▶ Ancient And Modern Slavery: The Origin

According to historical sources, the practice of slavery started about 9000 years ago in Mesopotamia (6800 B.C).

The African continent experienced four simultaneous slave trades between 1400 and 1900. They are the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Trans-Saharan slave trade, Red Sea slave trade, and Indian Ocean slave trade.

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade began in the fifteenth century and was well known. Traders from Portugal transported slaves from West Africa and Eastern Africa to European colonies in the New World. Slaves in the American colonies were forced to work on farms where tobacco and cotton crops were produced.

The Trans-Saharan slave trade was established in ancient times. In the eighth century, slaves captured across the Sahara were used by wealthy Arab families as concubines and domestic servants.

Such practices spanned from Spain to Persia. By 1000 A.D, buying and selling of slaves had become a common practice in England’s rural communities.

The Indian Ocean slave trade can be dated back to 2500 BCE when ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, and Indians traded slaves across the Indian Ocean, which is sometimes called the Red Sea.

The first explorers of the Indian Ocean were the Gujarati merchants. The slaves were used as manual labor for building ships which transported the merchants’ goods and slaves across the ocean.

African slaves were sent to the Middle East, Indian Ocean islands (including Madagascar), the Indian subcontinent, and later to America.

During the Red Sea slave trade, slaves were taken from the Red Sea inland and brought to the Middle East and India. The most popular method of capturing slaves was through raids between communities or states.

The total number of slaves traded is unknown, but it is assumed that approximately 12 million slaves were exported from Africa during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The other three slave trades resulted in the export of another 6 million people. These figures do not include those murdered in the raids or those who perished while traveling to the coast.  

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