle" of trade. Slavery is one of the less noble aspects of American history.

White slaves

Between 1530 and 1780, Europeans including Britons and even some Americans were frequently taken captive and enslaved by privateers from the Barbary States. Estimates of so-called "white slavery" vary from as little as 50,000 to in the millions . Generally Europeans enslaved by the corsairs were usually poorer sea merchants and city dwellers whose families were unable to pay the ransom necessary to free them. Often the Pasha would purchase the female captives into his harem. Many were forced to "go turk" or convert to "mohammadism" in order to stay with their children who were raised as Muslims. Occasionally slaves would convert in order to escape harsher labors such as tending the oars in the corsairs .

For a long time, until the early 18th century, the Crimean Khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. Kefe was one of the best known and significant trading ports and slave markets. In a process called "harvesting of the steppe" Crimean Tatars enslaved many Slavic peasants.

Boulanger Gustave Clarence Rudolphe's painting The Slave Market

Islam

In Senegambia, between 1300 and 1900, close to one-third of the population was enslaved. In early Islamic states of the western Sudan, including Ghana (750-1076), Mali (1235–1645), Segou (1712–1861), and Songhai (1275-1591), about a third of the population were slaves. In Sierra Leone in the 19th century about half of the population consisted of slaves. In the 19th century at least half the population was enslaved among the Duala of the Cameroon, the Igbo and other peoples of the lower Niger, the Kongo, and the Kasanje kingdom and Chokwe of Angola. Among the Ashanti and Yoruba a third of the population consisted of slaves. The population of the Kanem was about a third-slave. It was perhaps 40% in Bornu (1396–1893). Between 1750 and 1900 from one- to two-thirds of the entire population of the Fulani jihad states consisted of slaves. The population of the Sokoto caliphate formed by Hausas in the northern Nigeria and Cameroon was half-slave in the 19th century. It is estimated that up to 90% of the population of Arab-Swahili Zanzibar was enslaved. Roughly half the population of Madagascar was enslaved.

The Anti-Slavery Society estimated that there were 2 million slaves in the early 1930s Ethiopia, out of an estimated population of between 8 and 16 million. Slavery continued in Ethiopia until the brief Second Italo-Abyssinian War in October 1935, when it was abolished by order of the Italian occupying forces. In response to pressure by Western Allies of World War II Ethiopia officially abolished slavery and serfdom after regaining its independence in 1942. On August 26, 1942 Haile Selassie issued a proclamation outlawing slavery.

India

According to Sir Henry Bartle Frere (who sat on the Viceroy's Council), there were an estimated 8,000,000 or 9,000,000 slaves in India in 1841. In Malabar, about 15% of the population were slaves. Slavery was abolished in both Hindu and Muslim India by the Indian Slavery Act V. of 1843. Provisions of the Indian Penal Code of 1861 effectively abolished slavery in India by making the enslavement of human beings a criminal offense.

Korea

Indigenous slaves existed in Korea. Slavery was officially abolished with the Gabo Reform of 1894. During the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910) about 30% to 40% of the Korean population consisted of slaves. Slavery was hereditary, as well as a form of legal punishment. There was a slave class with both government and privately owned slaves, and the government occasionally gave slaves to citizens of higher rank. Privately owned slaves could be inherited as personal property. During poor harvests and famine, many peasants would voluntarily become slaves in order to survive. In the case of private slaves they could buy their freedom.

Famous Slaves

• St. Felecity
• St. Patrick
• Pope Pius I
• Pope Callixtus I
• Pope Clement I
• Spartacus
• Frederick Douglass
• Harriet Tubman
• Dred Scott
• Booker T. Washington
• Attilla the Hun

Prominent American Abolitionists

• Harriet Tubman, Underground Railroad. (1820 - 1913) Well-known associate of the Underground Railroad. Acted as a spy and led raids to assist others in gaining their freedom.
• Frederick Douglass, orator, writer and publisher. (1817 - 1875) Respected leader of the abolitionist movement, consummate freedom seeker, orator and publisher.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, unitarian minister and freethinker. (1803-1882) Expressed visceral public disapproval of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Exhorted people to "do the duty of the hour", and support abolition.
• William Lloyd Garrison, anti-slavery editor of the Liberator (1805 - 1879) Founded the Liberator with partner Isaac Knapp in 1831.
• Elizur Wright, abolitionist, freethinker. (1804-1885) Became involved in the abolitionist movement while attending Yale university. Eventually worked as a secretary with the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 and assumed the editorship of the Massachusetts Abolitionist in 1839.
• John Stuart Mill, philosopher, essayist. (1806 - 1879) Wrote numerous essays on abolition during the American Civil War. Asserted the war was being fought to abolish slavery, an unpopular political opinion at the time.

End of European and American Slavery

The end of slavery in Europe was not to come until the American Revolution, when slaves were freed in all the northern states between 1776 and 1804. In Britain emancipation became a major cause by the 1800s, when abolitionists such as William Wilberforce and John Wesley began speaking out against the evils of the system. Wilberforce was supported in his efforts by John Newton, a slave trader who became a Christian and then opposed the slave trade. The slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807, however slavery was not abolished in the Empire until 1832.

The British ban on the slave trade enforced by the British navy did undermine the slave trade globally. This led to the United States banning the slave trade in the early 1800s. However, slavery itself was not abolished until decades later in 1865 when the U.S. government passed the 13th Amendment, after the secessionist Confederacy sought to defend its right to retain slaves and failed, and in South America when it was ended in Brazil in 1888.

"Slavery" in the Bible

"Slavery" is also referenced, permitted and regulated in the Bible. The Hebrew word ebed is translated as "slave" or "servant", but the concept is not fully the same as the modern understanding of "slave", the institution of which was not a monolithic institution. Slave included various types of "persons in subordinate positions" Therefore "all the subjects of Israel and Judah are called slaves of their kings", while loss of freedom and degree of subjugation more distinctly defines subjects of institutionalized slavery.

Some biblical passages mentioning slavery are:

• "And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant." -- Genesis 17:12-13, showing that slaves were considered subject to the Old Covenant.

• "And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money." -- Exodus 21:20-21

• "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever." -- Exodus 21:2-6. Hebrews may be slaves for a maximum of seven years, then must be freed. Any children produced during the period of slavery shall however remain the property of his owner.

• "Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour." -- Leviticus 25:44-46 (Leviticus 25 contains more detailed rules regarding who may or may not be enslaved)

• "And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel, Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice (slavery) unto this day. But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen." -- I Kings 9:20-22

• "And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:" -- Levitcus 25:47-48

• "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant (slave)? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather." -- I Corinthians 7:20-21

• "Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." -- Colossians 4:1

• "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward." -- 1 Peter 2:18

• "Let as many servants (slaves) as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort." -- I Timothy 6:1-2

• "We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, ... for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine..." 1_Timothy 1:9-10

• The book of Philemon is a record of Paul sending a slave back to his master "no longer as a slave but more than a slave-- a beloved brother." (Philemon 1: 16)

Old Testament

The Hebrew Bible sanctioned the use of it's regulated forms of slavery, in a world in which slavery existed as a long established socio-economic institution. This sanction was often used to justify slavery later on. The Old Testament requirements were both similar to other cultures as well as often being counter-cultural in making it more humane, and are contrasted to slavery based upon race, such as when the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt. The law of Moses broadly prohibits the permanent enslavement of the native inhabitants of Israel but permits the enslavement of immigrants and the occupants of other countries. Depending on the precise circumstances, ethnicity, nationality and any enslaved relatives of a slave, some must be freed after a specified time, while others remained slaves for life.

The first mention in the Bible of slaves (servants in some translations) being used is that of Abraham's army, by which home-born servants he rescued his nephew Lot. (Genesis 14:14-16)

Later, in Israel's preparation for conquering the Canaanite nations, they were instructed to take as tributary states neighboring cities of enemies which surrendered to them, but which were not part of the Canaanite nations. If they choose war, the women and children were saved alive and became Israel's. (Deuteronomy 20:10-16) The women could be taken to be a wife (after a month of mourning), but must go free if later divorced. (Leviticus 25:44-46); Deuteronomy 21:10-14) Israel did not go to war with distant nations, and though slaves were often obtained through warfare in the ancient near east, apparently such means were not a significant source for Israel, at least after the initial conquering of the land.

The main source of slavery was by means of purchase. The prevention of poverty by constant employment seems to have been a priority in ancient Israel. While both Israelites or "a stranger or a sojourner" fell into "decay" were to be relieved by being taken in by those in Israel, (Leviticus 25:35) this also could result in slavery. Israel was instructed that they could buy - including from foreigners - temporary Israelite slaves who sold themselves into such due to poverty, or were sold. However, Israel could also purchase permanent foreign ones, the latter being from foreign nations or from strangers living among them, and which purchased servants became the property of the owner's posterity as well. (Leviticus 25:44-46)

While the permanency of purchased slaves was determined by nationalism, race did not mandate slavery. Though foreign slaves were the permanent property of the family, yet certain benefits were realized by being part of the family, while certain injuries by the owner afforded them freedom, as did escape, without others returning him. This aspect would seem to foster good treatment of slaves. In addition, there appears to have been no provision for selling or trading slaves after they were purchased.

The following are pertinent conditions of slavery.

• It was specified that Israelite slaves were not to be made to serve with rigor, “but as an hired servant, and as a sojourner.” (Leviticus 25:39-43,53)

• Israelite slaves were required to be freed after six years of servitude. (Exodus 21:2-6)

• The Hebrew slave was to be released with abundant provisions, designed to help economically establish him. (Deuteronomy 15:12-15)

• Israelite servants were also required to be released in the 50 year Jubilee, when sold or mortgaged land, which had been originally divided by lot (Numbers 26:52-56), also returned back to the original owner. (Leviticus 25:8-13) Provision was made for Hebrew slaves who freely choose perpetual servitude. (Exodus 21:5-6; Deuteronomy 15:16-18)

• Foreigners who dwelt among the Hebrews were not to be oppressed, but loved as one of their own (Leviticus 19:33-34), and could buy and sell Hebrew slaves. However, these could be redeemed out of slavery by close kin, for a price corresponding to the year of the jubilee. If not redeemed he was to then go free at that time. (Leviticus 25:47-55)

• A Hebrew father could sell his daughter to be a wife, or concubine (an additional wife: Genesis 25:1; cf. 1 Chronicles 1:32; Genesis 30:4; cf. 35:22), to which special requirements applied. If she was betrothed to the owner, he was required to let her be redeemed to freedom if he broke the betrothal. If married to his son, the neglect of equal care for her in food, or in clothing or in sexual relations mandated her release. (Exodus 21:7-11)

• In contrast to Israelites, foreigners people could be bought and be servants for life. (Leviticus 25:44-46)

• In contrast to foreigners and hired servants, purchased slaves were circumcised and became part of the household, and thus received benefits under the Abrahamic covenant, (Genesis 17:13-19) and as such they took part in the Passover feast (Exodus 12:44-45; Deuteronomy 2:10-12; 29:10-13; Leviticus 22:10-12)

• Capital punishment was likely required for killing any servant (Exodus 21:18-21), by being slain with the sword, as the Targum and Jarchi understand it. (Exodus 21:21-22; cf. Leviticus 24:21-22) Philo states premeditated murder, with malice, of the servant as requiring the master's death. If fatality was not evidenced for a day or so then no punishment was prescribed regarding a foreign servant. For freemen a monetary compensation was mandated in the latter case.

• Stealing a man and selling him into slavery was also a capital crime, (Exodus 21:16; Deuteronomy 24:7

• Freedom was mandated for any slave which suffered a loss of eyesight or a tooth due to his master striking him. (Exodus 21:26-27)

• Fugitive slaves were not to be returned to their master. (Deuteronomy 23:15-16)

All slaves, Israelite and foreign, were to rest on the seventh day and other sabbaths, and from planting and sowing during the seventh year and the fiftieth year Jubilee. (Leviticus 25:1-13KJV)

New Testament

Under the New Testament, the primitive church as a model organic community had no slavery (Acts 2:41-47), but it initially grew within the slave states of Greece and Rome, and in which Christian faith was was oppressed persecuted. As the practice of slavery seems so antithetical by nature to the second Great Commandment, esp. at least as was common practiced, the regulation of it rather than an outright repudiation of it by the church - in which all races are spiritually one - (Gal 3:28) appears problematic. However, under the N.T. the totality of commands regarding slavery radically reformed it, and while slaves were only recommended to obtain freedom, and owners were not outright commanded to give them such, yet it is seen as working toward such, with slavery being left as a cultural appendage that the fuller outworking of Holy Christian love could jettison when a greatly revived church and social/political opportunity enabled it. Applying the requirements of equal pay and fair and merciful Christian treatment enabled tolerance of slavery without a radical change in the entrenched economic system, in a society in which opposition to slavery at that time likely would have made it worse for the slaves. Instead, the primitive church, much of which was made up of slaves, focused on freeing souls from spiritual bondage, and of being victorious and useful in whatever situation they were found, and being a "holy nation" themselves.

While for much of her history Roman Catholicism opposed slavery, the modern influence of Christians in influencing the abolition of slavery was much a result of the outworking of the Reformation and the evangelical Second Great Awakening and the freedom to effect political change, and statesmen who were likeminded toward abolition and even equality (which was seldom initially the same).

In the New Testament, Christian slaves are admonished to obey their masters, "as to the Lord, and not to men" (Ephesians 6:5-8; Colossians 3:22-25; 1 Timothy 6:1; Titus 2:9-10; 1 Peter 2:18), with the like attitude being required of masters toward their servants, as they also had a Master in Heaven. Masters were to act without threatening (Ephesians 6:9), rendering just and equal recompense to their servants (Colossians 4:1), with freedom being the ideal for slaves if it could be lawfully obtained (1 Corinthians 7:21-23).

The Epistle to Philemon by the apostle Paul was an important text in regard to slavery, and was used by both pro slavery advocates and abolitionists, the former because Paul is returning Philemon, an escaped slave back to his master Onesimus, seemingly in contrast to Old Testament law. (Deuteronomy 23:15-16) However, as Roman law required the return of escaped slaves, not returning Onesimus would have left him a servus fugitivus, with a bounty on his head and perhaps a brand on his back. Moreover, Paul made it clear he was not returning a slave, but one whom was to be received back no longer "as a slave, but as a brother beloved" (he had been converted by Paul while both were imprisoned), even as Paul's own son or Paul himself, though Paul would have preferred Philemon to remain and minister in place of Onesimus. Paul further offers to pay for any debt owed by Philemon (Philemon 1:1-25).

In contrast to laws regarding slavery, purely moral laws of the Old Testament, versus judicial and civil legislation, are affirmed and even made stricter.

Curse of Ham

Some have asserted that the slavery of blacks was the result the curse of Ham. However, there is no evidence that the curse had to do with skin color, and the descendants of Canaan, most likely were not black, and it is generally concluded that they did not settle in Africa.

External links

• Islam and Slavery:The Concealed Truth, Excerpts from a Lecture by Srdja Trifkovic, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, November 14, 2003.

Further reading

• Finkelman, Paul. and Joseph C. Miller, eds. Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery (1999)
• Morgan, Kenneth. Slavery and the British Empire: From Africa to America (2008) excerpt and text search
• Rodriguez, ed. Junius P. The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery (2 Vol. 1997)

see also

• Abolitionism
• American Civil War