Did you know that historically slavery was not based on race?
The word “slave” is driven from the word “slavs”, whom are the largest European ethnolinguistic group.
Actually there were white slaves centuries before slavery was introduced to Africa. Most of the slaves in Rome were of North European origin (British and German), since Africans at that time were of equal status. Later the majority of the slaves in the Byzantine Empire (modern day Turkey) were of Russian and Eastern European origin.
Until the 14th Century, North Africa slave population was mainly compromised of European prisoners of war such as the Crusaders (i.e. during the Seventh Crusade, King Louis IX was captured along was 15,000 knights, and France could only afford paying for his release while the remaining 15,000 knights were kept in Egypt as slaves, later converting to Islam and merged into the society by marrying from the locals).
Earlier the Mamluk Dynasty of Egypt was also established by Europeans and Asians enslaved warriors due to lost battles with Fatimid, Abbasid, and Ottoman Caliphate.
The Old World inhabitants were more likely to interact with brown and white slaves than seeing a black one!
Before the existence of State Nation, social insurance, and minimum wage, slavery was a common and acceptable socioeconomic practice that allowed the underprivileged to survive by securing their food, shelter and security under the umbrella of the powerful and wealthy individuals (think of modern day middle class young Africans who would prefer to live as a lower class citizens in more secure and wealthy European countries).
The dilemma of African slavery can be summarized is 4 facts:
1. It started late, in a time where most of the world was already getting structured in a form of nation states with defined borders and citizenship, while the majority of Africa was still adopting a tribal social structure depriving Africans from a collective protective entity or state;
2. Historically loss of freedom was usually a result of losing a war and/or failing to pay financial dues, the European colonial slavery was the first and only commercialized slavery trade in history, where European slave traders created a commercial demand for slaves, a business model similar to that of marketing commodities;
3. Historically, obtaining slaves demanded a military conflict, which was a costly and risky thing to do, but the Atlantic Slave Trade was a much cheaper economic model, making the value of the slave much less and easier to replace;
4. Traditional causes of slavery resulted in the slavery of the elite (usually the royals and warriors) of the defeated, thus allowing them a special status and a path to freedom (i.e. intermarriage or proving loyalty to the victorious), while the Atlantic Slave Trade preyed on the weak and vulnerable (mostly peasants and herdsmen), with no chance or option to gain their freedom.
AG