History of slavery

The history of slavery begins, as far as it is documented in the form of legal texts, sales contracts and the like, in the earliest advanced cultures of mankind, i.e. in Mesopotamia , where it was anchored in the Babylonian Codex Ḫammurapi (18th century BC) . Slavery also existed in Egypt and Palestine and is particularly well documented in Greece ( slavery in ancient Greece ) and Rome . Dealing with slaves was also regulated in detail in the Old Testament (e.g. Leviticus 25: 44–46). In 492, Pope Gelasius I declared that the trade in pagan slaves is also permitted to Jews.

In the early European Middle Ages, Khazars , Varangians and Vikings, among others , traded with slaves, especially with Baltic slaves. For the period between the 10th and the 12th century, trade with Slavic slaves for the Saxons from eastern France can be proven. After the increasing proselytizing of the Slavic tribes and the triumphant advance of Christianity , whose doctrine forbade Christians to buy or sell other Christians, slavery disappeared from Central Europe, but it became all the more important south of the Alps, for example in the Italian maritime republics , in the Black Sea region , the Balkans and the Middle East, particularly in Egypt . In the Mediterranean region, the expansion of trade relations opened up new opportunities that also encouraged robbery and piracy. For example, the conflicts between Christian and Islamic societies and the resulting reciprocal prisoners or kidnappers offered a constant source of new slaves for the relevant markets.

Slavery became even more widespread in modern times with the expansion of European sea trade and the establishment of European colonies , especially on the American double continent. This was so sparsely populated and provided the colonists with so little suitable local labor that millions of African slaves were imported to build the plantation economies on which the profitability of these colonies was to be based for centuries.

While slavery is best documented in European cultures, it has traditionally also existed in many non-European cultures, e.g. B. among the North American Indians and in West Africa . It has also been proven for the Arab-Muslim societies that despite the promises of salvation contained in the Koran , which are linked to the release of slaves, they used various forms of slavery for fourteen centuries to the present day.

From the end of the 18th century onwards, the slave trade and slavery were gradually abolished by law around the world. International treaties against slavery were among others. a. closed in 1926 and 1956. In 1980 , Mauritania was the last country on earth to repeal its previously existing slavery laws, although slavery continues to exist in Mauritania .

antiquity

Antique handcuffs

Old Egypt

Contrary to popular belief, there were few people in Egypt who were slaves in the strict sense. For example, the building of the pyramids was not done by slaves, but by ordinary workers, who were paid for their work and so respected in society that they were even given a burial site near the pyramid when they died.

Old Orient

The Codex Ḫammurapi differentiates slave law from legal provisions for free full citizens, so it reflects a society of slave owners. So someone who caused the death of a slave ( Sumerian GEME ; Akkadian amata ) had to reimburse the owner for the purchase price paid at the time or offer a new slave as a replacement.

Under Rim-Sin von Larsa , gallabu (identifier of slaves) was a separate profession. Twenty texts about prisoners of war ( asîru ) are known from the reign of Rim-Anum von Uruk . A house of prisoners ( bit asiri ) with its own overseers is mentioned, which is also mentioned in ancient Babylonian texts. These prisoners were used as slaves by brewers, weavers and porters. They apparently also milled flour for themselves, royal officials and workers of the bît šaprim . Some were presumably ransomed, as provided for in the Hammurabi Codex . Female prisoners of war (asîrtu) were often made concubines (Feigin 1934).

In the Neo-Babylonian period of Mesopotamia the existence of slaves ( ardu or qallu ) is not documented by legal texts, but by cuneiform documents from numerous private archives. Slaves were given away, formed part of a dowry, and were often loaned out to pay a debt. Many of them were already born in the household of their masters, but mostly descended from sold prisoners of war or convicted criminals. They were gladly given to artisans as apprentices; the contract could specify penalties if the craftsman did not train them appropriately.

Debt bondage, which was later common in Greco-Roman antiquity, is not often passed down from this period. The release of a slave was recorded on a clay tablet .

Iron Age Europe

According to Taylor (2001), almost 50 slave chains are known from Iron Age Europe, for example from Hay Hill, Lord's Bridge, Cambridge and Llyn Cerrig Bach , Anglesey .

Old Testament time

The Israelites saw themselves as descendants of former forced laborers , the Hebrews , whose God YHWH the excerpt from Egypt allows slavery and they have thus chosen as "people of God" for all nations. With this basic date of biblical salvation history, the Bible establishes the equality of all people before God, whom he created in his image .

The Hebrew language does not differentiate between the negative word slave and the neutral terms servant or maid , in both cases the expression עבד ewed is used. This term comes from the same root as awoda ("work") and describes a person who does physical work in the service of a master - clan patriarch or king.

The Torah does not demand the general abolition of slavery in Israel, but the legal protection of slaves who were not allowed to be killed for no reason. These were unfree domestic workers who could be chastened by their masters and, like wives, cattle and household goods, belonged to the clan property ( Ex 20.17 EU ). Unlike in Egypt, where all arable land belonged to the king and was farmed by large masses of serfs ( Gen 47.13-26 EU ) - they did not form an economically significant minority, but made up no more than 10 percent of the otherwise free rural rural population, mostly also did lifelong farm work. Approaches to a latifundia economy dependent on slaves were sharply criticized in Israel's prophecy ( Isa 5,8 EU ) and successfully repulsed ( Neh 5,2–5 EU ).

The Torah commands the circumcision of slaves, that is, their acceptance into the covenant people (Gen 17:13, 27). It generally prohibits the robbery of people and threatens them with the death penalty ( Ex 21.16 EU ):

"Anyone who robs a person, regardless of whether they have sold them or whether they are still in their hands, will be punished with death."

According to Dtn 24.7 EU , the robbery of an Israelite should also be punished. The slave trade was limited to slaves from foreign peoples and semi-citizens ( Lev 25,44-46 EU ).

The enslavement of the conquered as prisoners of war, provided they did not have to be killed immediately in the wars of excommunication of YHWH, was presented, as was usually the case in antiquity, as a boon instead of the possible killing (cf. with the Ammonites of Rabbath Ammon).

Unlike hired day laborers, slaves as part of the family household were entitled to housing, maintenance, health care and old-age care. This largely excluded slavery for the purpose of profit, but not for the satisfaction of sexual pleasure between men and women.

Individual commandments that require slavery granted them special protective rights: a slave owner who beat his slave and the slave died as a result, had to expect punishment - but not if the slave survived the beatings for a day or two. In this case "[...] should not take revenge on the perpetrator." ( Ex 21.20f EU ). Anyone who inflicted permanent bodily harm on his slave had to release him, but not compensate him for the limited ability to work ( Gen 20.9ff EU ; 21.26–32 EU ). Slaves could be forced to perform sexual services, but thereby achieved the status of a wife alongside other wives at best ( Gen 16.1–4 EU ; Ex 21.7–11 EU ). The commandment of the sabbath rest (Ex 20.10) is expressly extended in Dtn 5.14f EU also to the servants and maidservants of every Israelite and justified again with Israel's liberation from the slavery of Egypt. Slaves were allowed to participate in Israelite cult festivals (Ex 12.44; Dtn 12.12.18). In Israel - unlike in the entire ancient East - slaves who had fled were not allowed to be handed over to their masters, but on the contrary had to be taken in ( Dtn 23,16f EU ). After 1 Sam 25:10; 30.15; 1Ki 2,39f this provision was observed. According to the post-exilic prophecy of salvation, the observance of these protective rights for slaves should also be a sign for all other peoples ( Is 61.8ff EU ).

Various rights were designed to prevent debt slavery or, if it occurred, to limit it. The taking of interest is often forbidden in the whole of Tanakh ( e.g. Ex 22.24 EU ). Israelites who nevertheless lost their property through debt, had to work as day laborers and then easily became slaves of property owners, were to get their hereditary land back every seven years in the year of remission and to be completely freed from all debts. This land law provided for the regular redistribution of property so that every Israelite could permanently keep his own piece of land for a living ( Lev 25 EU ). Dtn 15,12-18 EU anchors not only the seven-year release of the Israelite slaves, who had sold themselves, but also a dowry to them, which enabled them to make a living. Only if the slave refused this did his owner receive the lifelong right to keep him.

The Torah expressly equates foreigners living in Israel several times (Ex 22.20; 23.9, etc.) as the next with local people. This was justified with the past of the Israelites in Egypt ( Lev 19,33f EU ):

If a stranger lives with you in your country, you should not oppress him. The stranger who stays with you should be regarded as a native to you and you should love him as yourself; for you yourself were strangers in Egypt. I am the Lord, your God.

Therefore, the enslavement of foreigners in Israel has been limited. At the same time, the Bible also gives instructions to subjugate foreign peoples. This is partly justified as revenge for offenses against the Israelites in the desert period before the conquest . So it is said of Canaan , as the grandson of Noah's ancestor of the Canaanites who later lived in Israel ( Gen 9.25 EU ): Cursed be Canaan! Let him be a servant of servants to his brothers! This is justified with sexual misconduct. Male prisoners of war were not allowed to be sold individually in the event of a peaceful surrender, but were used as a group for compulsory service ( Dtn 20.11 EU ).

Celts

According to Diodor (V.26) an Italian merchant in Gaul could exchange a slave boy for an amphora of wine. The slave trade with Gauls had become an important economic factor after the end of the Gallic War .

In the island Celtic area, slavery was connected with the people “booty” during military campaigns on the one hand and with debt bondage on the other. The slave ( mug ) and the female slave ( cumal ) belonged to the class of the despised unfree. Their frequent origin from the spoils of war can be recognized etymologically: Old Irish cacht , Kymrisch caeth , caethweision (mask.) And caethverched (fem.) Are related to Latin captus and Germanic * haftaz , all with the meaning "prisoner" but also "slave" .

In the moor of Llyn Cerrig Bach , a slave trader probably deposited two slave chains with neck rings as consecration offerings. Such chains were also found at the sites of La Tène , Manching and elsewhere.

The slave girl ( cumal ) counted in the island Celtic jurisprudence as a unit of currency - one cumal corresponded to the value of ten cows.

Greece

Slavery ( douleia ) was an essential element of the economy and society of ancient Greece . For the ancient Greeks, slavery was a self-evident, indispensable and natural institution - in other words: "Ancient culture and society are based economically and politically on the institution of slavery". According to this view, slaves differed from animals only in their work.

Slavery was already widespread in Mycenaean and archaic Greece. The earliest evidence of slavery in Greece comes from Linear B tablets dating from around 1200 BC. BC, especially from the palace of Nestor near Pylos . In the Homeric epics ( Iliad and Odyssey ) slaves were mainly captured on military expeditions. In the classical period, the need for slaves was also covered by the slave trade with the barbaric neighboring peoples as well as by piracy and robbery. In addition, a system of debt slavery applied in Athens until the constitutional reform of the Solon , according to which debtors had to work off their debts as slaves. The number of slaves in ancient Greece is difficult to estimate and varied greatly from epoch to epoch; for Athens the figures vary from an average of one to around twenty slaves per household.

Slaves were used for all kinds of work, from agriculture to mining, trade and commerce, and as prostitutes of both sexes. While agricultural workers, miners and prostitutes lived mostly brutal lives, enslaved craftsmen, especially in Athens, often lived quite independently. Slaves could gain their freedom through release , which usually required that they bought themselves free from their master. As released, they had restricted rights, similar to settled strangers ( Metöken ).

In addition to the slavery in the strict sense, ie the property, the freely available property to be other people, ancient Greece knew many other forms of slavery, such as with serfs comparable Penestae in Thessaly , helots in Sparta or Klaroten on Crete . Basically, slaves were not legally competent and therefore without rights, but unlike later in Rome, the law protected them to a certain extent against arbitrary killing or gross abuse.

The Greek philosophers mostly considered slavery to be justified by nature (justification from natural law). According to Aristotle , whoever is blessed with reason is master, but whoever has physical strength to work is a slave. For the sophists, on the other hand, what was important was not a person's legal status but whether or not his mind was free; however, they did not question the social reality of slavery. The Stoa paved the way for a more humane treatment of slaves, but also did not deny the legitimacy of the institution of slavery.

New Testament time

In the time of the New Testament (NT), the legal status of slaves (Greek: doulos ) in the Roman province of Palestine differed only gradually from other dependents - such as freed servants, day laborers and farm workers from large landowners, tenants and colonized people. As the personal property of a slave owner, like his wives and children, they were subject to his power over their life and death. For example, they were not allowed to marry or have children.

At that time, very different dependents were called slaves, such as state officials ( Mt 18.23 EU ), craftsmen ( Mt 18.25 EU ), administrators ( Mt 24.45 EU ), independent traders (Mt 25.14ff), house servants ( Lk 15 , 22 EU ), field workers and shepherds ( Lk 17.7 EU ), security guards ( Mk 14.47 EU ), debt slaves (1. Clemensbrief 55.2), imperial slaves, d. H. Influential secure court officials ( Phil 4.22 EU ). The proportion of regular slave laborers is now estimated to be no more than a third of the total Jewish population. They did not replace the work of day laborers, free farmers, tenant farmers and craftsmen and were not used for very specific jobs, but performed a variety of temporary auxiliary services. Often they carried out assignments and delivered messages. They had the chance to be released ( Joh 8,35 EU ) and to social advancement. In ( Lk 15.11–32 EU ) it becomes clear that house slaves were still above personally free but unsecured wage workers.

Acts 12,13 EU proves that Christians in Palestine had house slaves. The house board in Mk 10 did not list any rules for dealing with them. Outside of Palestine, slaves were often baptized together with freedmen and other lower class membersand formed separate groups in Christian communities (Phil 4:22; 1 Cor 1:11; Rom 16:10). The fact that Christian landlords had slaves there is shown above all in the Letter to Philemon , Col 4.1 EU , the Pastoral Letters , the First Letter of Peter and the First Letter to Clement .

The attitude of Paul of Tarsus has become decisive for the relationship between early Christianity and slavery . He did not consider the abolition of the slave class, but expressly admonished Christian house slaves to remain in their class ( 1 Cor 7.20ff EU ). But he also emphasized that "in Jesus Christ ", that is, in the reconciliation with God achieved through the voluntary renunciation of power and "slave service" of the Son of God (Phi 2), the difference between slaves and masters no longer plays or should play a role ( Col 3:11; Gal 3:28; Eph 6,8). Accordingly, Paul demanded from the Christian Philemon that he should see in his slave Onesimus primarily a brother in faith and not the slave and should show him the same love as a brother ( Phlm 1,16 EU ). Whether Paul demands the release of Onesimus in Philemon's letter is controversial in current research.

Rome

In the Roman Empire , slavery existed until the 2nd century BC. As debt slavery . It was only when the wars of conquest increased in size that they were replaced by the enslavement of prisoners of war . Slaves were used in all economic sectors, in households, in house and road construction, in factories and mines as well as in agriculture. Well-trained slaves also worked as tutors or doctors.

Slavery was hereditary under Roman law and slaves had no legal capacity , but slave owners could de facto allow their slaves to acquire personal property, amassed and eventually ransomed. In addition, there were various other options for release ( manumissio ), which the slave owners often made use of. Freed slaves received full civil rights, but remained committed to their previous owner.

As in ancient Greece, there was hardly any criticism of slavery by philosophers or religious communities in the Roman Empire . The early Christians basically affirmed slavery, but emphasized the leniency required for the enslaved. The thesis that the early Christians received a lot of influx from the class of slaves and other socially inferior ones is considered outdated. Likewise, the thesis that the Christians of Roman antiquity contributed to social disputes, instead one has to ascertain an extensive affirmation of social structures by the old church .

middle Ages

Slavery experienced an upswing between the 8th and 10th centuries. Even before the Scandinavians penetrated the Baltic region , Turkic peoples such as the Khazars conducted a lively trade in light-skinned slaves from Europe . After the Varangians or Rus had penetrated the Eastern European area and had established themselves, they took over this trade from the Khazars, with whom they sometimes maintained intensive trade relations and sometimes were in strong competition. As a result, the Nordic warrior merchants also operated a flourishing trade in prisoners of war . The Normans haunted all the coasts of the North Sea and around the year 1000 sold Irish or Flemish prisoners at the market in Rouen , from where they ended up in Christian households, but above all in Muslim Spain and the Orient as the main stream of the slave trade. In the Islamic countries the fair-skinned European slaves were called Saqaliba .

During the armed conflicts with the Slavs under Henry I (928/29), women and children in particular were sold as important "commercial goods" from the Ottonian Empire to Muslim Spain. In Prague and Verdun there were centers specially set up for castration , in which the Slavic boys were made into the eunuchs especially sought after by the Muslims . "Slave hunts" took place until the 12th century, during which the Saxons attacked the neighboring Slavs, plundered them and dragged them into slavery.

The West Slavic tribes between the Elbe and the Baltic Sea (see Wenden ) also came under pressure from the Danish and Eastern European side ( Kievan Rus ). Adam von Bremen reports that Slavic slaves were offered as sacrifices in Estonia. According to Ibn Fadlān , deceased Rus were given young slaves with them into the afterlife; But they came to Baghdad mainly as trade goods with caravans. The trade with the slaves was u. a. taken over by the Radhanites , Jewish merchants from Baghdad. They enjoyed royal privileges in Europe and, because of their extensive family connections, were the only ones who carried out trade from Spain via North Africa, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, Palestine, Syria, Persia, North India, Khorasan to China and via Byzantium to the Slavic countries and the Jewish Khazars on the Black Sea. Based on the findings presented by Charles Verlinden and the French historian Maurice Lombard and a work by the Russian orientalist Dimitri Michine published in 2002, the French historian Alexandre Skirda comes to the conclusion that the economic boom in the West in the 10th and 11th centuries led to human trafficking owed to the Islamic countries, from which large amounts of gold came to the West in exchange. In 1168, 700 Danes were offered for sale by pirating Slavs on the slave market in Mecklenburg.

In 11th century Anglo-Saxon and Norman England , too , there lived not only unfree peasants ( villani ) but also slaves ( servi , ancillae ; thraells in Danelaw ). In 1086 there were 28,200 slaves there according to the Domesday Book . However, not all slaves seem to have been taken into account, the number was probably much higher. In some counties the servi formed up to 25% of the population. Monasteries (such as Ely Abbey) also used slaves in agriculture; according to Domesday Book 112, unfree peasants, 27 smallholders ( bordarii ), a priest and 16 slaves lived on the abbey property .

In the late Middle Ages , the Baltic and North European slave trade declined again. Most of the European peoples were now Christianized, and since the time of Charlemagne it was expressly forbidden for Christians to sell or buy other Christians as slaves. However, this rule was often disregarded - even popes and monasteries had slaves. In the eastern Mediterranean in particular, the ban was often circumvented by arguing that it only applied to Roman Catholic Christians, but not to Orthodox or members of other Christian churches. In the High Middle Ages, slavery had all but disappeared north of the Alps, but there was still lively human trafficking in the Mediterranean region, in which the Italian maritime republics and Catalan seamen participated on the Christian side . Up until the 15th century, cities like Genoa or Venice traded in large quantities with slaves from the Black Sea region and the Balkans . The male slaves mostly sold them to the Egyptian Mamluk rulers , more rarely in Italy or Western Europe; Women were brought from the countries around the Black Sea to all Italian cities of the Renaissance , including the so-called merchant republics, as well as to Spain, where they were mainly used in the household and often as wet nurses. The importance of this east-west trade route only diminished when, with the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453 and the entire Black Sea region by the end of the century, long-distance sea trade from this region became almost impossible for western (Christian) merchants and only the land routes were still passable through Asia Minor .

In the sphere of influence of the Crown of Aragón, slavery and slave trade were the order of the day, as a large number of archival documents show. In addition, however, there was an extensive business in the exchange between the Iberian east coast, the Balearic Islands and the opposite North African coast, which was based on the ransom of slaves - people on both sides who had been enslaved by corsairs as prisoners of war or as booty from raids with the aim to get the fastest and highest possible profit from them. With the expansion of Atlantic seafaring from the middle of the 15th century, the number of black African slaves also increased, which was to explode with the colonization of the New World.

While the Muslim rulers in Egypt needed slaves primarily for their army ( Mamluks - therefore male slaves were most in demand there and constant supplies were needed, as these military slaves generally did not establish families), slaves in Italy and on the Iberian Peninsula mostly worked in the Household (hence the high proportion of female slaves there). It was not uncommon for Italian and Catalan slaves to be used in agriculture in southern Italy and on the Mediterranean islands (for example in Cyprus and Mallorca , more rarely in Sicily and Crete ).

In Western Europe, the imported slaves seldom remained slaves until the end of their lives: Releases or ransom purchases were relatively frequent, but often subject to the condition that the slaves thus “freed” continued to work for their former masters for a certain period of time.

Slavery in the Arab world

Bilal al-Habaschi , one of the first Muslims, was a slave

Even in pre-Islamic times, the areas that were later Islamized were already familiar with slavery and slave trade, with both black African and European slaves. The character of slavery was but another than in antiquity or later in the "new world", apart from the Zanj called black slaves in southern Iraq.

Slavery is not forbidden according to the normative scriptures ( Koran and Sunna ) of Islam, whereby it should be emphasized that the Koran recommends in many cases to release slaves. The founder of the religion, Mohammed, was himself a slave owner (see Maria al-Qibtiyya ) and has been shown to enslave hundreds of people on his campaigns, including all the women and children of the Banu Quraiza . However, slavery was subject to certain established rules that describe the behavior of the slave owner towards the slave and vice versa. Compared to pre-Islamic times, these rules meant a certain upgrading of the legal status of slaves. In religious terms, if slaves were Muslims, they were considered equal by God to free Muslims. Although the release of slaves is considered salutary, the areas within the scope of Islam delayed the legal abolition of slavery the longest. Mauritania was the last country on earth to abolish slavery in 1980, but slaves still represent the most secretive lowest social class. A tradition has continued since the seventh century, the clearest traces of which continued with caravans until the end of the 19th century the Sahara led to various Arab cities on the Mediterranean Sea or to the ports of East Africa on the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

The newcomer (Giulio Rosati)

Often slaves were used in the field of entertainment (mostly female slaves who lived with the women in the harem ), as personal servants of the rulers or as harem guards / servants (mostly as eunuchs). A certain group of male slaves were prevented from reproducing by castration. Above all, this was intended to reduce the sex drive, so that the male slaves who were employed in the harem and associated with the harem women on a daily basis would not be tempted to engage in illegal sexual intercourse. Slaves, on the other hand, were used, among other things, for sexual services and could also have children from their masters, which under certain circumstances could significantly improve their legal status (see also cohabitation in Islam ).

Since descent over the male line had priority in the pre-Islamic cultures of the Orient and this was still the case after the Islamization of these areas, the children of female slaves could achieve the highest positions depending on the position of the child's father. Almost all later caliphs were sons of female slaves. Even the founder of the Saud dynasty, Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud , the father of the current Saudi king, did not therefore know who his mother's mother was (namely an unknown slave). Wealthy, influential people of the pre-Islamic period often had 50 sons of many women of different origins, which was still to be found among Islamic peoples. The so-called " Lawrence of Arabia " reports on a bath in an oasis pond after a long desert ride, where young, closely related men of all skin tones splashed naked and lively and equally in the water. Slaves could also achieve high political and military offices, but remained the personal property of their owners.

With the military slaves (the so-called Mamluks ) a special form of slavery developed in the late 11th century. These slaves used as soldiers in Egypt were held in high regard for their alleged loyalty and bravery. At times they even succeeded in conquering political power, from the middle of the 12th century to 1517 in Egypt . The first Ottoman Janissaries were also recruited as slaves.

For centuries, from Greece to Italy to Spain, Arabs and Turks robbed Christian and Jewish slaves who were sold in slave markets or returned for ransom. European slaves, especially from the Slavic areas, the Balkans and the Caucasus regions, were not only stolen by non-Christian traders, but also sold to Egypt for centuries by merchants from the Italian maritime republics, especially Genoa and Venice , as well as by Catalans , so that the popes repeatedly did so Tried to forbid trade in Christian slaves, such as Clement V and Martin V (cf. Davidson, p. 34). At the time of the Crusades and the Ottoman expansion, the periodic oversupply of enslaved prisoners of war was a problem. Conversely, parts of the Arab-Muslim population of North Africa and the eastern Black Sea region also fell victim to the raids by Christian merchants and corsairs. Particularly in the western part of the Mediterranean, where Islamic and Christian spheres of influence directly touched, sometimes even overlapped, between the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands, Sicily and Malta, enslavements regularly occurred from the 14th century onwards, but these generally served to obtain ransom and thus were very limited in time (see above).

Slavery and human trafficking developed into a real branch of industry in the Islamic barbarian states on the coast of North Africa between the 16th and 18th centuries. Although it came under Ottoman rule in the course of the 16th century, the areas ruled by local Arab princes enjoyed extensive autonomy until the 19th century. So also Algiers , which since the rule of the notorious corsair Chair ad-Din Barbarossa from the 1520s developed into a stronghold of piracy directed against European ships and cities . Modern estimates assume that around 1.25 million people were enslaved in the territories between Egypt and Morocco between 1530 and 1780, most of them through the hijacking of European ships and raids on the coasts of Christian Mediterranean countries. The number is roughly one tenth of the transatlantic slave trade .

Slavery in Modern Times

Europe

Almost all of the major European seafaring and trading nations - particularly Portugal , Spain , France , England and the Netherlands - were temporarily involved in the international slave trade . The majority of the slaves with whom these merchants traded, however, did not end up in the respective mother country, but in colonies overseas. The corresponding sea voyages were carried out by European trading companies.

Between 1500 and 1870, 200,000 African slaves were imported into Europe.

Germany

Nazi era

Hans Frank (1900–1946), governor general in Poland, announced in 1939: "The Poles should be the slaves of the Greater German Empire." The systematic exploitation of over 13.5 million people was similar to other historical and current forms of unfree labor and the slave trade, but her death was also planned or accepted. In the Nuremberg military tribunal there was talk of “slave labor program”. It was not until the 1990s that the term “slave labor” was used again.

After 1945

Forced labor , forced prostitution , debt bondage , forced marriage and child exploitation ( child labor , child prostitution ) are counted as modern slavery . In 2016, the police identified 536 cases of forced labor, illegal prostitution and child labor in Germany. The Global Slavery Index (GSI) assumes that there are around 167,000 modern slaves in Germany.

France

France entered the international slave trade in the mid-17th century after setting up its first trading bases in Senegal , Réunion , Guadeloupe and Martinique . The cities of Nantes and Bordeaux in particular owed their economic rise to the French slave trade. Most of the slaves that entered the French market were employed in the overseas colonies . From 1500 to 1880 about 1.6 million African slaves came to the French Antilles . In 1685, Louis XIV issued the Code Noir , a body of law that was valid until 1848 and comprehensively regulated the relationship between slave owners and slaves. Until Louis XVI. forbidden this in 1777, slaves often came to France. The keeping of African house slaves was not uncommon, especially among the French nobility. Slavery was abolished for the first time during the French Revolution by the National Convention on February 4, 1794; Formally, but not implemented until much later, this also affected slavery in the French colonies. Napoléon Bonaparte , after becoming the first consul, expressly confirmed it on May 20, 1802. Slavery was finally abolished in France on the initiative of Victor Schœlcher in the Second French Republic on April 27, 1848.

Great Britain

Wealthy British merchants and shipowners were involved in the slave trade, particularly between West Africa and North America. Against their bitter resistance, it was mainly Baptist missionaries and the evangelical Anglican William Wilberforce that pushed through parliament in Great Britain and its colonies to ban the slave trade in 1807 and slavery itself in 1834.

North and South America

Destinations for African Slaves in America, 1492–1870

Shortly after America was discovered by the seafarer Christopher Columbus in 1492, the colonists enslaved the native Americans. One of the first places of intense enslavement (including the Arawaks ) and slave labor was the gold mines on Hispaniola . From the discovery of America in 1492 to 1870, more than 11 million African slaves were sold to America. Most of these (4.1 million) ended up in the British, French, Dutch and Danish colonies in the Caribbean via the transatlantic triangular trade . Almost as many Africans (4 million) were brought to Brazil by Portuguese traders . 2.5 million were sold to the Spanish colonies in South America. The smallest group is formed by the approximately 500,000 African slaves who ended up in the thirteen British colonies on the North American mainland and in the United States founded in 1776.

United States of America

Number of Slaves in the Northern and Southern States, 1680-1860

Edmund S. Morgan named as the central paradox of American history that freedom and equality, an emphasis on classlessness as central American values, were essentially based on slavery and the associated racism. In England, however, individual freedom would have been emphasized more strongly and slavery abolished and combated much earlier. In contrast, the class / class-specific separation remained much stronger there.

Slavery is well known from the southern states of the USA, which imported large numbers of people from Africa as labor for agriculture. Hundreds of thousands of blacks were killed in the process. What is less known is that slavery also existed in many northern states until the 1840s; There were, however, incomparably fewer slaves there than in the southern states, and slavery in the northern states had already passed its zenith at the time of the declaration of independence. In the southern states, the number of slaves rose steadily throughout the period from the establishment of the colonies to the Civil War . The 1860 census counted 3,953,760 slaves in the United States; except for 64 who lived in the northern states or the American west, these were in the southern states.

With slavery also developed the racism of whites against the black slave population as well as a division between free and unfree blacks. The economic starting point of the heyday that slavery experienced in the 18th and 19th centuries in the state territory of the USA was the emergence of a plantation economy with highly profitable, but laboriously cultivated agricultural products such as tobacco , cane sugar , rice and cotton . Although the slave-holding plantation owners from the south had a solid foothold in federal politics - from the Declaration of Independence to the War of Secession, the majority of American presidents were themselves slave-owners - the abolitionists who wanted to abolish slavery increased among federal politicians . These political disputes were prepared and strongly supported by a new understanding of human beings as children of God and individuals, which included all human beings, which arose in pietism and the Protestant mission of the 18th and 19th centuries. Added to this was the experience of the atrocities of the slave trade and slave labor. Individual Quakers condemned slavery as early as the 17th century. The Methodists issued the first ecclesiastical prohibition of slavery in 1780 because it contradicted the law of God. The Baptists in the Southern States joined in 1789 with a similar notice. The battle cry “Slavery is sin!” (Slavery is sin!) Opened the campaign against slavery (Abolitionist Movement) around 1820. A huge impact had the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin ( Uncle Tom's Cabin ) (1852) of the Presbyterian Harriet Beecher Stowe . After the election of Abraham Lincoln , the controversy for or against maintaining slavery led to the withdrawal of the southern states from the Union and their reorganization as the Confederate States of America . The northern states responded to the founding of the confederation by entering the civil war, in which they victorious and thus forced the defeated southern states to abolish slavery.

On December 18, 1865, with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution by the states, slavery was banned in the United States . Even so, the former slaves were not completely equal in many areas of the United States. The mostly peaceful struggle for equality and against racial segregation continued into the late 1960s. One of the most important leaders was the Baptist pastor Martin Luther King . The Americans of African descent are now referred to as African Americans .

Canada

In Canada some of the First Nations practiced slavery - as prisoners of war - since ancient times. After the founding of the French colonies in the early 17th century, the European settlers also began to keep slaves, which they initially received either as gifts from allied Indian peoples or - this was especially true of French nobles, who often owned slaves of African descent - brought them from Europe . When New France (Québec) fell to Great Britain in 1730 , more than 1,000 slaves lived there. Even after the Peace of Paris , slavery initially continued in British Canada.

The first step towards their abolition was a law passed in Upper Canada in 1793 , which ensured that no new slaves could be imported into this part of the country and that slaves born after the deadline would be free as adults. In Lower Canada, the end of slavery was only in sight when a court ruled there in 1803 that slavery was incompatible with British law. Admittedly, it was not until the Slavery Abolition Act passed by the British Parliament in 1834 that slavery was abolished in all parts of the British Empire that all remaining Canadian slaves were released.

Cuba

In Cuba , which had been a Spanish colony since 1492 , the colonists lacked suitable local labor, so they used slaves from the start. The importation of African slaves began in 1526. Slaves worked in all sectors of the economy, but their labor played the greatest role in the cultivation of sugar cane and coffee . Slavery existed in Cuba until 1886.

Slave revolt in Haiti

The majority of the slaves who were abducted from Africa in the 17th and early 18th centuries ended up in the sugar cane plantations in the Caribbean - especially Hispaniola - and mainland North America.

In France, for dealing with the slaves under Louis XIV. 1685 Code Noir of Colbert was released, canceled the first in 1848 and 163 years as "monströsester text of Modernity" ( Louis Sala-Molins was valid).

The French Revolution in 1789 brought forth the ideals of liberty , equality and fraternity ; these also spread in the colonies and contributed to the rise of the black slaves in Haiti in 1791. The leader of the rebels was Toussaint L'Ouverture . In 1794, with a regulation that never came into force, the “Code Noir” and thus slavery in all French colonies and thus also in Haiti was repealed. Napoleon I expressly confirmed the continuation of slavery in 1802, whereupon another slave revolt broke out. In 1804, Haiti finally achieved its independence . This defeated slavery there. The slave revolt in Haiti was the only one that resulted in the establishment of an independent state.

It should be noted that not a single one of the great French enlightenmentists had considered wanting to assert the ideals of the revolution in the French colonies and thus for the slaves.

Brazil

Slavery in Brazil, painting by Jean-Baptiste Debret .

The economy of Brazil , which had been a Portuguese colony since 1500 , was based on slave labor for centuries. The exploitation of Indian slaves in sugar cane cultivation reached its peak between 1540 and 1570. The Indian population was so decimated by various factors, such as diseases imported from Europe (especially smallpox ), that the Portuguese, who had always been closely associated with the African slave trade , began to bring more African slaves into the country from 1570, which they had occasionally done since the 1530s. The literature gives inconsistent information about the number of Africans deported to Brazil. They range from more than 3 million to 4 million. It is undisputed that far more African slaves were abducted to Brazil until 1850 than to any other country on the American double continent. As a result, most people of African descent in Brazil now live outside Africa.
The focus of the use of slave labor initially remained on sugar cane cultivation in the northeast. In the 18th century slaves were needed in the gold mines (Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso). In the southwest, slaves also had to work in sugar cane cultivation, but above all on coffee plantations .

Unlike in the United States, for example, where slaves were expensive, the slave owners in Brazil belonged to all social classes; even the poor kept slaves.

When the mother country Portugal abolished slavery in 1761, it continued to exist in Brazil. Even the Brazilian declaration of independence (1822) did not lead to the abolition of slavery. The country did not withdraw from the transatlantic slave trade until 1850. The abolition of slavery took place in several steps from 1871; The conclusion of this process is marked by the Lei Áurea passed in 1888 , with which slavery was officially abolished. The Empire of Brazil was the last country in the western world in which slavery was abolished. The descendants of the African slaves are now mostly referred to as Afro-Brazilians .

After popes allowed the enslavement of pagans in the course of the first voyages of discovery in the second half of the 15th century, Pope Paul III spoke . in 1537 with the bull Sublimis Deus against slavery, which was followed by numerous other convictions. This last happened in 1839 by Gregory XVI. with the bull In supremo and Leo XIII. 1888 in an encyclical to the Brazilian bishops to combat slavery.

Slavery in Asia

In Asia, slavery existed in the Chinese Han dynasty, among others . In India, slavery was already described in the Manusmriti . Slavery in Hindu India was restricted by some rituals and slaves were mainly used for prestige purposes by the wealthy.

Slavery also existed for a long time in Southeast Asia , for example in Thailand (formerly Siam), Burma , Cambodia and Vietnam , but had a different function and different effects to US slavery. The main difference is that due to the low population density of Southeast Asia, most of the smaller and larger empires were looking for people who could cultivate the fertile areas and build cities. So there were generally no wars of extermination, but rather wars of distribution. The death of members of the opposing population would have been an unnecessary loss of people. In the course of his life, the individual could be transplanted to other regions of the Southeast Asian mainland several times. Simon de La Loubère writes:

"... when the people of Pegu z. If, for example, one invades Siam on one side, the Siamese will invade the lands of Pegu elsewhere and both parties will drag entire villages into captivity. "

- Simon de la Loubère (1693)

This quote describes the constant circulation of residents of rival empires into the center of the catchers, where they were patterned for labor. People with high skills were drawn to the court, where they could be of service to the palace, while others were needed to develop the infrastructure, for example when digging canals. Farmers were settled in uninhabited areas and increased food production. Care was taken to ensure that people of the same ethnic group lived together. The slaves working at court could easily reach high positions and were in many cases better off than the common people. Slaves could marry.

In addition to the slaves from foreign territories, there were also slaves who had lost their freedom due to an offense or guilt. After the debt was settled, they were usually released. Since the labor force was needed to build up the empires, attempts were made to prevent them from emigrating or fleeing. Since there were not enough guards available for this, slaves were treated relatively well, so that they did not get any reason to flee at first.

Unlike the Atlantic slave trade, which went from east to west, the Southeast Asian slave trade had many different directions. Also, the difference between a slave and a citizen was far less than in America. Even non-slaves could be used for forced labor for the empire at any time without receiving any compensation. They could also be relocated to other places without major problems.

Slavery in Africa

For Africa, there is a lack of written sources and precise information on how far back in history the slave trade goes. That is why Jacques Heers speaks of very old times when the peoples south of the Sahara faced each other in ethnic groups and tribes and often sent their warriors to neighboring villages to catch women and men. “In most of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the number of slaves was a sign of social rank.” In the case of a rich man, it was not his land holdings that were counted, but his prisoners and women. Even before the spread of Islam, in many areas those who had been defeated and who had to pay taxes had to hand over a certain number of women and men as a token of their devotion.
Black slaves played the main role in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries in Gao , the Mali Empire and the Songha Empire , up to the times of the Atlantic slave trade . In Benin , a major slave state and supplier of prisoners for European and American traffickers have, for example, in 1778 Jabou, a major warlord, more obsessed than 10,000 slaves he never sold. When he went to war, he always commanded 5,000 to 6,000 slaves.
While the transatlantic slave trade has been documented over long stretches, there is no more precise evidence of the export of black Africans originating from East Africa and destined by Arab traders. It is certain that from there trade not only went to the Arab countries and the Persians , but also to India via the Comoros , where they were in great demand in the Islamic northeast. For Bengal there is a tradition for the end of the 15th century that speaks of 8,000 slaves, most of them from Africa. The Chinese have been referring to Arabs as traders of black slaves since the 13th century. In Canton there was a slave market for black Africans controlled by the Arab colony. Ibn Battuta mentions black slaves owned by the Muslim sultan of Sumatra .

Research today finds that the abolition of slavery in Africa remained an unfinished business. In view of the specialization and regionalization of research, generalizations are difficult, because it is particularly true of Africa that the “western” penetration of the world has found its limits in terms of scope for design locally.

Slavery in Pre-Colonial America

20th century

In September 1926, the 44 states of the League of Nations signed the Slavery Agreement in Geneva , which, however, allowed the European colonial powers to continue using forced labor in their colonies and did little to change the other forms of slavery either. In 1948, slavery was again banned in the fourth article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , with similarly little effect. In 1956, 40 states concluded another agreement in Geneva on the abolition of slavery. Even so, the practice of slavery is still widespread today.

literature

Overview representations

Christian Delacampagne: The History of Slavery. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-538-07183-7 .
Josef Fischer and Melanie Ulz, Marcel Simonis: Unfreedom and sexuality from antiquity to the present , Olms, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York, NY 2010, ISBN 978-3-487-13916-6 (= slavery - bondage - forced labor. Volume 6).
Elisabeth Herrmann-Otto (Ed.): Unfree working and living conditions from antiquity to the present. An introduction. Olms, Hildesheim 2005, ISBN 3-487-12912-4 .
Enrico Dal Lago: Slave Systems - Ancient and Modern. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-88183-8
Egon Flaig : World History of Slavery. Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-58450-3
Orlando Patterson: Slavery and Social Death. A Comparative Study. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA / London 1982, ISBN 0-674-81083-X .
Rosa Amelia Plumelle-Uribe: Traite des Blancs, traite des Noirs. Aspects méconnus et conséquences actuelles. L'Harmattan, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-296-06443-0 .
Martin Schneider: The History of Slavery: From the Beginnings to the Present . marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-7374-0973-5 .
Michael Zeuske : Handbook of the history of slavery. A global history from the beginning to the present . Verlag De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-027880-4 .

Slavery in ancient times

Corpus of the Roman legal sources on ancient slavery (CRRS), edited by Tiziana J. Chiusi, Johanna Filip-Fröschl and J. Michael Rainer on behalf of the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1999 ff.
- Prolegomena . Edited by J. Michael Rainer, Elisabeth Herrmann-Otto. 1999.
- Part I: The establishment of slave status according to ius gentium and ius civile . Edited by Hans Wieling. 1999.
- Part III: The legal positions on the slave
  - Fascicle 2: Claims from offenses against slaves . Edited by Jan Dirk Harke. 2013.
- Part IV: Position of the slave in private law
  - Fascicle 1: Marriage-like connections and family relationships . Edited by Reinhard Willvonseder. 2010.
  - Fascicle 2: Representation of the Dominus . Edited by J. Michael Rainer. 2015.
  - Fascicles 5: capacity . Edited by J. Michael Rainer. 2015.
  - Fascicle 6: Acquisition by the slave . Edited by J. Michael Rainer. 2015.
- Part VI: Position of the slave in sacral law . Edited by Leonhard Schumacher. 2006.
- Part IX: Free people mistakenly held as slaves and slaves in insecure property relations - Homines liberi et servi alieni bona fide servientes . Edited by Alfred Söllner. 2000.
- Part X: Legally specifically defined slave groups
  - Fascicle 6: Servus fugitivus . Edited by Georg Klingenberg. 2005.
Heinz Bellen u. a. (Ed.): Bibliography on ancient slavery . Steiner, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-515-08206-9 .
Heinz Heinen (Ed.): Ancient slavery: retrospect and outlook. New contributions to the history of research and to the development of archaeological evidence . Steiner, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-515-09413-9 . ( Review )
Nikolaus Himmelmann: Archeology on the problem of Greek slavery . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1971 (= treatises of the humanities and social sciences class . Number 13/1971).

Middle Ages, African and Arab slave trade

Robert Bartlett: The Birth of Europe from the Spirit of Violence. Conquest, colonization and cultural change from 950 to 1350. Kindler, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-463-40249-1 .
Malek Chebel: L'esclavage en terre d'islam. Un tabou bien gardé. Fayard, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-213-63058-8 .
Robert C. Davis: Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800 . Palgrave Macmillan 2003, ISBN 978-1-4039-4551-8 (English).
Jacques Heers: Esclaves et domestiques au Moyen Âge dans le monde méditerranéen. Hachette, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-01-279335-5 .
Jacques Heers: Les négriers en terres d'islam. VIIe-XVIe siècles. Perrin, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-262-02764-3 .
Stéphane Lebecq, Christian Lübke, Günter Prinzing, Hans-Georg von Mutius, Hansgerd Göckenjan, Suraiya Faroqhi: Slave . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 1977-1987.
Tidiane N'Diaye: Le génocide voilé: Enquête historique . Editions Gallimard, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-07-011958-5 ; German: The veiled genocide. The history of the Muslim slave trade in Africa. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-498-04690-3 .
Alice Rio: Slavery After Rome, 500-1100. Oxford University, Oxford 2017, ISBN 978-0-19-870405-8 .
Ronald Segal: Islam's Black Slaves. History of Africa's other black diaspora . Atlantic Books, London 2003, ISBN 1-903809-81-9 .
Alexandre Skirda: La traite des Slaves. L'esclavage des Blancs du VIIIe au XVIIIe siècle , Les Éditions de Paris, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-84621-130-7 .
Charles Verlinden : L'esclavage dans l'Europe médiévale . Volume 1: Péninsule ibérique - France . De Tempel, Bruges 1955. Volume 2: Italie - Colonies italiennes du Levant - Levant latin - Empire Byzantin . Ghent 1977.
Charles Verlinden: Where, when and why was there a wholesale trade in slaves during the Middle Ages? Research Institute for Social and Economic History at the University of Cologne , Cologne 1970 (= Cologne Lectures and Treatises on Social and Economic History , Issue 11).

Transatlantic slave trade and slavery in the "New World"

Basil Davidson: From Slave Trade to Colonization. African-European relations between 1500 and 1900 . Rowohlt, Hamburg 1966.
David Brion Davis : Inhuman Bondage. The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-19-514073-7 .
Jochen Meissner, Ulrich Mücke , Klaus Weber: Black America. A history of slavery. Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-56225-9 .

Slave emancipation

Jan Hüsgen: Mission and Slavery. The Moravian Community and the emancipation of slaves in the British and Danish West Indies . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-515-11272-7 .

Web links

Wikisource: Slavery - Sources and Full Texts

Slavery in the Middle Ages u. a. Source texts and abstracts of secondary literature
Slavery in Islam Interpretation of the Koranic positions on slavery
The Library of Congress images on the subject of slavery
On Swiss participation in slavery (with many source texts and parliamentary proposals)

Individual evidence

↑ ? יהודי אירופה בימי הבניים המוקדמים: סוחרי עבדים(The European Jews of the Early Middle Ages: Slave-traders?) - Medieval Mediterranean Slavery. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 14, 2017 ; Retrieved May 12, 2017 (Hebrew). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

↑ tagesanzeiger.ch

^ Walter Dietrich : Slavery. Old Testament section . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia. Volume 31. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-002218-4 , pp. 367-373.

↑ Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , p. 992 f. (for the entire paragraph "Celts")

↑ ^a ^b Heinz-Dietrich Wendland : Art. "Slavery and Christianity", in: The religion in history and present , 3rd edition, Volume VI, Sp. 101

↑ Christoph Kähler: Slavery. Section II. New Testament. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia. Volume 31. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-002218-4 , pp. 373-377.

↑ Udo Schnelle: Introduction to the New Testament . 8th edition. Göttingen 2013, p. 181.

↑ Christoph Markschies: The ancient Christianity. Piety, Lifestyle, Institutions , Munich ²2012, p. 155.

^ Friedrich Winkelmann, History of early Christianity, Munich 2007 (4th edition), p. 24.

^ Jacques Heers: Esclaves et domestiques au Moyen Âge dans le monde méditerranéen. Paris 1996, p. 23.

↑ Stéphane Lebecq: Sklave , A. West, 1. Western and Central Europe . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 1977-1980.

↑ See Stéphane Lebecq u. a. Art. Slave. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Volume 7. 1995, Sp. 1977-1987. In addition: Johannes Fried : The Middle Ages. History and culture . CH Beck: Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57829-8 (dtv 2011, ISBN 3-423-34650-7 ), p. 114.

↑ Rosa Amelia Plumelle-Uribe : Traite des Blancs, traite des Noirs. Aspects méconnus et conséquences actuelles. L'Harmattan, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-296-06443-0 , p. 23 f.

↑ Jacques Heers: Les négriers de terres d'Islam. VIIe-XVIe siècles. Perrin, Paris 2007, pp. 16-18.

↑ Robert Bartlett: The birth of Europe from the spirit of violence. Conquest, colonization and cultural change from 950 to 1350. Kindler, Munich 1996, p. 366.

^ Christian Lübke: Sklave, A. Westen, III. Eastern Europe . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 1982 f.

↑ Jacques Heers: Les négriers de terres d'islam VIIe-XVIe siècles. Paris 2007, p. 19f.

↑ See Bettina Emmerich: More light. S. 178. (PDF) ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - For the exact trade routes from the Slavic regions to Spain, Italy or the Volga see Alexandre Skirda, La traite des Slaves. L'esclavage des Blancs du VIIIe au XVIII siècle , Paris 2010, pp. 114–120.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / rg.rg.mpg.de

↑ Alexandre Skirda, La traite des Slaves. L'esclavage des Blancs du VIIIe au XVIII siècle , Paris 2010, p. 112.

↑ See Helmold von Bosau: Slawenchronik . 6th edition. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2002, p. 377. - See also Robert Bartlett (1996), p. 366.

↑ According to the French historian Jacques Heers, this is a fact that is often overlooked, cf. Jacques Heers: Les négriers en terres d'islam. VIIe-XVIe siècles. Perrin, Paris 2007, p. 265, which is now generally recognized, at least in research.

↑ Christoph Cluse : Women in slavery: observations from Genoese notarial registers of the 14th and 15th centuries. In: Frank G. Hirschmann, Gerd Mentgen (ed.): Campana pulsante convocati. Festschrift on the occasion of the retirement of Prof. Dr. Alfred Haverkamp , Trier 2005, pp. 85–123.

↑ See several illuminating essays in MT Ferrer i Mallol, J. Mutgé i Vives (ed.): De l'esclavitud a la llibertat. Esclaus i lliberts a l'edat mitjana. Barcelona 2000.

↑ See Malek Chebel: L'esclavage en terre d'islam. Un tabou bien gardé. Fayard, Paris 2007, pp. 297-303.

↑ See Malek Chebel (2007), p. 283.

↑ See Jacques Heers: Les négriers en terres d'islam. VIIe - XVIe siècles. Perrin, Paris 2007, pp. 310-313 (geographic maps).

↑ See Bernard Lewis (1987), pp. 193-199.

↑ White slaves in North Africa

^ ^A ^b ^c Andrew K. Frank: The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American South. Routledge, New York / London 1999, ISBN 0-415-92141-4 , p. 22.

↑ ^a ^b ^c Forced Labor Archives: "Slave Labor": Was Nazi Forced Labor Slavery?

^ ^A ^b Federal Archives: Foreign Workers under National Socialism »Terms, Numbers, Responsibilities.

↑ You thought there are no slaves in Germany? Think again. In: Watson , July 21, 2018

^ GSI: Germany.

^ The Commemoration of Slavery in France and the Emergence of a Black Political Conciousness. (pdf; 754 kB); Andrew K. Frank: The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American South. Routledge, New York / London 1999, ISBN 0-415-92141-4 , p. 22; L'histoire de l'esclavage en Martinique. ( Memento of the original from July 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
^ Karl Heussi : Compendium of Church History , 11th Edition, 1958, Tübingen, pp. 424-425
^ Edmund S. Morgan: Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox . In: The Journal of American History , Vol. 59, No. 1 (June 1972), pp. 5-29, Organization of American Historians JSTOR 1888384
↑ Dominik Nagl: No Part of the Mother Country, but Distinct Dominions - Legal Transfer, State Building and Governance in England, Massachusetts and South Carolina, 1630–1769 . Berlin 2013, p. 635 ff. Online
^ Heinz-Dietrich Wendland: Slavery and Christianity . In: The religion in past and present , 3rd edition, Tübingen (1962), Volume VI, column 103
^ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States , Englewood Cliffs, NY, 1960, pp. 362ff
↑ Ira Berlin: Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge London 2003, ISBN 0-674-01061-2 , p. 29.
↑ Louis Sala-Molins : Le Code Noir ou le calvaire de Canaan. Quadrige / PUF, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-13-055802-6 , p. 17.
↑ See Louis Sala-Molins: Les misères des Lumières. Sous la raison l'outrage. Homnisphères, Paris 2008, ISBN 2-915129-32-0 .
↑ nationmaster.com ( Memento of the original from July 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Meissner, Mücke, Weber: Black America. A history of slavery. Munich 2008, p. 213.
↑ Portuguese America ( Memento of the original from February 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Rebellions in Bahia, 1798–1838 ( Memento of the original from November 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Cf. overall on the example of Brazil. In: Meissner, Mücke, Weber: Black America. A history of slavery. Munich 2008, pp. 213-218.
^ Nicole Priesching: The condemnation of slavery under Gregory XVI. in 1839. A break in tradition? In: Saeculum . tape 59 , no. 1 , January 1, 2008, ISSN 2194-4075 , doi : 10.7788 / saeculum.2008.59.1.143 ( online [accessed May 12, 2017]).
^ Heinz-Dietrich Wendland, Christianity and Slavery . In: Religion in Past and Present , 3rd Edition, Tübingen, 1962, Volume VI, Column 103
^ C. Martin Wilbur: Slavery in China during the Former Han dynasty, 206 BC-AD 25. Field Museum of Natural History, 1943.
^ Britannica: Slave-owning societies
↑ Historian In: Bryce Beemer: Southeast Asian Slavery and Slave-Gathering Warfare as a Vector for Culture Transmission: the case of Burma and Thailand. Volume 71, 3 (2009), pp. 481-506.
↑ Jacques Heers (2007), p. 62.
↑ Jacques Heers (2007), p. 71.
↑ Jacques Heers (2007), pp. 138–140.
↑ See section Problems of an overview for Africa . In: Meissner, Mücke, Weber: Black America. A history of slavery. Munich 2008, p. 220f.
↑ Review

[1] ? יהודי אירופה בימי הבניים המוקדמים: סוחרי עבדים(The European Jews of the Early Middle Ages: Slave-traders?) - Medieval Mediterranean Slavery. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 14, 2017 ; Retrieved May 12, 2017 (Hebrew). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

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