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In Context over time
• Most human societies have had slaves
• Africans had practiced slavery and sold slaves for centurieso Trans-Saharan trade took slaves to
Mediterranean worldo East African slave trade as well
Slavery took many forms
• Often assimilated into owner’s households
• Children of slaves were sometimes free
• Islamic world preferred female slaves
• Atlantic trade favored males
• Not all slaves had lowly positions– Ex. Muslim world many slaves had military or
political status
Distinctiveness of slavery in Americas
• Scale and importance was enormous• Largely based on plantation agriculture• Slaves denied any rights at all• Slave status was inherited• Widespread slavery in a society that valued
freedom and equality• Slavery wholly identified with Africa and
‘blackness’
Origins of Atlantic slavery
• Lay in Mediterranean and with sugar
• Sugar production was first ‘modern’ industry– Major capital investment, technology,
disciplined workers, mass market• Work very difficult and dangerous therefore
slaves were ideal
Mediterranean plantations
• At first, Slavs from Black Sea area provided most slaves for sugar plantations
• Portuguese found and an alternative slave source in West AfricaSlavs weren’t availableNatives died of European diseasesChristians ‘couldn’t’ be enslavedIndentured servants were expensive