Slavery

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Slavery is when a person is treated as the property of another person. This person is usually called a slave and the owner is called a slavemaster. It often means that slaves are forced to work, or else they will be punished by the law (if slavery is legal in that place) or by their master.

There is evidence that even before there was writing, there was slavery.^[1] There have been different types of slavery, and they have been in almost all cultures and continents.^[2] Some societies had laws about slavery, or had an economy that was built on it. Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome had many slaves.

During the 20th century, almost all countries made laws forbidding slavery. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that slavery is wrong. Slavery is now banned by international law.^[3] Nevertheless, there are still different forms of slavery in some countries.^[4] The Islamic Republic of Mauritania was the last country in the world to officially ban slavery.^[5] In 2007, "under international pressure", its government passed a law allowing slaveholders to be prosecuted.^[6]

However, in 2019, approximately 40 million people, were still enslaved throughout the world despite slavery being illegal. About 26% of these were children. In the modern world, more than half of the people who are slaves provide forced labour, usually in the factories and sweatshops of the private sector of a country's economy.^[7]

In industrialised countries, human trafficking is a modern form of the slave trade. In non-industrialised countries, enslavement by debt bondage is a common form of enslaving a person.^[8] Modern forms of slavery include captive domestic servants, people in forced marriages, and child soldiers.^[9]

The English word "slave" comes from the medieval word for the Slavic peoples of Central Europe and Eastern Europe, because these were the last ethnic group to be captured and enslaved in Central Europe.^[10][11] According to Adam Smith and Auguste Comte, a slave was mainly defined as a captive or prisoner of war. Slave-holders used to buy slaves at slave auctions. In many cases, slaves were not allowed rights.

1. ↑ Tribe and Polity in Late Prehistoric Europe, eds. D. Blair Gibson; M.N. Geselowitz (New York: Plenum Press, 1988), p. 179
2. ↑ Historical survey > Slave-owning societies. Encyclopædia Britannica.
3. ↑ "Slavery Convention". The United Nations. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
4. ↑ BBC Millions 'forced into slavery'
5. ↑ Okeowo, Alexis (September 8, 2014). "Freedom Fighter: A slaving society and an abolitionist's crusade". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
6. ↑ Corrigan, Terence (September 6, 2007). "Mauritania: Country Made Slavery Illegal Last Month". The East African Standard. Archived from the original on August 4, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2008.
7. ↑ Hodal, Kate (May 31, 2016). "One in 200 people is a slave. Why?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019.
8. ↑ "Slavery in the 21st century". Newint.org. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2010.
9. ↑ "Religion & Ethics – Modern slavery: Modern forms of slavery". BBC. January 30, 2007. Archived from the original on January 6, 2014. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
10. ↑ "slave", Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved 26 March 2009
11. ↑ Merriam-Webster's, retrieved 18 August 2009