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... es were made slaves! Slaves were among the first articles of trade. They were traded all over the world. Slaves were among the first articles of trade between the primitive Celts and Germans, also including their southern neighbors.
It was also well established in Homeric Greece, in preliterate China and Japan, and in the prehistoric Near East. Heredity slavery dated from earliest times in every Old World civilization. In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, slaves were mainly captured aliens who were rarely used productively except in the households of the upper-classes. As for Neo-Babylonian times (612 - 539 B. C. ), only foreign slaves might have done significant amounts of cultural work. In Egypt, slavery existed from the dawn of recorded history right down to the end of the 19 th century.
Most of Egypt's slaves were foreigners and Hebrews. Some of them were used to build royal palaces and monuments. Most of the slaves were used in households as maids. Apart from Hellenistic times (332 - 31 B. C. ), they were rarely used for other activities. The coastal exploration of Africa, the invasion of North and South America by Europeans in the 15 th century, and the subsequent colonization of the Americas during the next three centuries provided the impetus for the modern slave trade.
Portugal, lacking in agricultural workers, was the first modern European nation to meet its labor needs by importing slaves. The Portuguese began the practice in 1444. By 1460, they were annually importing 700 to 800 slaves to Portugal from trading posts and forts established on the African coast. These were African people captured by other Africans and transported to the western coast of Africa. Spain soon followed, but for more than a century Portugal virtually monopolized the African traffic. Throughout the 15 th century, Arab traders in northern Africa shipped African people taken from central Africa to markets in Arabia, Iran, and India.
In tropical Latin America during the 16 th century, Spanish colonists first forced the native populations to work the land. The indigenous people, however, could not survive under conditions of slavery and were nearly exterminated. Some of the extermination was by exposure to European disease and excruciating labor. Africans were then brought to the Spanish colonies, primarily because it was believed that they could endure forced labor in the generally more enervating Caribbean and mainland Latin American climates. England entered the slave trade in the later half of the 16 th century, contesting the right to supply the Spanish colonies held until then by Portugal. France, Holland, Denmark, and the American colonies themselves subsequently entered the trade as competitors.
In 1713 the exclusive right to supply the Spanish colonies was granted to the British South Sea Company. In North America, the first African slaves landed at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. Brought by early English privateers, they were subjected to limited servitude. The number of slaves imported was small at first, and it did not seem necessary to define their legal status. Statutory recognition of slavery, however, occurred in Massachusetts in 1641, in Connecticut in 1650, and in Virginia in 1661. These statutes mainly concerned fugitive slaves.
With the development of the plantation system in the southern colonies in the latter half of the 17 th century, the number of Africans imported as agricultural slave laborers increased severely. Several northern coastal cities became centers of the slave traffic. Generally, in the northern colonies, slaves were used as domestics and in trade; in the Middle Atlantic colonies they were used more in agriculture; and in the southern colonies, where plantation agriculture was the primary occupation, almost all slaves were used to work the plantations. As African slaves became an increasingly important element in the English colonies in America, particularly in the South, the laws affecting them were modified. By the time of the American Revolution (1775 - 1783), they were no longer indentured servants, but slaves in the fullest sense of the term. Laws defining their legal, political, and social status with respect to their owners were specific.
Contrary to what is commonly believed, slaves did have some legal rights. For instance, support in age or sickness, a right to limited religious instruction, and the right to bring suits and give evidence in special cases. Custom gave numerous rights also, such as private property, marriage, free time, contractual ability, and, to females, domestic or lighter plantation labor. However, the master was not bound to respect. Brutal treatment such as mutilation, branding, chaining, and murder were regulated or prohibited by law, but instances of cruelty were common before the 19 th century. Denmark was the first European country to abolish the slave trade in 1792.
Great Britain followed in 1807, and the United States followed in 1808. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Great Britain exerted its influence to induce other foreign powers to adopt a similar policy, and eventually nearly all the states of Europe passed laws or entered into treaties prohibiting the traffic. The Ashburton Treaty of 1842, between Great Britain and the United States, provided for the maintenance by each country of a squadron on the African coast to enforce prohibition of the trade. In 1845, a joint cooperation of the naval forces of England and France was substituted for the mutual right of search. The limited supply of slaves led to a greater attention on the part of the masters to the condition of their slaves. The French emancipated their slaves in 1848.
The Dutch slaves had freedom conferred on them in 1863. Most of the new republics of South America provided for the emancipation of slaves at the time of their establishment. In Brazil slavery was not abolished until 1888. In North America, after the Union victory in the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation on September 22. This declared his intention of promulgating another proclamation in 100 days, freeing the slaves in the states deemed in rebellion at that time. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, conferring liberty on about 3, 120, 000 slaves.
With the enactment of the 13 th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution in effect in 1865, slavery was completely abolished. In conclusion, slavery took its affect on continents, countries, and states all over the world.
It took its affect on people of all kind. Since ancient times, people of all cultures were deprived of their rights through slavery. Until today, people still experience slavery in one way or another. We, the people, have to do whatever it takes to put a stop to slavery all over the world. Bibliography:
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