Slavery

People were enslaved in the ancient world as galley slaves, domestic workers, artisans, and other laborers. During the Middle Ages, with the use of enserfed peasants, estate owners no longer needed to purchase slaves for fieldwork and other grueling tasks. Domestic slaves, however, continued to form part of the household of wealthy individuals. Many of these served as sexual partners for their owners. The Black Death of the 14th century that killed thousands of serfs precipitated an urgent need for groups of hard-working, inexpensive laborers. During the early 15th century, slaves from the Circassian mountains and other regions to the east were sold to individuals in Genoa and other coastal cities. This “white slave trade,” both men and women, replicated the Muslim system operating in southern Spain and north Africa. Other cities, notably Venice, used young indentured servants sold to the captains of ships by their own parents along the Dalmatian coast and on the islands of the Adriatic Sea. Unlike slaves, indentured servants usually worked for their owners for a specific number of years and were freed at the end of their contract. Unlike the people enslaved as a result of the African slave trade that began in the mid-15th century, indentured servants were not legally defined as property.

With their navigational skills and proximity to the coast of Africa, the Portuguese ventured into northern Africa and conquered the town of Ceuta in 1415. From this base of operations, Portuguese merchant seamen slowly began trading with Africans, purchasing grain and textiles from the Moroccans. In 1434 the Portuguese expeditions passed Cape Bojador, and seamen began capturing Africans along the coast for the developing slave trade. Rather quickly, slaves became a valuable commodity. The city of Seville had one of the largest slave populations of western Europe, more than 7 percent of the total inhabitants in the mid-16th century. Many of the owners were artisans, who purchased slaves to work in their shop. English sea captains as well as the Portuguese participated in the slave trade, supplying workers to the Spanish colonies. (It was a Dutch sea captain who sold slaves to the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1620.) African slaves were considered the legal property of their owner and were treated as a commodity. Unlike grain, textiles, and similar trade goods, African slaves were not consumed and usually did not wear out for a long time. Moreover, they produced more slaves when given the chance to mate. For slave

Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe

Traders who failed to recognize Africans as human beings, slaves were a good investment. During the Renaissance, between 300,000 and 400,000 Africans were forced to toil as slaves, the majority in the Atlantic islands and the New World. (That number rose dramatically during the 17th century.) The relatively small number of African slaves in Europe were located mostly in Portugal, Spain, and Italy.

Slaves in Spanish America had a champion in Bartolome de Las Casas (1474-1566), a priest who became a wealthy landowner in Cuba. Stunned by the cruel treatment of American Indians, he first attempted to free them from slavery by suggesting that each landowner who freed Native American slaves could have a dozen African slaves in return. A few years later, however, Las Casas spoke out against the very concept of human bondage, publishing several books voicing his concerns. Because of the economic dependence of American settlers on slavery, changing the system was a difficult task. During his trips to Spain, Las Casas finally persuaded those in power that the Indians, at least, should not be enslaved. This is the compromise for which he became famous. Although the new Laws of the Indies passed in 1543 prohibited using Indians as slaves, the legislation hardly improved the situation of most Native Americans. Instead of working as slaves, they worked equally hard in exchange for food and housing.