What is slavery?

§ Slavery is a social condition that is attributed to those men who are left without any right, and therefore
they are considered “objects” belonging to another man. A slave owner has the right to life and death over
the slave and can use him for forced labour without paying him. You could become slave or by birth,
being the son of a slave, or by losing the freedom as a result of the capture in a war or by debt: in fact if a
debtor could not repay his creditor, he would become himself a creditor’s property.
 ORIGINS OF SLAVERY
§ Slavery has very ancient origins, in fact it is known that the first phenomenon of this
social condition that unleashed a form of protest and revolt was in 868 before Christ in
Lower Mesopotamia. The protest involved black slaves, but didn’t last long thanks to the
Baghdad army that was able to appease it until 883 before Christ. However, it can’t be
denied the fact that this revolt caused devastation.

§ Between the ancient civilizations, the Greek and the Roman ones have developed slavery
more than any other civilization of that time, spreading laws about slaves. For the
Greeks, a slave was a slave by right of nature, so once he was a slave he could not
return a free man. The Romans instead had a different idea, as a slave he could be
freed from his master and obtain Roman citizenship.

§ In both the civilizations, the slaves were principally war prisoners, and they were
captured during the break down of the walls of the enemy city in order to utilize them
for forced labour. The huge amount of slaves employed in this job permitted the
construction of several buildings and architectural masterpieces.
 BIRTH OF COLONIALISM
In the late Middle Ages, the first country that
started taking a journey of exploration was
Portugal in 1442, followed by Spain. Thanks to
Christopher Columbus, Spain was the first one
who found out the existence of the American
continent in 1492. Many other countries
followed the path of Spain and Portugal,
starting the American conquest. This was the
first phenomenon of colonialism. However, there
were several issues between native populations:
in America there was a genocide because of
the spread of disease between indigenous
people due to the European people, and there
wasn’t any kind of cure available at that time.
The native population decreased drastically and
this caused a reduced availability of labour in
sugar cane or cotton plantations. So Charles V, around 1510, authorized the import of
black slaves to increase labor
SLAVE TRADE MORE THAN EVER IN SIGHT

§Between the XVI and the XIX century 14 million people were
deported. In the late 16th century the Spanish America and
Brazil had imported more or less 125000 slaves, with an annual
average of 1000-2000 slaves imported. The slave trade
intensified with the development of sugar cane because
European people began distilling rum from molasses obtained
from the cane. For this reason, all the principal European
countries began taking part in this slave trade by setting on
the coast of West Africa: in particular the British people were
situated at the mouth of Gambia in 1618 and the French
people in Senegal in 1638.
 HOW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION INFLUENCED SLAVERY
§ From the 19th century, with the industrial
revolution occurred in England between 1760
and 1830, the black slaves were employed
principally in the cultivation of cotton intended
to exportation. But during the 19th century, the
number of slaves was considered too high, so
some rich state slaves such as South Carolina
and Virginia forbade the slave trade. English
and French people however didn’t agree with
this decision, but the abolition of the slavery in
the United States was not an option because it
 was important for the regular production of cotton. In 1870 Spain forbadeitsshipsand
merchantsfrom deportingblack slavesto
America; the black trade and slaveryended.

SLAVERY TODAY
The phenomenon of slavery is present nowadays, and it is a severe exploitation of other people in
order to obtain what is wanted in terms of commerce and much more. People may become trapped
by making clothes, serving food, working in factories or in houses as nannies. It is estimated that 40
million people are trapped in modern slavery
worldwide: 1) ¼ of them are children; 2) 70% are
women and girls. Modern slavery takes many forms,
the most common are: 1) human trafficking —> the
use of violence or threats in order to exploit them
for purposes such as forced prostitution; 2) forced
labour —> forced to do any kind of work against
their will under punishment; 3) bonded labour —> the
most widespread form of slavery where people
trapped in poverty borrow money and are forced to
work to pay off the debt; 4) forced and early marriage —> when someone young is married against
their will and cannot leave.
Sabrina Caputo 3C