The History of Slavery

Ancient Man and His First Civilizations

The History of Slavery

Contrary to conventional thought, Slavery was NOT only endured by Blacks, all peoples have at one time or another been enslaved. The irony is that it is Blacks who appear to have created the institution of Slavery. As the creators of civilization, and the builders of the worlds first cities, Blacks logically were the first to have a need for slaves, as a source of free labor. Slavery in ancient cultures was known to occur in civilizations as old as Sumer, and it was found in every civilization, including Ancient Egypt, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Ancient Greece, Rome and parts of its empire.

Black Kings of Ancient Slave owning Societies

Sumerian story: GILGAMESH and AGGA of KISH - ( Before 2,500 B.C.)

70-81 "That man is not my king! Were that man my king, were that his angry brow, were those his bison eyes, were that his lapis lazuli beard, were those his elegant fingers, would he not cast down multitudes, would he not raise up multitudes, would multitudes not be smeared with dust, would not all the nations be overwhelmed, would not the land's canal-mouths be filled with silt, would not the barges' prows be broken, and would he not take Aga, the king of Kic, captive in the midst of his army?"

82-89 They hit him, they struck him. They beat Birhur-tura's entire length. Gilgamesh climbed up on the rampart after the officer of Unug. His radiance overwhelmed Kulaba's young and old. He armed Unug's able-bodied men with battle maces and stationed them on the causeway at the city gate's door. Only Enkidu went out through the city gate. Gilgamesh leaned out over the rampart. Looking up, Aga saw him: "Slave, is that man your king?"

92-99 "That man is indeed my king." It was just as he had said: Gilgamesh cast down multitudes, he raised up multitudes, multitudes were smeared with dust, all the nations were overwhelmed, the land's canal-mouths were filled with silt, the barges' prows were broken, and he took Aga, the king of Kic, captive in the midst of his army. 

HAMMURABI'S CODE OF LAWS (circa 1780 B.C.)

15: If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates [to escape], he shall be put to death.

16: If any one receive into his house a runaway male or female slave of the court, or of a freedman, and does not bring it out at the public proclamation of the [police], the master of the house shall be put to death.

Such institutions were a mixture of debt-slavery, punishment for crime, the enslavement of prisoners of war, child abandonment, and the birth of slave children to slaves. In the Roman Empire, probably over 25% of the empire's population, and 30 to 40% of the population of Italy was enslaved. Records of slavery in Ancient Greece go as far back as Mycenaean Greece. It is often said that the Greeks as well as philosophers such as Aristotle accepted the theory of natural slavery i.e. that some men are slaves by nature. At the time of Plato and Socrates, slavery was so accepted by the Greeks (including philosophers) that few people indeed protested it as an institution. 

Romans inherited the institution of slavery from the Greeks and the Phoenicians. As the Roman Republic expanded outward, entire populations were enslaved, thus creating an ample supply to work in Rome's farms and households. The people subjected to Roman slavery came from all over Europe and the Mediterranean. Such oppression by an elite minority eventually led to slave revolts (see Roman Servile Wars); the Third Servile War led by Spartacus was the most famous and severe. Greeks, Berbers, Germans, Britons, Thracians, Gauls (or Celts), Jews, Arabs, and many more were slaves used not only for labor, but also for amusement (e.g. gladiators and sex slaves). If a slave ran away, he was liable to be crucified. By the late Republican era, slavery had become a vital economic pillar in the wealth of Rome.

In the Viking era starting c. 793, the Norse raiders often captured and enslaved militarily weaker peoples they encountered. In the Nordic countries the slaves were called thralls. The thralls were mostly from Western Europe, among them many Franks, Anglo-Saxons, and Celts. Many Irish slaves participated in the colonization of Iceland. There is evidence of German, Baltic, Slavic and Latin slaves as well. The slave trade was one of the pillars of Norse commerce during the 6th through 11th centuries. The Persian traveler Ibn Rustah described how Swedish Vikings, the Varangians or Rus, terrorized and enslaved the Slavs, (thus the word Slave).

The Vikings raided across Europe, though their slave raids were the most destructive in the British Isles and Eastern Europe. While the Vikings kept some slaves for themselves as servants, known as thralls, most people captured by the Vikings would be sold on the Byzantine or Islamic markets. In the West the targets of Viking slavery were primarily English, Irish, and Scottish, while in the East they were mainly Slavs. The Viking slave trade slowly ended in the 1000s, as the Vikings settled in the European territories they once raided.

The Mongol invasions and conquests in the 13th century made the situation worse. The Mongols enslaved skilled individuals, women and children and marched them to Karakorum or Sarai, whence they were sold throughout Eurasia. Many of these slaves were shipped to the slave market in Novgorod, (near Moscow in Russia).

Slave commerce during the Late Middle Ages was mainly in the hands of Venetian and Genoese merchants and cartels, who were involved in the slave trade with the Golden Horde. In 1382 the Golden Horde under Khan Tokhtamysh sacked Moscow, burning the city and carrying off thousands of inhabitants as slaves. Between 1414 and 1423, some 10,000 eastern European slaves were sold in Venice. Genoese merchants organized the slave trade from the Crimea to Mamluk Egypt. For years the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan routinely made raids on Russian principalities for slaves and to plunder towns. Russian chronicles record about 40 raids of Kazan Khans on the Russian territories in the first half of the 16th century. In 1521, the combined forces of Crimean Khan Mehmed Giray and his Kazan allies attacked Moscow and captured thousands of slaves.

In 1441, Haci I Giray declared independence from the Golden Horde and established the Crimean Khanate. For a long time, until the early 18th century, the khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. In a process called the "harvesting of the steppe", they enslaved many Slavic peasants. About 30 major Tatar raids were recorded into Muscovite territories between 1558-1596. In 1571, the Crimean Tatars attacked and sacked Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin and taking thousands of captives as slaves. In Crimea, about 75% of the population consisted of slaves.
The Islamic World was also a main factor in Medieval European slavery. From the early 700s until the early Modern time period (rough the 18th or 19th centuries) Arabs and Berbers (Moors) consistently took European slaves. This slavery began during the Muslim Conquest of Visigothic Spain and Portugal in the 8th century. The Muslim powers of Iberia both raided for slaves and purchased slaves from European merchants; the Jewish Radhanites, one of the few groups that could easily move between the Christian and Islamic worlds.

The Jews

The Khazars were an ancient Turkic people who first appeared in Transcaucasia, in the 2nd century A.D, and subsequently settled in the lower Volga region. They emerged as a force in the 7th century and rose to great power. By the 8th century the Khazar empire extended from the northern shores of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea to the Urals and as far westward as Kiev. Also in the 8th Century, the Khazars converted to the Hebrew religion and made Judaism the State religion. “Itil” the Khazar capital in the Volga delta, was a great commercial center. The Khazar Empire fell, when Sviatoslav, duke of Kiev (945–72), son of Igor and of St. Olga, defeated its army in 965 A.D. The Khazars then dispersed all over Europe and the Middle East. Because their religion Judaism, was accepted by both Christians and Muslims, they were able to move about freely throughout the Christian and Muslim worlds. For a long time, their trade, was the only trade possible between Europe and the non-Christian world. Thus they were able to setup exclusive trade networks throughout the world - and accumulating great wealth. These are the progenitors of White European Jewry, the entomology of the term Jew or Jewish probably relates to these people; as Hebrews were not known as Jews.

Radhanites

The activities of the Radhanites are documented by Abu'l Qasim Ubaid'Allah ibn Khordadbeh, the Director of Posts and Police (spymaster and postman) for the province of Jibal under the Abbasid Caliph al-Mu'tamid (ruled 869–885), when he wrote Kitab al-Masalik wal-Mamalik (Book of Roads and Kingdoms), probably around 870. Ibn Khordadbeh described the Radhanites as sophisticated and multilingual. He outlined four main trade routes utilized by the Radhanites in their journeys; all four began in the Rhône Valley of France and terminated in China. The commodities carried by the Radhanites were primarily those which combined small bulk and high demand, including spices, perfumes, jewelry, and silk. They are also described as transporting oils, incense, steel weapons, furs, and slaves (in particular, the Slavic Saqāliba).

Saqaliba

Saqaliba refers to the Slavs, particularly Slavic slaves and mercenaries. The Arabic term is a Byzantine loanword: saqlab, and is a corruption of Greek Sklavinoi for "Slavs". The word was also often used more generally to refer to all slaves from Central and Eastern Europe. (The English word "slave" is ultimately derived from the same source.)

The Arab chronicler Ibn al-Faqih wrote that there were two types of saqaliba: those with swarthy skin and dark hair that live by the sea and those with fair skin and light hair that live farther inland.
Ibrahim ibn Yaqub placed the people of "Saqalib" in the mountainous regions of Central Balkans, west of the Bulgarians and east from the "other Slavs" (Croats), thus in the Serb lands, the Saqalib had the reputation of being "the most courageous and violent”.

The Muslims

As the Muslims failed to conquer Europe in the 8th century they took to pirate raids against the shores of Spain, southern Portugal and France, and Italy, that would last roughly from the 9th century until the 12th century, when the Italian city-states of Genoa, Venice, and Pisa, along with the Spanish kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, as well as the Sicilian Normans, began to dominate the Mediterranean. The Middle Ages from 1100 to 1500 saw a continuation of the European slave trade, as there was a shift from the Western Mediterranean Islamic nations to the Eastern nations, as Venice and Genoa took firm control of the Eastern Mediterranean from the 12th century and the Black Sea from the 13th century sold and both Slavic and Baltic slaves, as well as Georgians, Turks, and other ethnic groups of the Black Sea and Caucasus, to the Muslim nations of the Middle East. 

The Barbary Corsairs

The Barbary Corsairs, sometimes called Corsairs or Barbary Pirates, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa from the time of the Crusades (11th century) until the early 19th century. Based in North African ports such as Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Salé, and other ports in Morocco, they sailed mainly along the stretch of northern Africa known as the Barbary Coast. But their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard, and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, and they primarily commandeered western European ships in the western Mediterranean Sea. In addition, they engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in places such as Algeria and Morocco.

These Pirates destroyed thousands of French, Spanish, Italian and British ships, and long stretches of coast in Spain and Italy were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants, discouraging settlement until the 19th century. From the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured an estimated 800,000 to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves, mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, but also from France, Britain, the Netherlands, Ireland and as far away as Iceland and North America. The most famous corsairs were the brothers Hayreddin Barbarossa ("Redbeard") and Oruç Reis, who took control of Algiers in the early 16th century.

The Byzantine-Ottoman wars and the Ottoman wars in Europe brought large numbers of Christian slaves into the Islamic world too. After the battle of Lepanto approximately 12,000 Christian galley slaves were freed from the Ottoman Turks. Christians were also selling Muslim slaves captured in war. The Knights of Malta attacked pirates and Muslim shipping, and their base became a center for slave trading, selling captured North Africans and Turks. Malta remained a slave market until well into the late 18th century. It required a thousand slaves to equip merely the galleys (ships) of the Order.

Slavery in Poland was forbidden in the 15th century; in Lithuania, slavery was formally abolished in 1588; they were replaced by the second enserfment. Slavery remained a minor institution in Russia until the 1723, when the Peter the Great converted the household slaves into house serfs. Russian agricultural slaves were formally converted into serfs earlier in 1679. The runaway Polish and Russian serfs and kholops known as Cossacks (‘outlaws’) formed autonomous communities in the southern steppes.

The sale of European slaves by Europeans slowly ended as the Slavic and Baltic ethnic groups Christianized by the Late Middle Ages. European slaves in the Islamic World would continue into the Modern time period as Muslim pirates, primarily Algerians, with the support of the Ottoman Empire, raided European coasts and shipping from the 16th to the 19th centuries, ending their attacks with the naval decline of the Ottoman Empire in the late 16th and 17th centuries, as well as the European conquest of North Africa throughout the 19th century.

Following the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as well as the involvement of the United States Navy in the First and Second Barbary Wars interceding to protect US interests (1801–5, 1815), European powers agreed upon the need to suppress the Barbary pirates and the effectiveness of the corsairs declined. In 1816 a joint Dutch and British Fleet under Viscount Exmouth bombarded Algiers and forced that city and terrified Tunis into giving up over 3,000 prisoners and making fresh promises. Following a resumption of piracy based out of Algiers, in 1824 another British fleet again bombarded Algiers. France colonized much of the Barbary coast in the 19th century 

American Slavery 

The maritime town of Lagos, Portugal, was the first slave market created in Portugal for the sale of imported African slaves - the Mercado de Escravos, opened in 1444. In 1441, the first slaves were brought to Portugal from northern Mauritania. Prince Henry the Navigator, major sponsor of the Portuguese African expeditions, as of any other merchandise, taxed one fifth of the selling price of the slaves imported to Portugal. By the year 1552 black African slaves made up 10 percent of the population of Lisbon. In the second half of the 16th century, the Crown gave up the monopoly on slave trade and the focus of European trade in African slaves shifted from import to Europe to slave transports directly to tropical colonies in the Americas - in the case of Portugal, especially Brazil. In the 15th century one third of the slaves were resold to the African market in exchange of gold. 

The Pope

The 15th century Portuguese exploration of the African coast is commonly regarded as the harbinger of European colonialism. In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting Afonso V of Portugal the right to reduce any "Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers" to hereditary slavery which legitimized slave trade under Catholic beliefs of that time. This approval of slavery was reaffirmed and extended in his Romanus Pontifex bull of 1455. 

Below is a letter, which King Ferdinand sent along with Columbus on his second voyage to Haiti. It was to be communicated to the Taino/Arawak Indians. 

The letter:

In the name of King Ferdinand and Juana, his daughter, Queen of Castile and Leon, etc., conquerors of barbarian nations, we notify you as best we can that our Lord God Eternal created Heaven and earth and a man and woman from whom we all descend for all times and all over the world. In the 5,000 years since creation the multitude of these generations caused men to divide and establish kingdoms in various parts of the world, among whom God chose St. Peter as leader of mankind, regardless of their law, sect or belief. He seated St. Peter in Rome as the best place from which to rule the world but he allowed him to establish his seat in all parts of the world and rule all people, whether Christians, Moors, Jews, Gentiles or any other sect. He was named Pope, which means admirable and greatest father, governor of all men. Those who lived at that time obeyed St. Peter as Lord and superior King of the universe, and so did their descendants obey his successors and so on to the end of time.

The late Pope gave these islands and mainland of the ocean and the contents hereof to the above-mentioned King and Queen, as is certified in writing and you may see the documents if you should so desire. Therefore, Their Highnesses are lords and masters of this land; they were acknowledged as such when this notice was posted, and were and are being served willingly and without resistance; then, their religious envoys were acknowledged and obeyed without delay, and all subjects unconditionally and of their own free will became Christians and thus they remain. Their Highnesses received their allegiance with joy and benignity and decreed that they be treated in this spirit like good and loyal vassals and you are under the obligation to do the same.

Therefore, we request that you understand this text, deliberate on its contents within a reasonable time, and recognize the Church and its highest priest, the Pope, as rulers of the universe, and in their name the King and Queen of Spain as rulers of this land, allowing the religious fathers to preach our holy Faith to you. You own compliance as a duty to the King and we in his name will receive you with love and charity, respecting your freedom and that of your wives and sons and your rights of possession and we shall not compel you to baptism unless you, informed of the Truth, wish to convert to our holy Catholic Faith as almost all your neighbors have done in other islands, in exchange for which Their Highnesses bestow many privileges and exemptions upon you. Should you fail to comply, or delay maliciously in so doing, we assure you that with the help of God we shall use force against you, declaring war upon you from all sides and with all possible means, and we shall bind you to the yoke of the Church and of Their Highnesses; we shall enslave your persons, wives and sons, sell you or dispose of you as the King sees fit; we shall seize your possessions and harm you as much as we can as disobedient and resisting vassals. And we declare you guilty of resulting deaths and injuries, exempting Their Highnesses of such guilt as well as ourselves and the gentlemen who accompany us. We hereby request that legal signatures be affixed to this text and pray those present to bear witness for us, etc.

These Papal bulls came to serve as a justification for the subsequent era of slave trade and European colonialism. Although for a short period as in 1462, Pius II declared slavery to be "a great crime". The followers of the church of England and Protestants did not use the papal bull as a justification. The position of the church was to condemn the slavery of Christians, but slavery was regarded as an old established and necessary institution which supplied Europe with the necessary workforce. In the 16th century African slaves had substituted almost all other ethnicities and religious enslaved groups in Europe. Within the Portuguese territory of Brazil, and even beyond its original borders, the enslavement of native Americans was carried out by the Bandeirantes.
The Bandeirantes or "followers of the banner" were Portuguese colonial scouts in Brazil, members of the 16th-18th century South American slave-hunting expeditions, called Bandeiras (Portuguese for "flags"). Their purpose was to capture natives and force them into slavery. 

Slavery in Africa

According to David Stannard's American Holocaust, 50% of African deaths occurred in Africa as a result of wars between native kingdoms, which produced the majority of slaves. This includes not only those who died in battles, but also those who died as a result of forced marches from inland areas to slave ports on the various coasts. The practice of enslaving enemy combatants and their villages was widespread throughout Western and West Central Africa, although wars were rarely started to procure slaves. The slave trade was largely a by-product of tribal and state warfare as a way of removing potential dissidents after victory or financing future wars.

However, some African groups proved particularly adept and brutal at the practice of enslaving others, such as Oyo, Benin, Igala, Kaabu, Asanteman, Dahomey, the Aro Confederacy and the Imbangala war bands. By the end of this process, no fewer than 18.3 million people would be herded into "factories" to await shipment to the New World.

The kings of Dahomey sold their war captives into transatlantic slavery, who otherwise would have been killed in a ceremony known as the Annual Customs. As one of West Africa's principal slave states, Dahomey became extremely unpopular with neighbouring peoples. King Gezo of Dahomey said in the 1840s:

The slave trade is the ruling principle of my people. It is the source and the glory of their wealth…the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery…

Like the Bambara Empire to the east, the Khasso kingdoms depended heavily on the slave trade for their economy. A family's status was indicated by the number of slaves it owned, leading to wars for the sole purpose of taking more captives. This trade led the Khasso into increasing contact with the European settlements of Africa's west coast, particularly the French.

Benin grew increasingly rich during the 16th and 17th centuries on the slave trade with Europe; slaves from enemy states of the interior were sold, and carried to the Americas in Dutch and Portuguese ships. The Bight of Benin's shore soon came to be known as the "Slave Coast". In 1807, the UK Parliament passed the Bill that abolished the trading of slaves. The King of Bonny (now in Nigeria) was horrified at the conclusion of the practice:

We think this trade must go on. That is the verdict of our oracle and the priests. They say that your country, however great, can never stop a trade ordained by God himself.

The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the late 18th century, when the largest number of slaves were captured on raiding expeditions into the interior of West Africa. Obviously, Europeans did not TAKE Slaves in Africa, they BOUGHT Slaves in Africa. These expeditions were typically carried out by African kingdoms, such as the Oyo empire (Yoruba), Kong Empire, Kingdom of Benin, Kingdom of Fouta Djallon, Kingdom of Fouta Tooro, Kingdom of Koya, Kingdom of Khasso, Kingdom of Kaabu, Fante Confederacy, Ashanti Confederacy, Aro Confederacy and the kingdom of Dahomey. Europeans rarely entered the interior of Africa, due to fear of disease and moreover fierce African resistance. The slaves were brought to coastal outposts where they were traded for goods. 

End of Legal European Slave Trade

Denmark was the first European country to ban slavery. In 1807 Britain declared the slave trade to be illegal. One year later the United States of America followed, Sweden in 1813, The Netherlands in 1814, France in 1815 and Spain in 1820.

However the constant demand for slaves in the Caribbean and in the Southern States of America continued. Huge profits could still be made with the slave trade. In the years that followed, dozens of illegal slave transports took place between Africa and those destinations. Britain on an international level made great efforts to stop this illegal trade. It made agreements with other countries, and British marine ships were authorized to ransack ships leaving Africa. They patrolled along the African coast to stop illegal slave transports. When a slave trader was caught, the ship was confiscated and the captain punished. The punishments England imposed in 1811 was deportation or the death penalty.

But it was not from a humane point of view that England suppressed the slave trade; rather, it was to protect its own sugar colonies against dishonest competition from other countries that could still count on new supplies of cheap slave labor. The British and French ships patrolling along the African coast also had some unintended consequences; It was not unusual for a slave ship to toss her human cargo into the sea when confronted with a British or French slave hunter. There were also rumors about mass slaughters of slaves onshore along the African coast by African slavers, when British or French ships prevented the slave ships from reaching the shore to pick up their human cargo.

The most important markets for illegal slavers was Cuba and Brazil. From Cuba the African slaves were illegally transported on fast clippers to the southern states of America, often with false documents to prove the slaves originated from other Caribbean colonies and not from Africa. British, American, French and Dutch ships took part in the illegal slave transports that happened until 1870. At a rough estimation, about 1,898,400 slaves have been transported over the Atlantic Ocean between 1811 and 1870. Sixty per-cent of these slaves wore transported to Brazil, 32 percent to Cuba and Puerto Rico, 5 percent to the French West Indies and only 3 percent straight to the United States, but many slaves were brought to the United States through Cuba.

Why Europeans Ended their Slave Trade

Two of the most enduring lies the Albinos tell, is that they stopped their slave trade, international and domestic, simply because they felt slavery was wrong. And that the U.S. Civil War was fought to free their Slaves. In both cases, there was indeed a certain amount of altruism, but that was not even close to being the determinate factor. In both cases the truth is quite complicated, and can only be dealt with here in a rudimentary manner. Reasons for the U.S. Civil War are covered in the "Black Britain and History of the Black Holy Roman Empire sections" here in this section, we deal with the "Why's" of why Europeans ended their Slave Trade.

The seminal work on this subject "Capitalism and Slavery" (1944) was done by Mr. Eric Williams, the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, his Wiki bio follows.

Williams was born on 25 September 1911. His father was a minor civil servant, and his mother was a descendant of the French Creole elite. He was educated at Queen's Royal College in Port of Spain, where he excelled at academics and football. He won an island scholarship in 1932, which allowed him to attend St Catherine's Society, Oxford (which subsequently became St Catherine's College, Oxford). In 1935, he received first-class honours for his B.A in history, and was ranked in first place among University of Oxford students graduating in History in 1935. He also represented the university at football. In 1938 he went on to obtain his doctorate (see section below). In Inward Hunger, his autobiography, he described his experience of racism in Great Britain, and the impact on him of his travels in Germany after the Nazi seizure of power.

In Inward Hunger, Williams recounts that in the period following his graduation: "I was severely handicapped in my research by my lack of money.... I was turned down everywhere I tried ... and could not ignore the racial factor involved". However, in 1936, thanks to a recommendation made by Sir Alfred Claud Hollis (Governor of Trinidad and Tobago, 1930–36), the Leathersellers' Company awarded him a £50 grant to continue his advanced research in history at Oxford. He completed the D. Phil in 1938 under the supervision of Vincent Harlow. His doctoral thesis, The Economic Aspects of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and West Indian Slavery, was both a direct attack on the idea that moral and humanitarian motives were the key facts in the victory of British abolitionism, and a covert critique of the idea common in the 1930s, emanating in particular from the pen of Oxford Professor Reginald Coupland, that British imperialism was essentially propelled by humanitarian and benevolent impulses. Williams's argument owed much to the influence of C. L. R. James, whose The Black Jacobins, also completed in 1938, also offered an economic and geostrategic explanation for the rise of British abolitionism.

Despite his extraordinary academic success at Oxford, Williams was denied the opportunity to pursue a career in the United Kingdom. In 1939 he moved to the United States to Howard University, where he was rapidly promoted twice, attaining full professorial rank. In Washington he completed the manuscript of his masterwork, Capitalism and Slavery, which was published by the University of North Carolina in 1944. This book assaulted many sacred cows of British imperial historiography, and it was not published in the United Kingdom until 1964.

Brazil

Reformers campaigned during much of the 19th century for the United Kingdom to use its influence and power to stop the traffic of slaves to Brazil. Besides moral qualms, the low cost of slave-produced Brazilian sugar meant that British colonies in the West Indies were unable to match the market prices of Brazilian sugar, and each Briton was consuming 16 pounds (7 kg) of sugar a year by the 19th century. This combination led to intensive pressure from the British government for Brazil to end this practice, which it did by steps over several decades.

First, foreign slave trade was banned in 1850. Then, in 1871, the sons of the slaves were freed. In 1885, slaves aged over 60 years were freed. The Paraguayan War contributed to ending slavery, since many slaves enlisted in exchange for freedom. In Colonial Brazil, slavery was more a social than a racial condition. In fact, some of the greatest figures of the time, like the writer Machado de Assis and the engineer André Rebouças had Black ancestry.

Brazil's 1877-78 Grande Seca (Great Drought) in the cotton-growing northeast led to major turmoil, starvation, poverty and internal migration. As wealthy plantation holders rushed to sell their slaves south, popular resistance and resentment grew, inspiring numerous emancipation societies. They succeeded in banning slavery altogether in the province of Ceará by 1884. Slavery was legally ended nationwide on 13 May by the Lei Aurea ("Golden Law") of 1888. The Portuguese in Brazil were the last nation in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery.

Modern times

However, in 2004, the government acknowledged to the United Nations that at least 25,000 Brazilians work under conditions "analogous to slavery." The top anti-slavery official puts the number of modern slaves at 50,000. More than 1,000 slave laborers were freed from a sugar cane plantation in 2007 by the Brazilian government, making it the largest anti-slavery raid in modern times in Brazil. 

Distribution of slaves in the Americas (1519–1867)

Destination - Percentage

July 10, 2003: Benin (formerly Dahomey) Apologizes for it's Role in the Slave Trade.

 Ambassador Cyrille Oguin of Benin said:

Benin President Mattieu Kerekou has made reconciliation a priority, Oguin says. "The president of Benin, the people of Benin have asked me to come here and apologize for the government, for the Benin people and for Africa for what we all know happened," Oguin says. "Where our parents were involved in this awful, this terrible, trade." 

East Africa

Zanzibar was once East Africa's main slave-trading port, and under Omani Arabs in the 19th century as many as 50,000 slaves were passing through the city each year. Some historians estimate that between 11 and 18 million black African slaves crossed the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert from 650 AD to 1900 AD, compared with the 9.4 to 12 million Africans who were taken to the Americas.

During the Age of Exploration, the Portuguese Empire was the first European power to gain control of Zanzibar, and the Portuguese kept it for nearly 200 years. In 1698, Zanzibar fell under the control of the Sultanate of Oman, which developed an economy of trade and cash crops with a ruling Arab elite. Plantations were developed to grow spices, hence the term Spice Islands. Another major trade good for Zanzibar was ivory. The Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the East African coast, known as Zanj; this included Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, and trading routes that extended much further inland, such as the route leading to Kindu on the Congo River.

Sometimes gradually and sometimes by fits and starts, control of Zanzibar came into the hands of the British Empire; part of the political impetus for this was the 19th century movement for the abolition of the slave trade. The relationship between Britain and the nearest relevant colonial power, Germany, was formalized by the 1890 Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty, in which Germany pledged not to interfere with British interests in insular Zanzibar. That year, Zanzibar became a protectorate (not a colony) of Britain. From 1890 to 1913, traditional viziers were appointed to govern as puppets, switching to a system of British residents (effectively governors) from 1913 to 1963.

Hamoud bin Mohammed Al-Said became sultan with the support of the British consul, Sir Basil Cave, upon the death of Hamad bin Thuwaini. Before he could enter the palace, another potential contender for the throne, Khalid bin Barghash, seized the palace and declared himself sultan. The British responded the next day, August 26, 1896, by issuing an ultimatum to Khalid and his entourage to evacuate the palace by 9:00 a.m. on August 27. When he refused, British warships fired on the palace and other strategic locations in the city, destroying them and causing Khalid and his group to flee.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records the resultant Anglo-Zanzibar War was the shortest war in history, and the same day Hamoud was able to assume the title of sultan, more indebted to the British than ever. Later Hamoud complied with British demands that slavery be banned in Zanzibar and that all the slaves be freed. For this he was decorated by Queen Victoria and his son and heir, Ali bin Hamud, was brought to England to be educated.

Eventually Africans paid for their stupidity in selling their own kind into brutal Slavery:

The entire continent was colonized by the Albinos.

 This is a list of the dates when African states were made colonies or protectorates of European powers and lost their independence. It only deals with modern times, thus the expansion of the Ancient Greeks, Roman Empire, and barbarian tribes into Africa is ignored. A number of regions such as the Congo and the Sahara Desert had no organized states and it is almost impossible to tell when, or if, these areas ever became controlled by Europeans.

Morocco - 1912, to France

Libya - 1911, to Italy

Fulani Empire - 1903, to France and the United Kingdom

The Sokoto Caliphate was an independent Islamic Caliphate, in West Africa. Founded during the jihad of the Fulani War in 1809 by Usman dan Fodio, it was abolished when the British defeated the caliph in 1903 and put the area under the Northern Nigeria Protectorate.

Developed in the context of multiple, independent Hausa kingdoms, at its height the Caliphate linked over 30 different emirates and over 10 million people in the most powerful state in its region and one of the most significant empires in Africa in the nineteenth century. The caliphate was a loose confederation of emirates that recognized the suzerainty of the "commander of the faithful", the sultan or caliph. The caliphate brought decades of economic growth throughout the region. An estimated one to 2.5 million non-Muslim slaves were captured during jihad. However, slavery in the Caliphate was not the more common chattel slavery; slaves provided labor for plantations and were provided an opportunity to become Muslims.

Though the British abolished the political authority of the Caliph the title of Sultan was retained, and remains an important religious position for Muslims in the region to the current day. Usman dan Fodio's jihad provided the inspiration for a series of related jihads in other parts of the savanna and Sahel far beyond Nigeria's borders that led to the foundation of Islamic states in Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic, and Sudan.

Swaziland - 1902, to the United Kingdom

Ashanti Confederacy - 1900, to the United Kingdom

The Ashanti (also spelled Asante) Empire (1701–1957) was an Akan empire and kingdom in what is now modern-day Ghana. The Ashanti Empire expanded from Ashanti to include the Brong-Ahafo, Central region, Eastern region, Greater Accra region, and Western region, of present-day Ghana. The Ashanti benefited from early firearm adoption. Combined with effective strategy, they fashioned an empire that stretched from central Ghana to the present-day Ivory Coast. Due to the empire's military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture, Ashanti has been extensively studied and has more historiographies by European, primarily British, authors than almost any other indigenous culture of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Burundi - 1899, to Germany

The Twa, Hutu and Tutsi peoples have lived in Burundi for at least 500 years. For more than 200 of those years, Burundi was an independent kingdom, until the beginning of the twentieth century, when Germany colonised the region. After the First World War and Germany's defeat, it ceded the territory to Belgium. Both Germans and Belgians ruled Burundi and Rwanda as a European colony known as Ruanda-Urundi. Despite common misconceptions, Burundi and Rwanda had never been under common rule until the time of European colonisation.

The European intervention exacerbated social differences between the Tutsi and Hutu, and contributed to political unrest in the region. Burundi gained independence in 1962 and initially had a monarchy, but a series of assassinations, coups, and a general climate of regional instability culminated in the establishment of a republic and one-party state in 1966. Bouts of ethnic cleansing and ultimately two civil wars and genocides during the 1970s and again in the 1990s left the country undeveloped and its population as one of the world's poorest. 2015 witnessed large-scale political strife as President Pierre Nkurunziza opted to run for a third term in office, a coup attempt failed and the country's parliamentary and presidential elections were broadly criticised by members of the international community.

Kingdom of Benin - 1897, to the United Kingdom

The Benin Empire was a pre-colonial empire located in what is now southern Nigeria. Its capital was Edo, now known as Benin City, Edo. It should not be confused with the modern-day country called Benin, formerly called Dahomey. The Benin Empire was "one of the oldest and most highly developed states in the coastal hinterland of West Africa, dating perhaps to the eleventh century CE", until it was annexed by the British Empire in 1897.

The original people and founders of the Benin Empire, the Edo people, were initially ruled by the Ogiso (Kings of the Sky) dynasty who called their land Igodomigodo. The rulers or kings were commonly known as Ogiso. Igodo, the first Ogiso, wielded much influence and gained popularity as a good ruler. He died after a long reign and was succeeded by Ere, his eldest son. In the 12th century, a great palace intrigue and battle for power erupted between the warrior crown prince Ekaladerhan son of the last Ogiso and his young paternal uncle. In anger over an oracle, Prince Ekaladerhan left the royal court with his warriors. When his old father the Ogiso died, the Ogiso dynasty was ended as the people and royal kingmakers preferred their king's son as natural next in line to rule.

Bunyoro - 1897, to the United Kingdom

Dahomey - 1894, to France

Dahomey was an African kingdom (located in the area of the present-day country of Benin) that existed from about 1600 until 1894, when the last king, Behanzin, was defeated by the French, and the country was annexed into the French colonial empire. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by conquering key cities on the Atlantic coast.

For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey was a key regional state, eventually ending tributary status to the Oyo Empire.[1] The Kingdom of Dahomey was an important regional power that had an organized domestic economy built on conquest and slave labor, significant international trade with European powers, a centralized administration, taxation systems, and an organized military. Notable in the kingdom were significant artwork, an all-female military unit known as the Dahomey Amazons, and the elaborate religious practices of Vodun with the large festival of the Annual Customs of Dahomey.

Rwanda - 1894, to Germany

Oubangui-Chari - 1894, to France

Ijebu - 1892, to the United Kingdom

Bechuanaland - 1885, to the United Kingdom

Merina - 1885, to France

Egypt - 1882, to the United Kingdom

Zululand - 1879, to the United Kingdom

The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or simply Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to Pongola River in the north.

The kingdom grew to dominate much of what is today KwaZulu-Natal and Southern Africa,[1][2] but when it came into conflict with the British Empire in the 1870s during the Anglo-Zulu War, it was defeated despite an early Zulu victory in the war. The area was subsequently absorbed into the Colony of Natal and later became part of the Union of South Africa.

The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of four previously separate British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony. It included the territories formerly part of the Boer republics annexed in 1902, South African Republic and Orange Free State.

Following the First World War, the Union of South Africa was granted the administration of the German South West Africa colony as a League of Nations mandate and it became treated in most respects as if it were another province of the Union, but never was formally annexed.

The Union of South Africa was a dominion of the British Empire, and became sovereign on 11 December 1931. It was governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, with the Crown represented by a governor-general. The Union came to an end when the 1961 constitution was enacted. On 31 May 1961 the country became a republic and left the Commonwealth, under the new name Republic of South Africa.

The Cape of Good Hope, also known as the Cape Colony (Dutch: Kaapkolonie), was a British colony in present-day South Africa and Namibia, named after the Cape of Good Hope. The British colony was preceded by an earlier Dutch colony of the same name.

The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa, as one of its provinces. It is now the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.

The Transvaal Colony was the name used to refer to the Transvaal region during the period of direct British rule and military occupation between the end of the Anglo-Boer War in 1902 when the South African Republic was dissolved, and the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910.

The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after Britain first occupied (1900) and then annexed (1902) the independent Orange Free State in the Second Boer War. The colony ceased to exist in 1910, when it was absorbed into the Union of South Africa as Orange Free State Province.

Fante Confederacy - 1874, to the United Kingdom

Basutoland - 1868, to the United Kingdom

Comoros - 1843, to France

Algeria - 1830, to France

Zanzibar - 1503, to Portugal

Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania in East Africa. It is composed of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 kilometres (16–31 mi) off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba. The capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre is Stone Town, which is a World Heritage Site.

The name Zanzibar is apparently derived from the Persian zang-bâr signifying "black coast".

Zanzibar's main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism. In particular, the islands produce cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper. For this reason, the islands, together with Tanzania's Mafia Island, are sometimes called the Spice Islands

The Map/tables below, indicate when each country regained it's freedom.

Depicted on the map are the 48 continental nations of Africa and the nation of Madagascar: along with the year each nation became Independent of European National Rule - Not Albino Rule.

Algeria (Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria) Independence achieved 3 July 1962.

Angola (People's Republic of Angola) Independence achieved 11 November 1975.

Benin (Republic of Benin) Independence achieved 1 August 1960. Former name: Dahomey (renamed 30 November 1975).

Botswana (Republic of Botswana)Independence achieved 30 September 1966. Former name: British Protectorate of Bechuanaland (name changed with independence in 1966).

Burkina Faso (Republic of Burkina Faso) Independence achieved 5 August 1960. Former name: Republic of Upper Volta (renamed in 1984).

Burundi (Republic of Burundi) Independence achieved 1 July 1962. Former name: Urundi (part of Ruaunda-Urundi, renamed with independence in 1962).

Cameroon (Republic of Cameroon) Independence achieved 1 January 1960 for East Cameroon (former French colony). Formed the Federal Republic (1 October 1961) when Southern (west) Cameroon (former British colony) voted in a U.N. supervised election (11 February 1961) to be attached to the former French Cameroon. Officially became United Republic of Cameroon on 2 June 1972, and renamed Republic of Cameroon in 1984.

Central African Republic Independence achieved 13 August 1960. Former name: Oubangui-Chari (renamed 1 December 1958).

Chad (Republic of Chad) Independence achieved 11 August 1960.

Congo (People's Republic of the Congo) Independence achieved 15 August 1960. Former names: Middle Congo (part of French Equatorial Africa), Congo-Brazzaville.

Côte d'Ivoire (Republic of Côte d'Ivoire) Independence achieved 7 August 1960. Formerly refered to by the equivalent translation of the name into different languages, such as "Ivory Coast" in English. In 1986, the government declared that all countries should use the French name "Côte d'Ivoire".

Democratic Republic of the Congo Independence achieved June 1960. 17 May 1997 the former regime (Zaire) of Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngendu Banga was toppled and the present Democratic Republic of the Congo was established in its place. Former names: Congo Free State 1855-1908, Belgian Congo, 1908-1960, Democratic Republic of the Congo or Congo-Leopoldville, 1960-1966, Congo-Kinshasa 1966-1971, Zaire 1971-1997.

Djibouti (Republic of Djibouti) Independence achieved 27 June 1997. Former names: French Somaliland until 1967, French territory of the Afars and Issas until independence.

Egypt (Arab Republic of Egypt) Egypt has been seat of civilization since ancient times, however recent history has seen conquest by the Ottoman Empire in 1517, Napoleon Bonaparte's France in 1798, and finally by Britain in 1882. Modern independence was achieved on 28 February 1922 by British declaration.
Equatorial Guinea (Republic of Equatorial Guinea) Independence achieved 12 October 1968. Former name: Spanish Guinea (renamed with independence).

Eritrea (State of Eritrea) Independence achieved 24 May 1993.

Ethiopia (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia) Ethiopia has enjoyed independence from ancient times and has resisted attempts by other nations at colonization. Former name: Abyssinia.

Gabon (Republic of Gabon) Independence achieved 17 August 1960.

The Gambia (Republic of the Gambia) Independence achieved 18 February 1965.

Ghana (Republic of Ghana) Independence achieved 6 March 1957. Former name: Gold Coast (renamed with independence).

Guinea (Republic of Guinea) Independence achieved 2 October 1958.

Guinea-Bissau (Republic of Guinea-Bissau) Independence achieved 24 September 1973. Former name Portuguese Guinea (renamed with independence).

Kenya (Republic of Kenya) Independence achieved 12 December 1963.

Lesotho (Kingdom of Lesotho) Independence achieved 4 October 1966. Former name: Basutoland.

Liberia (Republic of Liberia) Independence achieved 26 July 1847. Liberia was established by Black American colonists sent by the American Colonisation Society in a controversial move to repatriate freed American slaves to Africa. After Ethiopia, it is the oldest of the modern independent African nations.

Libya (Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) Independence achieved 24 December 1951.

Madagascar (Democratic Republic of Madagascar) Independence achieved 26 June 1960.

Malawi (Republic of Malawi) Independence achieved 6 July 1964. Former name: Nyasaland.

Mali (Republic of Mali) Independence achieved 22 September 1960. Former name: Soudan.

Mauritania (Islamic Republic of Mauritania) Independence achieved 28 November 1960.

Morocco (Kingdom of Morocco) Independence achieved 2 March 1956.

Mozambique (Republic of Mozambique) Independence achieved 25 June 1975. Former name: Portuguese East Africa.

Namibia (Republic of Namibia) Independence achieved 21 March 1990. Former name South West Africa.

Niger (Republic of Niger) Independence achieved 3 August 1960.

Nigeria (Federal Republic of Nigeria) Independence achieved 1 October 1960.

Rwanda (Republic of Rwanda) Independence achieved 1 July 1962. Former name Ruanda (part of Belgian administered territory of Ruanda-Urundi under League of Nations mandate 1919-1946, and U.N. Trusteeship 1946-1962).

Senegal (Republic of Senegal) Independence achieved 20 August 1960.

Sierra Leone (Republic of Sierra Leone) Independence achieved 27 April 1961.

Somalia (Somali Democratic Republic) Independence achieved 1 July 1960.

South Africa (Republic of South Africa)

Independence achieved 11 December 1931. The dismantling of apartheid affectively began in 1991 with the proposal to repeal of Lands Acts of 1913 and 1936, and the Group Areas act of 1966 by then President F.W. De Klerk. By 27 April 1994 a Majority Rule Constitution was adopted, and on 10 May 1994 anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the President of South Africa bringing an end to apartheid in South Africa.

Sudan (Democratic Republic of the Sudan) Independence achieved 1 January 1956.

Swaziland (Kingdom of Swaziland) Independence achieved 6 September 1968.

Tanzania (United Republic of Tanzania) Tanganyika achieved independence on 9 December 1961. Zanzibar Achieved independence on 10 December 1963. The United Republic was formed on 27 April 1964, and the name Tanzania was adopted on 29 October 1964.

Togo (Republic of Togo) Independence achieved 27 April 1960. Former name Togoland.

Tunisia (Republic of Tunisia) Independence achieved 20 March 1956.

Uganda (Republic of Uganda) Independence achieved 9 October 1962.

Western Sahara (Saharwi Arab Democratic Republic)

When Spain withdrew from Western Sahara (then known as Spanish Sahara or Rio de Oro) in 1976 both Morocco and Mauritania moved to annex the territory. Mauritania withdrew in August 1979, and Western Sahara was absorbed by Morocco. However a political front called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) continued to struggle against foreign domination against Morocco and formed the Saharwi Arab Democratic Republic as a government in exile on 4 March 1976 which was recognized in 1984 by the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) leading Morocco to withdraw its membership from the OAU. In May 1991, Morocco and the Polisario Front ended fighting as a part of a U.N. sponsored peace settlement. The future of Saharwi is still to be decided as of this writing (9 September 1998).

Zambia (Republic of Zambia) Independence achieved 24 October 1964. Former name: Northern Rhodesia.

Zimbabwe (Republic of Zimbabwe) Independence achieved 18 April 1980. Former names: Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia.

Not Shown on the Map:

Cape Verde (Republic of Cape Verde) Independence achieved 5July 1975.

Comoros Islands (Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros) Independence achieved 6 July 1975 (formally recognized by France (colonial regime) 1 January 1976).

Mauritius (Republic of Mauritius) Independence achieved 12 March 1968.

Reunion - Administered by the French Overseas Department since 19 March 1946. French colony since 1642.
São Tomé and Príncipe (Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe) Independence achieved 12 July 1975.

Seychelles (Republic of Seychelles) Independence achieved 29 June 1976.

For more histoty click here>>> THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY 2