History of slavery

The **history of slavery** happens over many cultures, nationalities, and religions. Slavery has happened from ancient times to the present day. Its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups.  People's social, economic, and legal beliefs about slaves have changed throughout history.

Slavery was used very little in some hunter-gatherer populations. When people used agriculture, there were more times to use chattel slavery. Slavery was an institution in the first civilizations. For example, slavery happened in Sumer in Mesopotamia. Slavery was mentioned in the Mesopotamian *Code of Hammurabi* (c. 1750 BC). This Code calls slavery and institution that was in place. In the ancient world, slavery became common in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Islamic slavery happened in Western and Central Asia, Northern and Eastern Africa, India, and Europe from the 600s to 1900s. Islamic law allowed enslavement of non-Muslims. Slaves here were usually trafficked from non-Muslim places: the Balkan slave trade, the Crimean slave trade, the Bukhara slave trade; the Andalusian slave trade, the Barbary slave trade, the Trans-Saharan slave trade, the Red Sea slave trade, and the Indian Ocean slave trade.

Starting in the 16th century, the transatlantic slave trade begin. This trade was started by merchants from Portugal. They mostly bought imprisoned Africans for gold and ivory from West African kingdoms. They took the slaves to Europe's colonies in the Americas. The merchants sold slaves for popular goods, such as gun, gunpowder, copper manillas, and cloth. This trade had high demand. The slave trade started many wars and larger enslavement of Africans. In India and the New World, slaves were apart of the workforce. The transatlantic slave trade eventually stopped after governments abolished slavery. There were many efforts to stop slavery in practice. For example, the British Preventative Squadron, and the American African Slave Trade Patrol were used to stop slavery.

Recently, human trafficking is an international problem. It is thought that about 25&#x2013;40 million people were enslaved in 2013. Many of these slaves were in Asia. During the 1983–2005 Second Sudanese Civil War, many people were taken into slavery. In the late 1990s, there was evidence of child slavery and trafficking on cacao plantations in West Africa.

Slavery in the 21st century continues and creates about $150 billion in profit every year. Regions with armed conflict are more likely to have slavery. Modern transportation has made human trafficking easier. In 2019, there were almost 40 million people in slavery.  25% of these were children. Early hunter-gatherers had no use for slaves They did everything for themselves. Having another pair of hands to help them meant another mouth to feed. Slavery or owning another person made no sense to these people. Slaves made up only a small percentage of the earliest civilizations. These included China's Yangtze River valley, India's Indus Valley, Egypt's Nile valley and the Tigris and Euphrates valleys in Mesopotamia. The market price for slaves would go down after a battle in which many slaves were taken. Ancient Rome was even more dependent on slaves. Not only the taking of slaves in raids and battles, but also selling slaves in other markets. For four centuries, beginning in the late 15th century, millions of Africans were taken as slaves by Europeans. They got this idea from the Arab empires which had been taking black slaves from Africa since the 7th century. Theirs was not an economy based on money, but on trading. Slaves were a commodity (a substitute for money).  Slave traders were even listed in public directories (like today's phone books).p.&nbsp;96

Slaves did not have any say in what happened to them. Many times, families were split up and sold to different owners for different amounts of money. Millions of families became separated this way and never saw each other again.

### Types of auction
There were three types of auctions: *Grab and go,* *May the highest bidder win*, and *the scramble*.

In a "grab and go" auction, a buyer would give the slave trader a certain amount of money and would get a ticket. When a drum roll sounded, the pen holding the slaves would open. The buyer would rush in and grab the slave or slaves that he wanted. He would then show his ticket to the slave trader before he left.

In a "may the highest bidder win" auction, slaves would be shown to the buyers one at a time. If more than one buyer wanted a particular slave, all of the buyers would have to bid on the slave (making offers for what they were willing to pay). Slaves would be investigated by the buyer and would be forced to be poked, and tortured by the buyer. The buyer who bid the highest would be able to buy that slave for the amount of money he bid.

In "the scramble," buyers would quickly grab whichever slaves they wanted and would take them to work.

Slaves were prepared for this when the sellers put fat and tar on them to make them look more healthy.

## Related pages 
;General
* Types of slavery:
** Child labour/Verdingkinder
** Child slavery
** Coolies
** Debt bondage
** Forced labour
** Forced marriage
** Gulag
** Indentured servitude
** Sexual slavery
* Types of slave trade:
** Atlantic slave trade
** Blackbirding
** Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
* Present-day slavery:
** Human trafficking
** Slavery in contemporary Africa
** Slavery in the 21st century
** Slavery in 21st-century jihadism
;Organizations
* Abolitionism
* Abolitionism in the United States
* Quakers – Religious Society of Friends

## References 
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## Other websites 
* *Digital History – Slavery Facts & Myths*
* Teaching resources about Slavery and Abolition on blackhistory4schools.com
* International Slavery Museum. Great Britain.
* The Abolitionist Seminar, summaries, lesson plans, documents and illustrations for schools; focus on United States
* American Abolitionism,  summaries and documents; focus on United States