Humans, for hundreds of years, have enslaved and inflicted violence upon other human beings usually for selfish desires. Slavery is an illegal act of owning another human being as personal property and using them usually for free labor or sexual acts. Slavery has occurred for hundreds of years, with the most infamous and violent form of slavery being the European Slavery. This type of slavery is known as chattel slavery, usually based on race or geographical differences, where slaves are “treated like property, and they can be sold and bought.” European slavery is the well-known form slavery, where Africans were considered property enslaved, traded, and transported to toil on plantations as free property. While that is well-known and familiar, there was a less known form of slavery and trade that existed which was the Arab slave trade.
The Arab trade began as early as 1095 and was abolished in 1970.Thats what makes this form of slavery unique; it lasted more than a millennium. However, by 1839 the Arab slave trade became the main way of making money and doing business. While the European slave trade was the harshest and the most discussed slavery topic in history, many individuals fail to acknowledge another practice of slavery that has also impacted millions of Africans as well as Europeans- the Arab slave trade: harem trade. The slave trade, especially those that occurred in harems, has gotten less recognition due to the exploitation and violent extent of European enslaving African. Another reason is also because Muslim leaders fail to call the treatment their enslaved people endured slavery. Due to the public’s lack of knowledge on this topic, they fail to know the truth of the things that happened during this slavery. W...
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...nds of Islam. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2002.
"The Arab Muslim Slave Trade Of Africans, The Untold Story." The World Today. n.d. http://worldtodayshow.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/the-arab-muslim-slave-trade-of-africans-the-untold-story/ (accessed December 2011).
Millingen, Frederick . "The Circassian Slaves and the Sultan's Harem." Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, 1870: 9-10.
Toledano, Ehud R. . "Slavery and Abolition in the Ottoman Middle East." 30. University of Washington Press, 1998.
"The Arab Muslim Slave Trade Of Africans, The Untold Story." The World Today. n.d. http://worldtodayshow.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/the-arab-muslim-slave-trade-of-africans-the-untold-story/ (accessed December 2011).
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference. "Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam." Article 11. 1990.
During the era of 1450-1750 CE, the characteristics of human slavery throughout the world started as a system of assistance gained from the capturing of enemy soldiers and adopting them into the victors society, but changed to a large trafficking business reaching overseas, and then to inherited positions gained from being born into slavery. However, throughout this time period, slavery continued to center in Africa and the Middle East, and remained a prime source of human labor in every society, due to their ability to be easily obtained and cheaply managed.
Slavery is a sensitive topic that most would say evil and bad. Martin states that “some African-Americans claimed that Jews were the dominant figures in the trading of black slaves. (Martin 1993). Research by Mintz and McNeil support that “After making contact with the West Africans, the Portuguese est...
Bolt, C. (2007, July). The Slave Trade and the Unholy Triangle. Retrieved February 19, 2014, from bwa-baptist-heritage: http://www.bwa-baptist-heritage.org/gha_sl_cb.htm
Though the Atlantic Slave Trade began in 1441, it wasn’t until nearly a century later that Europeans actually became interested in slave trading on the West African coast. “With no interest in conquering the interior, they concentrated their efforts to obtain human cargo along the West African coast. During the 1590s, the Dutch challenged the Portuguese monopoly to become the main slave trading nation (“Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade”, NA). Besides the trading of slaves, it was also during this time that political changes were being made. The Europe...
In contrast to the Atlantic slave trade, where the male-female ratio was 2:1, the Arab slave trade instead usually had a higher female-to-male ratio. Concubinage and reproduction served as incentives for importing female slaves, though many were also imported mainly for performing household tasks. In both continents, anything a slave owns, is automatically the master’s own too, however in Arabia, a slave may be allowed to earn money to purchase his or her freedom and similarly to pay bride wealth if he was to be married, the marriage requiring the consent of the master first. If the master was to use his slave for sexual gratification, he may not co-habit with a female slave belonging to his wife, neither can he have relations with a female slave if she is co-owned, or already married. In America, a man may have relations with a slave but it wasn’t very likely, as this was taboo and not approved of.
Peabody, Sue. “Slavery and the Slave Trade.” Ed. Jonathan Dewald. Vol 5. New York. 2004. 429- 438. Gale
One of the major questions asked about the slave trade is ‘how could so Europeans enslave so many millions of Africans?” Many documents exist and show historians what the slave trade was like. We use these stories to piece together what it must have been to be a slave or a slaver. John Barbot told the story of the slave trade from the perspective of a slaver in his “A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea.” Barbot describes the life of African slaves before they entered the slave trade.
Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1991. Print.
Özcan, Azmi. "Empire, Ottoman." Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. Ed. Thomas Benjamin. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 407-416. World History in Context. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Foner, Eric. "Slavery In The Modern World." Nation 298.7 (2014): 27-30. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Hooker, Richard. "The Ottomans: The 17th and 18th Centuries." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 1996. Web. 06 Apr. 2011. .
PEABODY, SUE. "Slavery and the Slave Trade." Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Apr. 2014 .
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The word “slavery” brings back horrific memories of human beings. Bought and sold as property, and dehumanized with the risk and implementation of violence, at times nearly inhumane. The majority of people in the United States assumes and assures that slavery was eliminated during the nineteenth century with the Emancipation Proclamation. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth; rather, slavery and the global slave trade continue to thrive till this day. In fact, it is likely that more individuals are becoming victims of human trafficking across borders against their will compared to the vast number of slaves that we know in earlier times. Slavery is no longer about legal ownership asserted, but instead legal ownership avoided, the thought provoking idea that with old slavery, slaves were maintained, compared to modern day slavery in which slaves are nearly disposable, under the same institutionalized systems in which violence and economic control over the disadvantaged is the common way of life. Modern day slavery is insidious to the public but still detrimental if not more than old American slavery.
The concept of the slave trade came about in the 1430’s, when the Portuguese came to Africa in search of gold (not slaves). They traded copper ware, cloth, tools, wine, horses and later, guns and ammunition with African kingdoms in exchange for ivory, pepper, and gold (which were prized in Europe). There was not a very large demand for slaves in Europe, but the Portuguese realized that they could get a good profit from transporting slaves along the African coast from trading post to trading post. The slaves were bought greedily by Muslim merchants, who used them on the trans-Sahara trade routes and sold them in the Islamic Empire. The Portuguese continued to collect slaves from the whole west side of Africa, all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), and up the east side, traveling as far as Somalia. Along the way, Portugal established trade relations with many African kingdoms, which later helped begin the Atlantic Slave Trade. Because of Portugal’s good for...