Throughout the world, different societies at different times have allowed slavery—a practice in which one human being owns another. The owned person, known as a slave, was considered property that could be bought and sold like other goods. Historians are not exactly sure how slavery started. It may have begun when societies switched from hunting and gathering to forming permanent communities based on agriculture. As farms grew in size and required long hours of manual labor, the farmers may have seen a need for slaves. The first slaves may have been people who had been captured in war or arrested for a crime and who could be put to work. Many people, however, did not feel that it was right to own slaves. In the United States, strong opinions about the issue led to fighting among citizens in the American Civil War (1861–65). After the war, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution put an end to slavery in the United States. Other countries (both before and after slavery was stopped in the United States) likewise passed laws against slavery. The practice continued in some parts of the world into the 21st century however. Lives of slavesSlaves are people who are forced to work against their wishes. In the past, many were captured during wars or kidnapped. Some people were made slaves as punishment for criminal acts or as payment for debt. Others were sold into slavery by their parents, relatives, or spouses. Children of slaves were born into slavery. Slaves performed a variety of jobs. Many were domestic, or household, servants who performed routine chores such as cooking and cleaning. Others were productive slaves who worked in mines or on large farms called plantations to produce goods that could be sold in the market. Slaves often were of a different race, nationality, and religion than their owners. Treatment of slaves depended on the society and the individual owner. In general, however, the more different the slave was from the owner, the more likely he or she was to be treated poorly. Since they were thought of as property, slaves tended to have few rights and often did not have a way to stop abuse. While many slaves were doomed to slavery forever, others lived in societies that offered the hope of purchasing freedom through money earned by additional outside work. Some places, including many Islamic societies, followed religious guidelines that slaves be released after a given number of years. Slavery in historySlavery existed throughout the ancient world. It is known to have been practiced as early as the Shang dynasty (18th–12th century BC) in China. Evidence of slavery can be found in the laws of the Middle East from about 1750 BC and of ancient India from the 1st century BC. GreeceThe first known major slave society was that of Athens in ancient Greece. At first, slaves were mostly Greek citizens who needed to repay debts. After this practice was stopped, most slaves were brought in through trade with non-Greek peoples around the Aegean Sea. Wars with other societies also were a source of slaves. RomeIn ancient Rome, slave labor was the foundation of the state. Slaves rowed warships and built docks, roads, temples, and aqueducts. The books in the public and private libraries of Rome were copied by hand by groups of slaves. Wealthy Romans sometimes purchased captives of war to serve as gladiators—people trained to fight one another for the amusement of crowds. Rome became very wealthy during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and agricultural slaves were introduced on a huge scale. Eventually the practice of slavery ended and serfdom took its place. Serfs were farm workers who were legally tied to the land on which they worked and could not be sold apart from that land. Serfdom became the common form of agricultural labor in Rome as well as in many parts of Europe. African slavesEuropeans first came into close and continued contact with the peoples of Africa in the 15th century. In the next century, the Portuguese began bringing African slaves into Europe. Spaniards later brought offspring of these slaves to the newly discovered lands of the Americas to work in mines and on large farms called plantations. At first the Spanish forced the local Native Americans to work in the mines and plantations. The Indians were not adapted to such labor, however, and were nearly exterminated. African slaves were first shipped to the English colony of Virginia in 1619. The practice of using slaves became widespread in the American colonies, with many at first working on tobacco farms. With the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 cotton became the main crop. The new machine made it easier to process the cotton, which led to a huge demand for slaves on cotton plantations. The great ship companies of Europe scrambled to supply slaves to the Americas. Africans, who had been captured by other Africans, were shipped to areas along the African coast. There, African rulers made deals with European businessmen. The slaves would then be transported to a place for auction. The journey could take anywhere from a few weeks to several months, and slaves and crewmembers alike sometimes died along the way. Ship captains were paid only for slaves who survived. Ending slaveryAlthough slavery was not practiced in most of Europe itself after about the 16th century, several European nations used slaves in their colonies. During the 18th century, Europeans began questioning the practice of slavery and the slave trade. The abolitionist movement, an effort to end slavery, began in England and soon spread to the United States and elsewhere. Both England and the United States banned the slave trade in the early 1800s. Under a treaty that both signed in 1842, they sent navy ships to the African coast to prevent the shipment of slaves. The AmericasThe actual practice of slavery continued in the United States for many more years. Most northern states had abolished the practice of slavery by 1804, but the southern states relied on slave labor to run their large plantations. They refused to put an end to the practice. The issue divided the country and became a matter of political debate. The disagreement over slavery first became a national problem when Missouri applied for statehood in 1818. Residents of the territory wanted to be able to own slaves, but others opposed this. In 1820 the United States Congress reached the Missouri Compromise, which allowed Missouri and Maine to enter the Union, one as a slave state and one as a free state. It also established which territories would be allowed to have slavery and which would not. The Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1857. In a case involving a slave named Dred Scott, the Court decided that the government did not have the right to decide which territories could allow slavery. The case increased the tensions between North and South. Four years later the Civil War began. At the end of the war the slaves were freed. In Central and South America, slavery was often banned as soon as colonies gained independence. The practice was banned throughout North and South America by the 1880s. Asia and AfricaThe British abolished slavery in India and the parts of Africa that they controlled by the late 1800s. Slavery was officially abolished in China in 1910. All adult slaves became hired laborers, and young slaves were freed when they reached the age of 25. Some parts of Africa and many Islamic societies practiced slavery well into the 20th century. International groups such as the League of Nations and the United Nations were important in ending slavery in these areas. Although all countries had officially outlawed slavery by the end of the 20th century, international human rights groups reported that the practice continued in some parts of Africa and Asia. A type of slavery called debt bondage still happens in areas of Asia and Latin America as well. Low-wage workers who run up debts to their employers for food and shelter become forced to stay in their jobs. |