As a social and economic institution slavery originated at a time when humans adopted sedentary farming methods of subsistence rather than more mobile forms of hunting and gathering.
Slave labor became commonplace during the Ancient Greek and Roman periods, when it was used to cultivate large estates and to meet the demand for personal servants in the towns.
Slaves were created through the capture of enemies, through birth to slave parents, through sale into slavery by free parents, and as a means of punishment.
Slavery declined after the Fall of the Roman Empire until the early ninth century when the Vikings begin selling slaves to Muslims.
Slavery also persisted in central Europe where many Slavonic peoples were captured and taken as slaves to Germany. (Hence the derivation of the word.)
Ireland was a major hub for slavery in the 11th Century, with the Irish kidnapping people in their home country, Scotland and Wales. When slavery was banned in England, it impacted Ireland severely. One of the reasons why the Normans invaded Ireland was because of the Irish refusal to give up slavery.
Slavery also continued in Spain and Portugal where the reconquest of the Peninsula from the Moors in the 15th century created an acute shortage of labor. Captured Muslims became the first victims of the increased use of slavery, but there was soon followed by slaves from Africa, imported by the Portuguese King Henry the Navigator after 1444.
By the mid-15th century slaves were being used for a wide range of tasks, and irregular trading slaves was established between the Guinea Coast and the slave markets of the Iberian Peninsula.
Until the 18th century, Crimea was a center for the slave trade to the Ottoman Empire. Crimean Tatar raids into Russia and Ukraine are thought to have brought two million into slavery.
Slavery was not practiced in the Americas until Columbus brought it to the Caribbean. Writing of slaves just as he might other goods, Columbus penned in his diary, "We can send from here, in the name of the Holy Trinity, all the slaves and Brazil wood which could be sold."
Queen Elizabeth I of England once said that "if any African were carried away as a slave without his free consent, it would be detestable and would call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the undertaking." However, after hearing of the immense profit John Hawkins had made from his slaves she took shares in his second slave venture, as well as lending him a ship.
The first 20 African slaves were brought to England's American territories by a Dutch ship. They landed off the coast of Virginia on August 20, 1619 and were then sold into slavery in Jamestown.
In 1642 Pope Urban VIII prohibited the enslavement of the indigenous inhabitants of Brazil, Paraguay and the West Indies.
The court of Northampton County, Colony of Virginia, made John Casor the first legally recognized slave in Britain's North American colonies on March 8, 1655.
The conditions on board ships carrying slaves from Africa to Europe or North America were disgraceful. The unfortunate slaves on board were fed twice a day at eight o'clock in the morning and four in the afternoon mainly with boiled rice and yams with beans boiled to the consistency of a pulp and sometimes a small quantity of beef or pork. If they refused to eat their unappetizing fare hot coals were put on a shovel and placed so near their lips as to scorch and burn them, and if they persisted in refusing to eat they could be forced to swallow these coals.
The painting c.1830 below by the German artist Johann Moritz Rugendas depicts a scene below deck of a slave ship headed to Brazil; Rugendas had been an eyewitness to the scene.
Many of these unfortunate slaves ended up running the kitchens on Southern plantations, and they played a major role in inspiring much of its cuisine. Amongst the dishes and cooking techniques they introduced were hot, spicy sauces, frying grains and vegetables into fritters, and boiling leafy green vegetables.
The first anti-slavery petition in the New World was drafted in the home of Thönes Kunders of Germantown on April 18, 1688. Germantown is an area in Northwest Philadelphia, which had been founded five years earlier by German Quaker and Mennonite families. Kunders hosted the early Germantown Quaker meetings and the Christian group were already prominent in their condemnation of this inhuman trade, with the society's founder, George Fox, speaking strongly against it.
The horrors of the slave trade did not go unnoticed in England either, however hard the traders tried to justify their activities. The first sharp prick to the public's conscience came in 1688 with the publication of Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko (about the sufferings of an African prince and his loved one, transported by the English to slavery in Surinam).
Back in 1652, Rhode Island had passed the first law in North America making slavery illegal. However, there's no evidence that it was ever enforced. 122 years later, in 1774, Rhode Island became the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
John Murray, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, started the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America during the American Revolution. In 1775 he issued Lord Dunmore's Offer of Emancipation, which offered freedom to slaves who abandoned their colonial masters in order to fight with Murray and the British.
Benjamin Franklin formed the same year with Dr Benjamin Rush, the first Anti-Slavery organisation in America, The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by the pair.
Also in 1775 an anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, published African Slavery in America, the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.
Thomas Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence criticized King George III for enslaving Africans, and for over-ruling Virginia’s attempt to ban Slavery. In it, Jefferson called slavery a “cruel war against human nature.” The draft was struck down by the continental congress.
The Northwest Ordinance was enacted on July 13, 1787. It was the first federal law that prohibited slavery in a U.S. territory. The Ohio River served as the boundary between free and slave territory in the region between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
In the early days of the French Revolution, the new French government, with its motto of "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality", voted on March 8, 1790 to keep slavery in its colonies.
The MP William Wilberforce was the leader of the Clapham Sect, centered on Holy Trinity Church, Clapham in London. The organisation was a fellowship of influential Anglicans who prayed several hours a day to get laws changed, lobbying hard to MPs. Wilberforce was especially devoted to the abolition of the slave trade. He said "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the reformation of manners."
In 1791 the founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote on his deathbed to Wilberforce encouraging him not to give up in his fight against slavery. Two months later the evangelical MP moved in the House of Commons that the import of African slaves be banned but lost the vote 168-88. At this time over 100,000 Africans were being shipped abroad every year and more than half were being carried on British ships.
On February 4, 1794, the French legislature abolished slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic. It was re-established in the French West Indies in 1802 and finally abolished in 1848.
Slave labor became commonplace during the Ancient Greek and Roman periods, when it was used to cultivate large estates and to meet the demand for personal servants in the towns.
 |
| Slaves working in a mine, Ancient Greece |
Slaves were created through the capture of enemies, through birth to slave parents, through sale into slavery by free parents, and as a means of punishment.
Slavery declined after the Fall of the Roman Empire until the early ninth century when the Vikings begin selling slaves to Muslims.
Slavery also persisted in central Europe where many Slavonic peoples were captured and taken as slaves to Germany. (Hence the derivation of the word.)
Ireland was a major hub for slavery in the 11th Century, with the Irish kidnapping people in their home country, Scotland and Wales. When slavery was banned in England, it impacted Ireland severely. One of the reasons why the Normans invaded Ireland was because of the Irish refusal to give up slavery.
Slavery also continued in Spain and Portugal where the reconquest of the Peninsula from the Moors in the 15th century created an acute shortage of labor. Captured Muslims became the first victims of the increased use of slavery, but there was soon followed by slaves from Africa, imported by the Portuguese King Henry the Navigator after 1444.
By the mid-15th century slaves were being used for a wide range of tasks, and irregular trading slaves was established between the Guinea Coast and the slave markets of the Iberian Peninsula.
Until the 18th century, Crimea was a center for the slave trade to the Ottoman Empire. Crimean Tatar raids into Russia and Ukraine are thought to have brought two million into slavery.
 |
| Crimean Tatar raiders enslaved more than 1 million Eastern Europeans |
Slavery was not practiced in the Americas until Columbus brought it to the Caribbean. Writing of slaves just as he might other goods, Columbus penned in his diary, "We can send from here, in the name of the Holy Trinity, all the slaves and Brazil wood which could be sold."
Queen Elizabeth I of England once said that "if any African were carried away as a slave without his free consent, it would be detestable and would call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the undertaking." However, after hearing of the immense profit John Hawkins had made from his slaves she took shares in his second slave venture, as well as lending him a ship.
The first 20 African slaves were brought to England's American territories by a Dutch ship. They landed off the coast of Virginia on August 20, 1619 and were then sold into slavery in Jamestown.
 |
| Sale and inspection of slave |
In 1642 Pope Urban VIII prohibited the enslavement of the indigenous inhabitants of Brazil, Paraguay and the West Indies.
The court of Northampton County, Colony of Virginia, made John Casor the first legally recognized slave in Britain's North American colonies on March 8, 1655.
The conditions on board ships carrying slaves from Africa to Europe or North America were disgraceful. The unfortunate slaves on board were fed twice a day at eight o'clock in the morning and four in the afternoon mainly with boiled rice and yams with beans boiled to the consistency of a pulp and sometimes a small quantity of beef or pork. If they refused to eat their unappetizing fare hot coals were put on a shovel and placed so near their lips as to scorch and burn them, and if they persisted in refusing to eat they could be forced to swallow these coals.
The painting c.1830 below by the German artist Johann Moritz Rugendas depicts a scene below deck of a slave ship headed to Brazil; Rugendas had been an eyewitness to the scene.
Many of these unfortunate slaves ended up running the kitchens on Southern plantations, and they played a major role in inspiring much of its cuisine. Amongst the dishes and cooking techniques they introduced were hot, spicy sauces, frying grains and vegetables into fritters, and boiling leafy green vegetables.
The first anti-slavery petition in the New World was drafted in the home of Thönes Kunders of Germantown on April 18, 1688. Germantown is an area in Northwest Philadelphia, which had been founded five years earlier by German Quaker and Mennonite families. Kunders hosted the early Germantown Quaker meetings and the Christian group were already prominent in their condemnation of this inhuman trade, with the society's founder, George Fox, speaking strongly against it.
 |
| Thones Kunders's house at 5109 Germantown Avenue, where the 1688 Petition Against Slavery was written |
The horrors of the slave trade did not go unnoticed in England either, however hard the traders tried to justify their activities. The first sharp prick to the public's conscience came in 1688 with the publication of Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko (about the sufferings of an African prince and his loved one, transported by the English to slavery in Surinam).
Back in 1652, Rhode Island had passed the first law in North America making slavery illegal. However, there's no evidence that it was ever enforced. 122 years later, in 1774, Rhode Island became the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
John Murray, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, started the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America during the American Revolution. In 1775 he issued Lord Dunmore's Offer of Emancipation, which offered freedom to slaves who abandoned their colonial masters in order to fight with Murray and the British.
Benjamin Franklin formed the same year with Dr Benjamin Rush, the first Anti-Slavery organisation in America, The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by the pair.
Also in 1775 an anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, published African Slavery in America, the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.
Thomas Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence criticized King George III for enslaving Africans, and for over-ruling Virginia’s attempt to ban Slavery. In it, Jefferson called slavery a “cruel war against human nature.” The draft was struck down by the continental congress.
The Northwest Ordinance was enacted on July 13, 1787. It was the first federal law that prohibited slavery in a U.S. territory. The Ohio River served as the boundary between free and slave territory in the region between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
In the early days of the French Revolution, the new French government, with its motto of "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality", voted on March 8, 1790 to keep slavery in its colonies.
The MP William Wilberforce was the leader of the Clapham Sect, centered on Holy Trinity Church, Clapham in London. The organisation was a fellowship of influential Anglicans who prayed several hours a day to get laws changed, lobbying hard to MPs. Wilberforce was especially devoted to the abolition of the slave trade. He said "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the reformation of manners."
 |
| William Wilberforce by John Rising, 1790, pictured at the age of 29 |
In 1791 the founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote on his deathbed to Wilberforce encouraging him not to give up in his fight against slavery. Two months later the evangelical MP moved in the House of Commons that the import of African slaves be banned but lost the vote 168-88. At this time over 100,000 Africans were being shipped abroad every year and more than half were being carried on British ships.
On February 4, 1794, the French legislature abolished slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic. It was re-established in the French West Indies in 1802 and finally abolished in 1848.
The Slave Trade Act of 1794 was a significant piece of legislation that marked the first major step taken by the United States government towards limiting the slave trade. This act was signed into law by President George Washington on March 22, 1794, and it prohibited American ships from engaging in the transportation of enslaved individuals from Africa to the United States or other countries.
The Slave Trade Act of 1794 also banned the exportation of slaves by American citizens for the purpose of selling them to foreign markets. Although the act did not end slavery in the United States, it represented an important milestone in the nation's evolving attitudes towards the institution of slavery.
As a result of the lobbying efforts by the Abolitionist Movement, the U.S. Congress passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves in 1807, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country. It took effect in 1808, the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution. All the northern states had ended slavery by 1804, but ownership remained legal in all the Southern states. The 1807 law did not change that—it just made importation from abroad a crime.
The Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron was formed in 1808. It was tasked with hunting down and stopping Slave Ships.
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| Slave punishment by Jacques Etienne Arago. 1839. |
All slaves in the British Empire were released by the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 and the British Government paid a huge sum to compensate all the slave owners. It received royal assent on August 28, 1833 and when William Wilberforce heard this on his deathbed, he mumbled, "Thank God that I have lived to witness a day when England is willing to give 20 million sterling for the abolition of slavery."
When Britain abolished slavery, compensation was paid to 46,000 slave owners. The 800,000 freed slaves received nothing.
The largest single compensation payment by the British government to a former slave owner went to Tory Member of Parliament James Blair for his 1,598 slaves in British Guiana.
Britain used 40% of its national budget to free all slaves in the Empire. The amount borrowed to fund this wasn't paid off until 2015.
Presbyterian minister and abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy was murdered in Alton, Illinois on November 7, 1837. A newspaper editor whose press was destroyed by vandals three times, he was accused of inciting slaves to revolt when he defended a black man burned at the stake by a mob. When another mob tried to burn down his warehouse, Lovejoy was shot trying to save it. His death helped to galvanize the abolitionist movement.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass (c. February 1818 – February 20, 1895) was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland. After escaping to freedom on September 3, 1838, he became the most prominent of the black abolitionists and eventually became the first black to hold high political office, as consul-general to the Republic of Haiti.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1841 that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
By 1850, American slaves were worth $1.3 billion, one-fifth of the nation's wealth. That year the United States Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which decreed that all runaway slaves be brought back to their masters.
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| 1840 poster of slaves for sale in New Orleans |
The Kansas–Nebraska Act became law in 1854, establishing the U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas, allowing settlers in those territories to determine if they would permit slavery within their boundaries. With the passage of the act, thousands of pro- and anti-slavery supporters flooded Kansas. Violent clashes soon occurred. In one fight, John Brown and his men killed five people in the Pottawatomie Massacre. Later, Southerners destroyed Lawrence, Kansas. Kansas was called "Bleeding Kansas".
In 1856 congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas.
The Great Slave Auction, the largest single sale of slaves in US history, was held at Ten Broeck Race Course, near Savannah, Georgia on March 2 and 3, 1859. Slaveholder and plantation owner Pierce Mease Butler authorized the sale of approximately 436 men, women, and children to satisfy significant debt, much of it from gambling.
By proclamation in 1862 Abraham Lincoln emancipated all the slaves within reach of his northern armies, thereby interpreting the American Civil War as a crusade against slavery. The picture below shows Abraham Lincoln presenting the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet.
President Lincoln signed the Amendment outlawing slavery on February 1, 1865. The amendment was passed by the required three-quarters of the states, and became law on December 6, 1865.
From 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million slaves were shipped from Africa to the Americas with only about 10.7 million surviving the journey.
Americana was a city founded by 10,000 Confederate ex-patriots in Brazil at the conclusion of the American Civil War. They founded it so that they could continue the practice of slavery, which was still legal in Brazil at the time.
During the Atlantic slave trade era, Brazil imported more African slaves than any other country. Nearly 5 million slaves were brought from Africa to Brazil during the period from 1501 to 1866.
The slave trade introduced West African rhythms, work songs, chants and spirituals to America, which strongly influence blues and jazz.
Mississippi became the last US State to ratify the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution (abolition of Slavery), passed in 1865 on March 16, 1995. It was later discovered the state authorities failed to complete the proper documentation to officially carry this through until 2013.
Though slavery was abolished in the UK in 1833, the Modern Slavery Act, outlawing human trafficking and forced labor, was only passed in 2015.
While slavery was once institutionally recognized by most societies, it has now been outlawed in all recognized countries the last being Mauritania in 2007. Nevertheless, there are more people living in slavery today than at any prior point in human history. One in 200 people is a slave.
By proclamation in 1862 Abraham Lincoln emancipated all the slaves within reach of his northern armies, thereby interpreting the American Civil War as a crusade against slavery. The picture below shows Abraham Lincoln presenting the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet.
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| Painted by Francis Bicknell Carpenter in 1864. |
President Lincoln signed the Amendment outlawing slavery on February 1, 1865. The amendment was passed by the required three-quarters of the states, and became law on December 6, 1865.
From 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million slaves were shipped from Africa to the Americas with only about 10.7 million surviving the journey.
Americana was a city founded by 10,000 Confederate ex-patriots in Brazil at the conclusion of the American Civil War. They founded it so that they could continue the practice of slavery, which was still legal in Brazil at the time.
During the Atlantic slave trade era, Brazil imported more African slaves than any other country. Nearly 5 million slaves were brought from Africa to Brazil during the period from 1501 to 1866.
The slave trade introduced West African rhythms, work songs, chants and spirituals to America, which strongly influence blues and jazz.
Mississippi became the last US State to ratify the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution (abolition of Slavery), passed in 1865 on March 16, 1995. It was later discovered the state authorities failed to complete the proper documentation to officially carry this through until 2013.
Though slavery was abolished in the UK in 1833, the Modern Slavery Act, outlawing human trafficking and forced labor, was only passed in 2015.
While slavery was once institutionally recognized by most societies, it has now been outlawed in all recognized countries the last being Mauritania in 2007. Nevertheless, there are more people living in slavery today than at any prior point in human history. One in 200 people is a slave.
National Freedom Day is a United States observance on February 1 honoring the signing by Abraham Lincoln of a joint House and Senate resolution that later became the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
June 19 is celebrated annually by African-Americans. The celebration of Juneteenth dates back to 1865 when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in the Texan city of Galveston with an announcement. As the community listened to the reading, the people of Galveston learned for the first time that all slaves in Texas were free and the Civil War was over.
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| Ashton Villa, where Major Granger read the Order. By Nsaum75 at English Wikipedia |
Although the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed them in 1862 and the American Civil War had largely ended with the defeat of the Confederate States in April, Texas was the most remote of the slave states, with a low presence of Union troops, so enforcement of the proclamation had been slow.
Juneteenth is a day of remembrance, reflection, and celebration of African-American history, culture, and achievements. It holds great cultural and historical significance and is observed with various activities, including parades, cookouts, family gatherings, music, dance, and educational events. In recent years, there has been increased recognition of Juneteenth as a national holiday, with several states officially designating it as such and efforts underway to establish it as a federal holiday.
Here is a list of songs about slavery.
Sources Hutchinson Encyclopedia, Christianity Today, Food For Thought by Ed Pearce
Here is a list of songs about slavery.
Sources Hutchinson Encyclopedia, Christianity Today, Food For Thought by Ed Pearce
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