“But Slavery Existed Everywhere.” So What Made Racial Slavery Different?
Unpacking what made racial slavery different.
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Introduction
Yes, slavery existed long before the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Romans practiced slavery. Medieval Europe had systems of unfree labor.
But property, violence, forced labor, and even inherited slavery cannot by themselves explain what later made racial slavery different.
This visual essay follows the evidence slide by slide: Roman slavery, Black presence in Europe before the trans-Atlantic trade, the shift from chattel slavery to serfdom, Christianity and the question of who could be enslaved, the focus on the “outsider,” and the moment Blackness and African ancestry became law in the colonial Americas.
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Sources & Further Reading
- Anievas, Alexander, and Kerem Nişancıoğlu. “The Atlantic Sources of European Capitalism: Territorial Sovereignty and the Modern Self.” In How the West Came to Rule: The Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism. London: Pluto Press, 2015.
- Blackburn, Robin. “The Old World Background to European Colonial Slavery.” The William and Mary Quarterly 54, no. 1 (1997): 65–102.
- Lowcountry Digital History Initiative. “European Christianity and Slavery.” African Passages, Lowcountry Adaptations.
- Lowcountry Digital History Initiative. “Slavery before the Trans-Atlantic Trade.” African Passages, Lowcountry Adaptations.
- Paolella, Christopher. “Early Medieval Slave Trading.” In Human Trafficking in Medieval Europe: Slavery, Sexual Exploitation, and Prostitution, 41–82. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020.
- Thompson, Alvin O. “Race and Colour Prejudices and the Origin of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.” Caribbean Studies 16, nos. 3–4 (1976–77): 29–59.
- Wood, William J. “The Illegal Beginning of American Negro Slavery.” American Bar Association Journal 56, no. 1 (1970): 45–49.
- Olivette Otele, “The History of Europe’s Blacks Has Been Struck by a Partial Amnesia,” UNESCO Courier (2021).
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