There is clear evidence that slavery was a practice in human cultures before the onset of European colonization. There are documents of slave transactions and graphic depictions of slave activities that clearly show it was an interregnal part of many ancient societies, well before the commercial enterprise of capturing, transporting and selling men, women and children commenced in the 15th century. This earlier, pre-colonization period of slavery is often referred to as “Ancient Slavery”.
So how did one become a slave during those times? It sounds strange, but one way was – you volunteered! If you were just having trouble making it – perhaps similar to our current homeless population – you could offer your service in return for some security and a minimal level of essential living elements, like shelter and food. These domestic slaves did general household chores and sometimes performed family responsibilities, like childcare, housekeeping and local errands. Also, there were some with special abilities, such as cooking or teaching or entertaining, who found people that would provide them a home in exchange for the product of their expertise. Interestingly, if you weren’t a slave, you were more than likely a master. The most modest households generally had at least one slave. In more affluent homes, there could be enough slaves that certain other slaves acted as overseers on behalf of the master. And the city, state or nation had ‘community’ slaves to help with public tasks such as sanitation, infrastructure maintenance and transportation. The master/slave relationship varied; some masters treated the slaves as members of the family, others as an inferior class of outsiders. And there were some slaves so particularly gifted in the arts, sciences, history or education that their owners were more like patrons than masters.
While most domestic/community slaves did not enjoy the benefits of citizenship, they were considered to be ‘free’, even as they were ‘temporarily’ living without any resources of self-support. And most importantly – their children were not born into slavery. In most cultures, there were ways slaves could return to freedom, if they chose to, by payment or deed. In some cases, a master would release his or her slaves for any number of reasons. There were even some societies in which the state had established rules directing how and when a slave should be freed. For instance, in some Muslim cultures, the maximum time one could serve as a slave was 6 years. In some regions under Roman control, you had to cease being a slave when you turned thirty. Ancient Slavery, as we understand it as practiced in those times, was generally supported by the people, both master and slave – it was the norm. Aristotle spoke in favor of it; Socrates had some questions, but didn’t denounce the practice. The bad aspects of Ancient Slavery shouldn’t be diminished, however. It could and probably many times was as brutal as what occurred on 18th and 19th century plantations in the Southern slave states.
In a slightly different category of Ancient Slavery were those who did hard labor in agriculture, mining and construction. These generally were prisoners of war or convicted criminals, and they were never considered to be temporarily ‘un-free’, but were forced to serve until their conviction was satisfied or were liberated in some other fashion. By comparison, these slaves experienced more harsh conditions than domestic and community slaves.
In the Indigenous world during the Ancient Slavery period there is good evidence there were slaves in those cultures, was well. And for the most part, it generally was a voluntary act or as a captive of war. But, there was one additional type of bondage – replacement. If a tribe lost a child through illness, accident, or war, they sometimes kidnapped a child of similar age and gender from another tribe and raised that child as their own. There was some variation on how that arrangement played out, depending on the tribe and the family involved. Some children were accepted as full tribal/family members, while others remained an outsider and were given a maximum number of chores and duties with a minimum amount of care and comfort.
In the period of time during early colonization, after Ancient Slavery but before African natives became a commodity, Indigenous Peoples were enslaved and treated like the prisoners and convicts of Ancient Slavery. Indigenous slaves were used in mines extracting gold and silver, and later in the large sugar cane, tobacco and cotton plantations. They also were used as porters for the invading armies, and sometimes as frontline foot soldiers. Many of the Indigenous Peoples enslaved in the northern lands were shipped south, particularly to the Caribbean Islands. They were treated, for the most part, as an easily replaced and inexhaustible supply of ‘animals’ to be used up with a limited amount of upkeep and maintenance. And though it was not a universal or wide-spread practice, invading colonists did occasionally capture and force some Indigenous Peoples into becoming domestic slaves. Or, in a few cases they were taken back to Europe as display and curiosity objects.