Slavery

Slavery is when one person is owned by another as property, especially for work they are forced to do. This practice has been a part of many societies throughout history. People were often enslaved for different reasons, such as losing a battle, owing money, or being taken advantage of because they were poor or from a certain group.

Slaves were usually made to work without pay and lived where their owners decided. They could be kept as slaves for their whole lives or for a set time before being granted freedom. While most slavery was forced, some people agreed to become slaves to pay off debts or earn money when they had no other options.

Today, slavery is against the law almost everywhere, but some forms still exist. Millions of people around the world, including many children, are still trapped in situations where they are forced to work or live without their consent. This can happen in factories, as domestic servants, or even in other ways such as forced marriages or being used as soldiers. ownershipracesexgranted freedomvoluntarily enter into slaverypovertyhuman historycivilizationoutlawedpunishment for a crimeAfghanistanpersonal propertyunfree labourforced laboursweatshopsprivate sectorhuman traffickingdebt bondagedomestic servantsforced marriageschild soldiers

Etymology

The word slave came into Middle English from the Old French word esclave. This word has roots in Byzantine Greek, where it originally referred to prisoners of war who were taken and forced to work.

There are different ideas about where the word truly came from. One common belief is that it originated from the name of a Slavic tribe, the Slověne, who were often captured and made into slaves. Another idea is that it comes from a Greek word meaning to take things from an enemy after a battle. Both of these ideas have been debated by historians.

Terminology

Historians do not all agree on the best words to describe people who were treated as property. Some think we should use words that remind us these were people, not just things. Others think the word "slave" is okay because it is short and shows how harsh and unfair slavery was.

Chattel slavery

Chattel slavery treated people as property that could be bought and sold, just like animals. This kind of slavery was common in many places long ago, including ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. It was also part of life in places such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, and the Antebellum United States.

Starting in the 1700s, many people began to speak out against slavery, saying it was wrong because everyone should be treated equally. This led to movements to end slavery, which faced a lot of resistance but eventually succeeded. Different countries ended slavery at different times. For example, France ended it in 1794, but it was brought back until finally ending for good in 1848. The British Empire ended slavery in 1833, and the United States ended it in 1865 after a big war. Brazil ended slavery in 1888.

Bonded labour

Main article: Debt bondage

See also: Money marriage and Chukri system

Bonded labour happens when someone works to pay off a debt, sometimes for their whole lives. This can even pass from one generation to the next, where children must work to pay for their parents’ debts. This type of unfree labour is most common in South Asia today.

Dependents

The word slavery has also described situations where a person’s life was tied to someone else in a dependent way. In some places, like Persia, the lives of these dependents could be better than those of regular citizens.

Forced labour

Main article: Forced labour

See also: Human trafficking

Forced labour is when someone is made to work against their will, often under threat of harm. Even though slavery is illegal everywhere, forced labour still happens today. This includes situations where people are trapped and controlled.

Other uses of the term

Sometimes the word slavery is used to describe any situation where someone feels they have no choice but to do something they do not want to do. Some people have even used the word to talk about having to work for very low pay or being forced to take medicines they do not want. Others have compared the way animals are treated to how slaves were treated long ago.

Characteristics

Economics

Economists have studied why slavery happens and why it ends. One idea is that slavery becomes more common when there is lots of land but not many workers. This makes it cheaper for landowners to use slaves than to pay workers. As populations grew in Europe, slavery and similar systems like serfdom slowly disappeared. However, slavery returned in places like the Americas and Russia when new lands with few people became available.

Slavery was often used for simple, big jobs like growing crops such as sugarcane and cotton. On large farms, groups of slaves worked together in a system called the gang system. Each person had a specific job, and everyone’s work depended on the others, similar to an assembly line.

Some critics argued that slavery stopped progress because it focused on using more slaves for simple tasks instead of finding better ways to work. Famous economist Adam Smith believed that free labour was better than slave labour. He thought it was hard to end slavery in governments where many leaders owned slaves, as they would not make laws against themselves.

Identification

Slaves were sometimes marked to show they were property. This could be done through branding, tattooing, or forcing them to wear shackles like cuffs, chains, or collars. These marks made it clear who owned them and could also be used as punishment.

Legal aspects

Slaves could be owned by private individuals or by the government. For example, in old Korea, certain women were owned by the government and had to entertain important people. In modern times, some places have groups of people required to work for leaders. Some systems required people to work for the government as a tax, like in ancient times or in certain camps.

Sometimes, slaves had a few legal rights depending on where and when they lived. For instance, in one American colony, hurting a slave on purpose was against the law. Giving slaves some rights was sometimes done because it was the right thing to do, and other times because it helped the people in charge. For example, in ancient Athens, protecting slaves also protected others who might be mistaken for slaves, and allowing slaves to own a little property encouraged them to work harder.

History

Main article: History of slavery

See also: Slavery in antiquity

Slavery existed long before written records and appeared in many cultures. It was rare among hunter-gatherer groups because it needed resources and many people. However, it did happen in some places with plenty of resources, like among some American Indian tribes along the rich rivers of the Pacific Northwest coast. Slavery became more common with the start of farming during the Neolithic Revolution about 11,000 years ago. Almost every ancient civilization practiced some form of slavery. This included situations like owing money, punishment for crimes, being captured in war, being left alone as a child, or being born to a slave parent.

Africa

See also: Slavery in Africa

Slavery was common in Africa, with both internal and trade across borders. In the Senegambia region, about one-third of people were enslaved between 1300 and 1900. Early Islamic states in western Sahel, like Ghana, Mali, Segou, and Songhai, also had about a third of their people enslaved.

In Europe, black African slaves became more visible in the late 1300s and 1400s. They appeared in court settings starting with Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. By the 1470s, they were painted as attendants in places like Mantua and Ferrara. In the 1490s, they appeared on the emblem of the Duke of Milan.

During the trans-Saharan slave trade, slaves from West Africa were taken across the Sahara desert to North Africa. The Red Sea slave trade moved slaves from Africa across the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula. The Indian Ocean slave trade sent Africans to many places, including the Arabian Peninsula, Indian Ocean islands like Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent, and later the Americas. Traders captured Bantu peoples from areas now known as Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania, bringing them to the coast where they often mixed into local communities.

Some historians estimate that up to 17 million people were sold into slavery along the coasts of the Indian Ocean, Middle East, and North Africa. About 5 million African slaves were taken by Muslim traders between 1500 and 1900. Captives were sold across the Middle East, with demand growing as ships improved and more labor was needed on plantations.

By the 1890s, the Sokoto Caliphate had the world’s largest slave population, around 2 million. Slave labor was used widely, especially in farming. Ethiopia had about 2 million slaves in the early 1930s.

In East Africa, slave labor came from the Zanj and Bantu peoples. The Zanj were shipped as slaves to places around the Indian Ocean. There were slave revolts, like the Zanj Rebellion between 869 and 883 in Iraq, which involved over 500,000 slaves and free people.

In Algiers, captured Christians and Europeans were forced into slavery. Around 1650, there were about 35,000 Christian slaves there. Estimates suggest that between 1 and 1.25 million Europeans were enslaved by Barbary slave traders from the 16th to 19th centuries.

Under Omani Arabs, Zanzibar became a major slave port in East Africa, with up to 50,000 slaves passing through each year in the 19th century. Some historians estimate that between 11 and 18 million African slaves were taken from 650 to 1900 AD.

Systems of servitude existed in Africa similarly to other parts of the ancient world. In many African societies, slaves were not treated as property but had certain rights, similar to indentured servitude elsewhere. Slavery was tied to family ties, and children of slaves could sometimes rise to important positions. However, there was often still separation between slave and master families.

When the Atlantic slave trade began, many African systems supplied captives for markets outside Africa. The Atlantic slave trade was the largest in volume. It is estimated that about 15 percent of slaves died during the voyage, with even higher mortality in Africa during capture and transport.

Mauritania was the last country to officially end slavery, in 1981, with legal prosecution of slaveholders beginning in 2007.

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, and Slavery in the Ottoman Empire

In early records, slavery was already an established practice. The Code of Hammurabi, around 1760 BC, for example, stated that helping a slave escape was punishable by death. The Bible also mentions slavery. Slavery existed in Pharaonic Egypt, though it is hard to study due to how the Egyptians described different types of servitude.

After the Islamic conquests in the 7th and 8th centuries, slavery was governed by Islamic law across the Middle East. This continued through various Islamic empires from the 7th to the 20th century.

Slaves in the Arab world came from many regions, including Sub-Saharan Africa (mainly Zanj), the Caucasus (mainly Circassians), Central Asia (mainly Tartars), and Central and Eastern Europe (mainly Slavs). They were brought to the Arab world through various routes, including the Trans-Saharan trade, the Baqt treaty, the Red Sea trade, and the Indian Ocean trade.

Between 1517 and 1917, the Ottoman Empire controlled most of the Middle East. In the Ottoman capital of Constantinople, about one-fifth of the population were slaves. The city was a major center for slave trading in the 15th century and later.

Eastern European slaves were supplied to the Ottoman Empire through the Crimean slave trade, with Tatar raids capturing people from Slavic villages. The Ottomans also bought slaves from traders. It is estimated that around 200,000 slaves, mainly Circassians, were brought into the Ottoman Empire between 1800 and 1909. In 1908, women slaves were still being sold in the Ottoman Empire.

A major slave trade center in Central Asia was Bukhara, supplying slaves to the Middle East for thousands of years until the 1870s. The Khivan slave trade in Central Asia also sold Russian and Persian slaves.

By 1870, chattel slavery had been banned in most of the world except in Muslim areas of the Caucasus, Africa, and the Persian Gulf. Although slavery was seen as wrong in the West, it was still accepted in the Muslim world because it was allowed under Islamic law. Slaves were taken from non-Muslim areas and sold across the Indian Ocean or Sahara Desert.

Ottoman laws against slavery were not enforced in the late 19th century, especially in Hejaz. The first attempt to ban the Red Sea slave trade in 1857 led to rebellion. The Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1880 banned the trade but was not enforced in the Arabian Peninsula. The Sultan of Morocco told Western diplomats he couldn’t ban slavery, but asked them to keep the slave trade secret from foreign eyes.

Chattel slavery continued in most of the Middle East until the 20th century. The Red Sea slave trade still sent enslaved people from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula after World War II. Saudi Arabia had an estimated slave population of 300,000 in the 1960s and abolished slavery in 1962, along with Yemen.

Americas

Enslavement in the Americas existed before Europeans arrived. It was used for many reasons. Slavery in Mexico dates back to the Aztecs. Other groups like the Inca in the Andes, the Tupinambá in Brazil, the Creek in Georgia, and the Comanche in Texas also practiced slavery.

Slavery in Canada was practiced by First Nations and European settlers. Some Indigenous groups along the Pacific coast, like the Yurok, Haida, and Tlingit, were known as warriors and traders, capturing slaves from raids as far as California. Slavery was passed down through generations, with slaves being prisoners of war and their descendants also enslaved. Some nations in British Columbia still treated descendants of slaves differently as late as the 1970s.

Slavery in America played a big role in history, leading to revolutions, civil wars, and rebellions.

The countries that shipped the most slaves across the Atlantic were the UK, Portugal, and France.

To build its empire, Spain fought powerful civilizations in the New World. The Spanish used Native people as forced labor. The Spanish colonies were the first in the New World to use African slaves, starting on islands like Cuba and Hispaniola. Some writers at the time said this was wrong. Bartolomé de las Casas, a Spanish historian, fought against using Natives as slaves after seeing a massacre. The native population decreased quickly, leading to the import of African slaves, who were less affected by diseases.

Spain did not trade slaves much until 1810, after losing many of its American territories. The African slave trade to Cuba grew large from 1810 onward, especially after French planters from Haiti settled there.

In 1789, Spain tried to improve conditions for slaves in Cuba with the Código Negro Español, which set rules for food, clothing, work hours, punishments, religious teaching, and marriage. However, planters often ignored these laws.

Asia-Pacific

See also: History of slavery in Asia

East Asia

See also: Slavery in China

Slavery existed in ancient China as early as the Shang dynasty. Governments used slavery to provide labor. By the Han dynasty, slaves had some legal rights. For example, killing a slave was punished just like killing a free person. However, after the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the number of slaves grew huge due to wars and poor harvests. They were called “jianmin,” meaning “inferior people,” and had a low status. Killing a slave might only get a year in prison. But later, punishments for crimes against slaves became harsher again.

Many Han Chinese were enslaved during the Mongol invasion of China. Mongolian slaves were owned by Han Chinese during the Yuan dynasty. Slavery took many forms in China’s history. It was officially ended by law in 1910, but continued until at least 1949.

Tang Chinese soldiers and pirates enslaved people from Korea, Turkey, Persia, Indonesia, and Inner Mongolia. The biggest sources of slaves were southern tribes, including Thais and people from southern China. Malays, Khmers, Indians, and people with dark skin were also enslaved in the Tang dynasty.

In the 17th century Qing dynasty, there was a group called Booi Aha, which means “household person” in Manchu. They had a close relationship with their masters but were still considered servants. Some Booi Aha even had their own servants.

Slavery in Korea existed since before the Three Kingdoms period. By the 16th century, it was less important due to population growth. Slavery declined around the 10th century but returned in the late Goryeo period with slave rebellions. In the Joseon period, slaves were called nobi. They were socially similar to common people except for the ruling yangban class. Some nobi had property and legal rights. The nobi population was about 10% of the total, sometimes up to one-third. Most government nobi were freed in 1801, and the nobi population dropped to about 1.5% by 1858. The nobi system was officially ended around 1886–87 and fully abolished in 1894. However, slavery didn’t completely end until 1930 under Japanese rule. During World War II, some Koreans were forced into labor by the Japanese, including women forced into sexual service known as “comfort women.”

After the Portuguese arrived in Japan in 1543, they began trading Japanese as slaves, selling them overseas. Japanese slaves were among the first from their country to reach Europe. Portuguese bought Japanese slave girls for sexual purposes. Some Korean slaves were also bought by the Portuguese from Japan.

The Portuguese preferred Asian slaves for their rarity and assumed qualities like intelligence. King Sebastian of Portugal banned the slave trade in 1571. Japanese leader Hideyoshi was angry about Japanese people being sold into slavery and demanded the Portuguese stop, banning Christian missionary work as a result. In 1595, Portugal passed a law banning the sale of Chinese and Japanese slaves.

South Asia

Slavery in India was common by the 6th century BC, maybe even earlier. Slavery grew during Muslim rule after the 11th century. The Dutch and others traded slaves from places like Arakan-Bengal and Coromandel.

Between 1626 and 1662, the Dutch sold about 150–400 slaves each year from the Arakan-Bengal coast. During the 1640s, slaves were taken from Tanjavur after revolts. In 1646, 2,118 slaves were sent to Batavia. More slaves were taken from Tanjavur in 1659–1661. In 1687, 665 slaves were exported from Madras.

The total Dutch slave trade in the Indian Ocean was about 15–30% of the Atlantic slave trade. Slavery was abolished in East India Company holdings by the Indian Slavery Act of 1843.

South East Asia

People in Indochina were often captured as slaves by the Siamese, Anamites, and Cambodians. In 1876, a Siamese campaign in Laos was described as slave-hunting. In 1879, 6% of the population in Perak were slaves. Enslaved people made up two-thirds of the population in parts of North Borneo in the 1880s.

Oceania

Slavery had a role in traditional Māori society in New Zealand. “Blackbirding” happened in the Pacific and Australia, mainly in the 19th century.

Europe

Ancient Greece and Rome

Records of slavery in Ancient Greece go back to Mycenaean times. Classical Athens had up to 80,000 slaves in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. As the Roman Republic grew, whole populations were enslaved across Europe and the Mediterranean. Slaves were used for labor and entertainment, like gladiators and sex slaves. This led to slave revolts, like the Third Servile War led by Spartacus.

By the late Republic, slavery was key to Rome’s wealth and society. About 25% or more of Italy’s population was enslaved, mostly war captives from Gaul and Epirus. Enslaved people in Italy were mostly local Italians. Foreigners made up about 5% of the population in Rome. Enslaved people from outside Europe were mostly Greek. Jewish slaves did not fully mix into Roman society. Slaves had higher death rates and lower birth rates. The average age at death for slaves in Rome was about 17.5 years.

Medieval and early modern Europe

Slavery was common in early medieval Europe, with the Catholic Church trying to stop it, like at the Council of Koblenz in 922 and the Council of London in 1102. Serfdom was more accepted. In 1452, Pope Nicholas V allowed slavery of non-Christians through the papal bull Dum Diversas, which was expanded in Romanus Pontifex in 1455. Slave trading was mostly in the South and East of Europe, with the Byzantine Empire and Muslim world as destinations. Pagan Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Tartary were sources. Viking, Arab, Greek, and Radhanite Jewish merchants were involved. The slave trade peaked in the 10th century after the Zanj Rebellion reduced African slave use in the Arab world.

In Britain, slavery existed after Rome’s fall. Laws by Æthelstan and Hywel the Good dealt with slaves in medieval England and Wales. The slave trade grew after Viking invasions, with markets in Chester and Bristol. By the Domesday Book, nearly 10% of England’s population were slaves. William the Conqueror made a law against selling slaves overseas. By 1200, slavery in the British Isles had ended. Slavery was not authorized by English law, and in 1772, Lord Mansfield said it had no support in common law. The Slave Trade Act 1807 ended the trade, and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ended slavery in British colonies outside Europe, along with the Indian Slavery Act of 1843. However, African slaves appeared in England from the 1640s until the 18th century. In Scotland, slaves were sold until the late 18th century.

The Byzantine-Ottoman wars and Ottoman wars in Europe brought many slaves into the Islamic world. The Ottoman Empire used a devşirme system to take Christian boys as government-owned slaves, giving them roles in administration and the military. This began around 1365 and ended in 1826. After the Battle of Lepanto, 12,000 Christian galley slaves were freed from the Ottoman fleet. Eastern Europe suffered Tatar invasions to capture slaves for the Ottomans. Seventy-five raids into Poland-Lithuania were recorded between 1474 and 1569.

Medieval Spain and Portugal had constant Muslim invasions, with raids bringing back captives. In 1189, Yaqub al-Mansur took 3,000 female and child captives from Lisbon. In 1191, his governor took 3,000 Christian slaves from Silves. From the 11th to 19th century, Barbary Pirates raided European towns for Christian slaves to sell in places like Algeria and Morocco.

Lagos in Portugal was the first slave market for African slaves, opened in 1444. The first slaves came from northern Mauritania in 1441. By 1552, black African slaves were 10% of Lisbon’s population. In the late 16th century, the Crown stopped its slave trade monopoly, shifting focus to direct transports to colonies like Brazil. In the 15th century, one-third of slaves were sold to Africa in exchange for gold.

The Crimean Khanate had a large slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and Middle East until it was destroyed by Russia in 1783. Slaves were captured in southern Russia, Poland-Lithuania, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Circassia by Tatar horsemen and sold in Kaffa. About 2 million mostly Christian slaves were exported from the 16th to 17th centuries.

In Kievan Rus and Muscovy, slaves were called kholops. By 1649, up to three-quarters of Muscovy’s peasants were serfs similar to slaves. Another 1.5 million were formally enslaved. Slavery in Poland was banned in the 15th century, and in Lithuania in 1588, replaced by serfdom.

In Scandinavia, thralldom ended in the mid-14th century.

During the Age of Enlightenment, views on race and slavery varied. Some used new scientific ideas to support slavery, while others opposed it. Slavery was not ended but expanded.

Nazi Germany

Main article: Forced labour under German rule during World War II

During World War II, Nazi Germany enslaved about 12 million people, intending to treat them as an inferior class to be worked until death. This included Jews and people from Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. By the end of the war, half of Belarus’ population had been killed or deported.

Communist states

Main article: Gulag

Between 1930 and 1960, the Soviet Union created the Gulag system of forced labor camps. Prisoners were worked to death through harsh conditions, with fatality rates as high as 80% in some camps. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, died from forced labor under the Soviets.

Golfo Alexopoulos compares Gulag labor to other forms of slave labor, noting the “violence of human exploitation.” Historian Anne Applebaum describes the Gulag as the “system of Soviet slave labor.”

Romania

Romani people were enslaved in Romania, the longest chattel slavery in Europe.

Contemporary slavery

See also: Slavery in contemporary Africa, Child slavery, Trafficking of children, Illegal immigration § Slavery, and Slavery in the 21st century

Even though slavery is now outlawed in nearly every country, except for Afghanistan, many people around the world are still forced to work against their will. Estimates suggest that between 12 million and almost 30 million people are living in these conditions today.

According to a report from 2003, about 15 million children in debt bondage in India work in very hard conditions to help pay off their families' debts.

Slavoj Žižek says that new forms of forced work have appeared in recent times, especially with global business. This includes workers who do not have basic rights, such as those on the Arabian Peninsula, workers in crowded factories in Asia, and people forced to work to get resources in Central Africa.

Distribution

In June 2013, the U.S. State Department shared a report about places where forced work is common. It named Russia, China, and Uzbekistan as the worst. Other countries listed include Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe.

In Kuwait, many workers from other countries are often treated unfairly and are not allowed to leave their jobs. In 2019, illegal trade of people was found on apps like Instagram.

During preparations for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, workers from Nepal faced very bad conditions, such as not being paid and not being allowed to leave their jobs. In 2016, the United Nations gave Qatar a year to improve conditions for workers or face further action.

The Walk Free Foundation reported in 2018 that forced work is more common in wealthy countries than many think, especially in the United States and Great Britain. Andrew Forrest, who started 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.” The report said that about 40.3 million people worldwide are living in forced work or forced marriages, with North Korea having the most at about 2.6 million people.

China

See also: Xinjiang internment camps

In March 2020, reports showed that the Chinese government was making members of the Uyghur minority work against their will in factories. Many were taken from their homes in Xinjiang and forced to work for big companies.

Libya

During a war in Libya, people from Africa trying to reach Europe were captured and sold or held for money. Many suffered terrible harm during this time.

Mauritania

Mauritania was the last country to officially end slavery (in 1981), but even today, about 20% of its people are still forced to work for others. Though laws were changed in 2007 to make this practice a crime, very few people who own others have been punished.

North Korea

See also: Human rights in North Korea

North Korea has very poor human rights records, with many people being forced to work and treated very badly.

Taiwan

Taiwan has many workers from other countries who have been treated unfairly, including being forced to work in homes or on fishing boats. Some have also been tricked into working in factories.

Yemen

See also: Slavery in Yemen

Even though slavery was ended in the 1960s, it still exists in Yemen today because of ongoing conflicts. Thousands of people are forced to work for others, and many face severe abuse. The situation is made worse by ongoing war and weak laws.

Economics

Today, a person can be forced into work for much less money than in the past. While slaves in America in 1809 were sold for around $40,000 (when adjusted for today’s money), a person can now be forced into work for just $90. This makes it a very costly business, worth billions of dollars each year.

Trafficking

People are tricked or forced into situations where they cannot leave, often by being lied to about jobs, marriages, or being taken by force. Many are women and girls who are forced into work they cannot escape. Others include men, women, and children made to work in very hard jobs against their will. The full number of people affected is hard to know because this activity is hidden and illegal. Reports suggest that hundreds of thousands of people are moved between countries each year, with many more affected inside their own countries.

Abolitionism

Main article: Abolitionism

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom.

Slavery has existed in many forms throughout history, and there have always been efforts to free enslaved people.

In antiquity

Emperor Ashoka, who ruled the Maurya Empire in the Indian subcontinent from 269 to 232 BCE, stopped the slave trade but did not end slavery. The Qin dynasty, which ruled China from 221 to 206 BCE, ended slavery and discouraged serfdom. However, many laws changed when the dynasty ended. Slavery was stopped again in China by Wang Mang in 17 CE but started again after he died.

Americas

The Spanish colonization of the Americas led to discussions about the right to enslave Native Americans. A well-known 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 harsh treatment of American natives by Europeans.

In the United States, all northern states had ended slavery by 1804, with New Jersey being the last. Efforts to end slavery grew, and after the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves went into effect on January 1, 1808, it became illegal to bring slaves into the United States, though slavery continued within the country. The American Civil War, beginning in 1861, led to the end of slavery in the United States. In 1863, slaves in areas controlled by the Union were freed, and in 1865, slavery was ended nationwide with the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Many freed slaves faced challenges, including limited opportunities and unfair laws.

Europe

France ended slavery in 1794 during the Revolution, but it was brought back in 1802 under Napoleon. Before the Revolution, slavery was not recognized in France itself, though it existed in its colonies.

A major step in ending slavery in England happened in 1772, when British Judge Lord Mansfield decided in Somersett's Case that slavery was not allowed in England. This decision meant that slavery could not be enforced there. The last person considered a slave in a British court was Bell (Belinda), who was taken to the Americas in 1772.

The Sons of Africa was a group in late 18th-century Britain that worked to end slavery. Its members included freed Africans living in London. It worked closely with the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, founded in 1787. British Member of Parliament William Wilberforce led the movement to end slavery in the United Kingdom. In 1807, the Slave Trade Act made the slave trade illegal across the British Empire. Wilberforce continued to campaign for ending slavery completely, which happened with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

After 1807, activists worked to convince other countries to end the slave trade. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized about 1,600 slave ships and freed around 150,000 Africans. They also worked with leaders in Africa to stop the trade.

Worldwide

In 1839, Anti-Slavery International was formed in Britain by Joseph Sturge to campaign against slavery worldwide. In 2007, people celebrated the 200th anniversary of ending the slave trade in the United Kingdom.

In the 1860s, reports by David Livingstone about terrible actions in the Arab slave trade in Africa helped revive efforts to end slavery. The Royal Navy worked to stop the trade, especially at Zanzibar. In 1905, France ended indigenous slavery in most of French West Africa.

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that everyone should be free from slavery. Article 4 states that slavery and the slave trade are wrong in all forms.

In 2014, leaders from many religions met to sign a commitment to eliminate modern slavery and human trafficking by 2020. Groups like the American Anti-Slavery Group, Anti-Slavery International, Free the Slaves, the Anti-Slavery Society, and the Norwegian Anti-Slavery Society still work to end slavery.

UNESCO has worked since 1994 to remember the history of slavery through The Slave Route Project.

Apologies

In 2001, the National Assembly of France passed a law recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity. Many African nations also apologized for their part in the slave trade, which happened even before Europeans arrived. Some African groups helped capture and sell people to Europeans.

Leaders from countries like Benin and Ghana have apologized for their nations' roles in the slave trade. In 2007, the U.S. state of Virginia apologized for its part in slavery, and in 2008, the U.S. Congress apologized for American slavery. These apologies are linked to discussions about reparations, or ways to make up for the wrongs done to enslaved people and their descendants.

Reparations

Main article: Reparations for slavery

There have been calls for reparations to help the descendants of enslaved people. These are handled in civil law, but many find it difficult due to costs and time limits. In 2023, a report estimated reparations for slavery at over 100 trillion dollars.

Media

Further information: List of films featuring slavery

Movies have played a big role in showing people around the world what slavery was like throughout history. The American film industry has had a tricky relationship with the topic of slavery and for a long time didn’t talk about it much. Some old movies like The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Gone with the Wind (1939) were controversial because they showed slavery in a positive light. In 1940, The Santa Fe Trail gave a mixed view of John Brown and his fights against slavery.

During the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s, movies started to show slaves as brave heroes. Most Hollywood movies were set in America, but some, like Spartacus (1960), told the story of a real uprising in the Roman Empire called the Third Servile War. Even though the revolt failed, the movie showed the spirit of the rebels.

Other films like The Last Supper (1976) looked at how slaves in Cuba were taught about Christianity and talked about their fight for freedom. Historians think movies have greatly shaped how people remember history, but they argue about how accurate, fair, and suitable these films are for teaching.