Slavery

Slave trading began around 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, which today is Iraq. Here, male slaves were considered to be worth an orchard of date palms, and female slaves were forced to perform sexual services for their owners. This book traces slavery from classical times to the present. It shows how the enforced movement of more than 12 million Africans on to the Atlantic slave ships, and the scattering of more to 11 million survivors across the colonies of the Americas between the late 16th and early 19th centuries, transformed the face of the Americas. Though they were not its pioneers, it was the British who came to dominate Atlantic slavery, helping to consolidate their status as a world power before they became the first major country to abolish slavery. James Walvin explores moral arguments related to slavery as well as economic ones, and describes how slavery worked in practice. He also describes the lives of individual slaves, their resilience in facing a brutal institution.