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A Brief History of Slavery
A thought-provoking and important book that raises essential issues crucial not only for understanding our past but also the present day.
In this panoramic history, Jeremy Black tells how slavery was first developed in the ancient world, and reaches all the way to the present in the form of contemporary crimes such as trafficking and bonded labour. He shows how slavery has taken many forms throughout history and across the world - from the uprising of Spartacus, the plantations of the West Indies, and the murderous forced labour of the gulags and concentration camps.
Slavery helped to consolidate transoceanic empires and helped mould new world societies such as America and Brazil. Black charts the long fight for abolition in the nineteenth century, looking at both the campaigners as well as the harrowing accounts of the enslaved themselves.
Slavery is still with us today, and coerced labour can be found closer to home than one might expect.
In this panoramic history, Jeremy Black tells how slavery was first developed in the ancient world, and reaches all the way to the present in the form of contemporary crimes such as trafficking and bonded labour. He shows how slavery has taken many forms throughout history and across the world - from the uprising of Spartacus, the plantations of the West Indies, and the murderous forced labour of the gulags and concentration camps.
Slavery helped to consolidate transoceanic empires and helped mould new world societies such as America and Brazil. Black charts the long fight for abolition in the nineteenth century, looking at both the campaigners as well as the harrowing accounts of the enslaved themselves.
Slavery is still with us today, and coerced labour can be found closer to home than one might expect.
336 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2011
39 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Jeremy Black
433 books198 followersJeremy Black is an English historian, who was formerly a professor of history at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
Black is the author of over 180 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described by one commentator as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age". He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002).
Black is the author of over 180 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described by one commentator as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age". He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002).
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 17, 2018
The author appeared to know a great deal about the entire history of slavery, dating back to the Old Testament to modern times but his style of writing was very dry. He spouted a great deal of facts (dates, places, people, etc..) which made it difficult to get the gist of what he was trying to say from one paragraph to another.
June 11, 2016
This is an average sized book, which means, of course, that it's far too short to cover the whole history of slavery in any depth. Everything pre-1500 is crammed in the first slim chapter, so the writing style suffers and it begins to feel like 'History is just one bloody thing after another'.
After that it settles down into a more in depth exploration of the last 500 years, focusing on the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the slavery of African people in the Americas, with some attention paid also to slavery in the Islamic world.
Black is trying to provide a fair and neutral history of slavery, but its clear in places that he is writing defensively. There is a version of history which views all Africans as innocent, abject victims, helpless against the over-powering force of the Europeans. This book tries to bring a little nuance to that story. Black points out that before the late 19th century Europeans did not have a great military advantage over Africa. The Portuguese were the most expanisionist European power in Africa, and when they did attempt to seize people directly they had to do it with local mercenaries or slave armies, and they had mixed success. They lost their base in Mombasa to Sultan Muhammad Yusuf, and a long series of wars against the kingdom on Ndongo ended in a draw. The Omani Arabs were much more successful than the Portuguese on the Indian ocean coast of Africa and the Moroccans operating across the Sahara had an advantage over the Europeans because they came by land.
So the Europeans did not often invade and kidnap slaves directly. Instead, for many centuries Europeans relied on purchasing power. Traders paid tribute to African kings for the privilege of establishing small trading bases on the coast. The capture and sale of slaves to Europeans was enthusiastically persued by African empires, like the Dahomey exporting war captives from the Bight of Benin, or the Fante on the Gold Coast, who were given credit to buy slaves from the interior and bring them out to the Europeans on the coast. The trans-Atlantic trade could never have been possible without the active organisation of many Africans.
Black is also quite defensive of the British. Although, the British were the biggest slave traders, dominating the slave trade for most of the 18th century and transporting 2,141,900 slaves, they were also the most active in ending the slave trade, and slavery around the world.
A cynical version of history says that slavery was fading and abolition was merely a self-justifying veneer laid over an inevitable process. Black demonstrates that there was real, widespread moral outrage against slavery in Britain. In 1806 parliament agreed to consider abolishing the trade, and many MPs were elected on abolitionist platforms. Britian went to considerable effort to end the slave trade world-wide, attacking French colonies during the Napoleonic wars and freeing slaves, protecting Portugal against Napoleon in 1810 only when they agreed to restrict the trade, and in 1817 signing a treaty with Spain to restrict the slave trade in return for money.
It was of course, not entirely morally pure: part of the British drive to end slavery in Spanish, French and Portuguese colonies was due to the fact that slavery gave these colonies an economic advantage over British colonies. Black is scrupulous in presenting British hypocrisy and failings in the anti-slavery movement, even as he defends them against detractors who believe that they had no good motives at all.
He gets particularly snippy about the calls for British apologies over their role in slavery. There have been many apologies for slavery, not least from the city of Liverpool, the descendants of John Hawkins and the Church of England. He points out:
Overall, this is a good introduction to subject of European enslavement of Africans, if a little dry to read.
After that it settles down into a more in depth exploration of the last 500 years, focusing on the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the slavery of African people in the Americas, with some attention paid also to slavery in the Islamic world.
Black is trying to provide a fair and neutral history of slavery, but its clear in places that he is writing defensively. There is a version of history which views all Africans as innocent, abject victims, helpless against the over-powering force of the Europeans. This book tries to bring a little nuance to that story. Black points out that before the late 19th century Europeans did not have a great military advantage over Africa. The Portuguese were the most expanisionist European power in Africa, and when they did attempt to seize people directly they had to do it with local mercenaries or slave armies, and they had mixed success. They lost their base in Mombasa to Sultan Muhammad Yusuf, and a long series of wars against the kingdom on Ndongo ended in a draw. The Omani Arabs were much more successful than the Portuguese on the Indian ocean coast of Africa and the Moroccans operating across the Sahara had an advantage over the Europeans because they came by land.
So the Europeans did not often invade and kidnap slaves directly. Instead, for many centuries Europeans relied on purchasing power. Traders paid tribute to African kings for the privilege of establishing small trading bases on the coast. The capture and sale of slaves to Europeans was enthusiastically persued by African empires, like the Dahomey exporting war captives from the Bight of Benin, or the Fante on the Gold Coast, who were given credit to buy slaves from the interior and bring them out to the Europeans on the coast. The trans-Atlantic trade could never have been possible without the active organisation of many Africans.
Black is also quite defensive of the British. Although, the British were the biggest slave traders, dominating the slave trade for most of the 18th century and transporting 2,141,900 slaves, they were also the most active in ending the slave trade, and slavery around the world.
A cynical version of history says that slavery was fading and abolition was merely a self-justifying veneer laid over an inevitable process. Black demonstrates that there was real, widespread moral outrage against slavery in Britain. In 1806 parliament agreed to consider abolishing the trade, and many MPs were elected on abolitionist platforms. Britian went to considerable effort to end the slave trade world-wide, attacking French colonies during the Napoleonic wars and freeing slaves, protecting Portugal against Napoleon in 1810 only when they agreed to restrict the trade, and in 1817 signing a treaty with Spain to restrict the slave trade in return for money.
It was of course, not entirely morally pure: part of the British drive to end slavery in Spanish, French and Portuguese colonies was due to the fact that slavery gave these colonies an economic advantage over British colonies. Black is scrupulous in presenting British hypocrisy and failings in the anti-slavery movement, even as he defends them against detractors who believe that they had no good motives at all.
He gets particularly snippy about the calls for British apologies over their role in slavery. There have been many apologies for slavery, not least from the city of Liverpool, the descendants of John Hawkins and the Church of England. He points out:
The situation among former slave trading and owning states varies greatly, but with a consistent contrast between a lack of interest, and certainly contrition, on the part of Islamic states and a sense of guilt on that of many Western ones.
Overall, this is a good introduction to subject of European enslavement of Africans, if a little dry to read.
April 1, 2022
It's not. 336 pages does not a brief book make. And they are 336 dense pages. But then, not only is it a brief history but it also attempts to be a new global history too. That's a lot to pack into a book about one of the oldest and most widespread institutions in human history. And, you know, what: Jeremy Black succeeds much better than you might expect.
While today we might think slavery self-evidently evil and beyond the pale, almost all civilisations and places have regarded it as perfectly normal. What Black does very well in this book is show the ubiquity of slavery, demonstrate how in all its forms it required the help of local elites to facilitate the trade and how the British came to play a particularly schizophrenic role in its culmination, opening up the Atlantic slave trade while also then outlawing and finally policing, via the dominance of the Royal Navy, the slave trade to an ending.
To fit all this in, Black eschews emotionalism: it's a fairly dry account, strong on economics and politics, weak on human interest. This is not a book seeking to outrage but to understand. If you want to learn, I recommend it. If you want to burnish your moral certainties, read something else.
While today we might think slavery self-evidently evil and beyond the pale, almost all civilisations and places have regarded it as perfectly normal. What Black does very well in this book is show the ubiquity of slavery, demonstrate how in all its forms it required the help of local elites to facilitate the trade and how the British came to play a particularly schizophrenic role in its culmination, opening up the Atlantic slave trade while also then outlawing and finally policing, via the dominance of the Royal Navy, the slave trade to an ending.
To fit all this in, Black eschews emotionalism: it's a fairly dry account, strong on economics and politics, weak on human interest. This is not a book seeking to outrage but to understand. If you want to learn, I recommend it. If you want to burnish your moral certainties, read something else.
August 5, 2021
What is a slave? What does enslavement mean? The easiest retort is that slavery is a form of mistreatment that is common in most societies and in most historical periods. It habitually involves some form of physical intimidation – not many people willingly agree to be the property of another person.
It also as a matter of course involves some form of psychological maltreatment, as the people who profit from having slave property try to imprint upon their human chattels a sense of shame, inferiority and unworthiness.
Historians have shied away from discussions of the psychological impact of enslavement upon the enslaved ever since adventurous but under-theorised speculations on slave psychology published in the 1950s and 1960s were put to hesitant use in present-day social policy making, notably in the United States. But slavery unavoidably has a psychological dimension, as scholars trying to define the principal features of slavery note in their analyses.
An important part of human history, slavery has no starting point, but it seems to have played a major role from early times. When slavery began in the prehistoric world is a matter of supposition, since there is no written evidence, and interpreting either artefacts or picture is a subjective exercise.
Slavery probably played a particular role in the treatment of those from other groups: in this respect, other humans were treated as animals, and indeed there was an important overlap. One form was that of ritual sacrifice, with both animals and humans captured to that end, a reminder that slavery had short-term as well as long-term purposes.
The author of this volume provides an account of the history of slavery and the slave trade that focuses on the last half-millennium but includes an earlier background.
Slavery is a subject that has a long history and a broad geographical scope. The breadth of the story encompasses the ancient and the modern world, Atlantic and Islamic trades, and it is scarcely surprising that slavery does not have a single meaning, nor a uniform context.
This diversity is important not only to understanding slavery in the past but also how it can be seen today. In particular, by raising the question of public or state slavery, this book seeks to advance a narrative and analysis that is different in its emphasis to the standard one, and this difference is relevant to the question of present-day legacies and apologies.
Slavery is one of the most emotive issues in history, and as such, the subject involves much hardship, misuse and cruelty. At every stage, it is important to appreciate in what follows that abstractions dissolved under scrutiny into real people and that these people felt and suffered.
Slavery is like war. In one light, ‘you know it when you see it’ and enforced servitude, like large-scale, violent conflict, is easy to define; but, just as discussion of war frequently overlaps with other aspects of conflict and violence, so the same is true with slavery, with force and servitude being open to varying definitions.
Black divides his book into eight chapters:
1. Pre–1500
2. The Age of Conquest, 1500–1600
3. The Spread of Capitalist Slavery, 1600–1700
4. Slavery Before Abolitionism, 1700–1780
5. Revolution, Abolitionism and the Contrasting Fortunes of the Slave Trade and Slavery, 1780–1850
6. The End of Slavery, 1830–1930?
7. A Troubled Present, 1930–2011
8. Legacies and Conclusions
A central theme that binds the eight sections of this book is that slavery is the most distinctive, but by no means the only, form of coercive labour, and that the latter is far more important in the history of labour than is often appreciated. Indeed, in many respects coercive labour is the core type of labour, while free labour – like, for example, secularism – is a product only of particular environments, notably those with high liquidity in which the purchase of work by means of wages could be used as the means to secure labour.
Moreover, the extent to which either free labour or secularism can be seen as a product, or even definition, of modernization and modernity is less obvious than would have been the case twenty years ago.
In 2000, the International Association Against Slavery included debt bondage, forced work, forced prostitution and forced marriage in the scope of slavery, and, if such an understanding is the case today, it is unclear why it should not also be extended to the past.
As another instance of varied definitions and understandings of slavery, this time from an historical perspective, there is a contrast between slavery as the condition of a distinct, hereditary caste, and enslavement as an individual fate or punishment. Societies with large-scale slavery have very much differed as to whether the status is hereditary or not.
Slave ownership conferred many benefits, including prestige, and political and social authority within societies that thought the ownership of slaves important. But people bought slaves primarily to make them money. Does this mean that slavery was capitalist? Opinion varies, and has done so since Adam Smith and Karl Marx raised the question of slavery as an economic institution in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
It is now generally accepted that slavery, if not exactly the same as industrial capitalism, was compatible with most forms of capitalist endeavour.
Grab a copy if you choose.
It also as a matter of course involves some form of psychological maltreatment, as the people who profit from having slave property try to imprint upon their human chattels a sense of shame, inferiority and unworthiness.
Historians have shied away from discussions of the psychological impact of enslavement upon the enslaved ever since adventurous but under-theorised speculations on slave psychology published in the 1950s and 1960s were put to hesitant use in present-day social policy making, notably in the United States. But slavery unavoidably has a psychological dimension, as scholars trying to define the principal features of slavery note in their analyses.
An important part of human history, slavery has no starting point, but it seems to have played a major role from early times. When slavery began in the prehistoric world is a matter of supposition, since there is no written evidence, and interpreting either artefacts or picture is a subjective exercise.
Slavery probably played a particular role in the treatment of those from other groups: in this respect, other humans were treated as animals, and indeed there was an important overlap. One form was that of ritual sacrifice, with both animals and humans captured to that end, a reminder that slavery had short-term as well as long-term purposes.
The author of this volume provides an account of the history of slavery and the slave trade that focuses on the last half-millennium but includes an earlier background.
Slavery is a subject that has a long history and a broad geographical scope. The breadth of the story encompasses the ancient and the modern world, Atlantic and Islamic trades, and it is scarcely surprising that slavery does not have a single meaning, nor a uniform context.
This diversity is important not only to understanding slavery in the past but also how it can be seen today. In particular, by raising the question of public or state slavery, this book seeks to advance a narrative and analysis that is different in its emphasis to the standard one, and this difference is relevant to the question of present-day legacies and apologies.
Slavery is one of the most emotive issues in history, and as such, the subject involves much hardship, misuse and cruelty. At every stage, it is important to appreciate in what follows that abstractions dissolved under scrutiny into real people and that these people felt and suffered.
Slavery is like war. In one light, ‘you know it when you see it’ and enforced servitude, like large-scale, violent conflict, is easy to define; but, just as discussion of war frequently overlaps with other aspects of conflict and violence, so the same is true with slavery, with force and servitude being open to varying definitions.
Black divides his book into eight chapters:
1. Pre–1500
2. The Age of Conquest, 1500–1600
3. The Spread of Capitalist Slavery, 1600–1700
4. Slavery Before Abolitionism, 1700–1780
5. Revolution, Abolitionism and the Contrasting Fortunes of the Slave Trade and Slavery, 1780–1850
6. The End of Slavery, 1830–1930?
7. A Troubled Present, 1930–2011
8. Legacies and Conclusions
A central theme that binds the eight sections of this book is that slavery is the most distinctive, but by no means the only, form of coercive labour, and that the latter is far more important in the history of labour than is often appreciated. Indeed, in many respects coercive labour is the core type of labour, while free labour – like, for example, secularism – is a product only of particular environments, notably those with high liquidity in which the purchase of work by means of wages could be used as the means to secure labour.
Moreover, the extent to which either free labour or secularism can be seen as a product, or even definition, of modernization and modernity is less obvious than would have been the case twenty years ago.
In 2000, the International Association Against Slavery included debt bondage, forced work, forced prostitution and forced marriage in the scope of slavery, and, if such an understanding is the case today, it is unclear why it should not also be extended to the past.
As another instance of varied definitions and understandings of slavery, this time from an historical perspective, there is a contrast between slavery as the condition of a distinct, hereditary caste, and enslavement as an individual fate or punishment. Societies with large-scale slavery have very much differed as to whether the status is hereditary or not.
Slave ownership conferred many benefits, including prestige, and political and social authority within societies that thought the ownership of slaves important. But people bought slaves primarily to make them money. Does this mean that slavery was capitalist? Opinion varies, and has done so since Adam Smith and Karl Marx raised the question of slavery as an economic institution in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
It is now generally accepted that slavery, if not exactly the same as industrial capitalism, was compatible with most forms of capitalist endeavour.
Grab a copy if you choose.
August 3, 2013
Black uses his long introduction in a attempt to define what constitutes slavery. The first chapter traces the roles and methods of slavery in the ancient world. The rest of the book is devoted to tracing the evolution of slavery and efforts to do away with it. This is a scholarly work.
Read
October 4, 2020I wanted to read a book about slavery from a global perspective to understand how oppressed cultures and their development within economic systems. From a modest google search, I couldn’t find that book. I decided to read this short introduction to global slavery to hopefully get a decent overview of the topic.
While historians have made “heroic efforts” to calculate ancient kingdoms’ GDPs, I haven’t come across any attempts to explain slavery’s role within bygone economic systems. David Graeber’s ‘Debt’ had an interpretation of changes in enslavement throughout world history (chapters 9 – 11), but a second or third interpretation on this subject would be nice. The first chapter of Black’s book is a scattered account of various moments in slave history of the ancient world. I was left considering how much one can read about all the powerful kings and rulers now commemorated in statues with a warhorse or sword and comparing that account to the countless slaves that have gone unremembered. There is no god.
When talking about global slavery, we still seem to be stuck at the point of discussion “did you know slavery has exists for thousands of years, if not longer? Europeans were not the only ones who had slaves.” Yeah, I did know that. How can we take the conversation further? How have former slave economies developed over generations from emancipation? So often, the people I do hear bring up global slavery to disregard another’s grievances over America or the West’s role in slavery.
Black was clearly not trying to diminish the legacy of slavery of today in the West. I had read a bit about the abolition movement in Britain in the 19th century, so chapter 5 and 6 were a nice comprehensive overview. Britain had mastered the biz in slavery during the 18th century, though they then became the leaders in abolition in the 19th century. Black describes this objective means of abolitionists as entirely socially motivated – the abolition was not propelled by economic circumstances, simply a moral objective. These objective means served a subjective end. As the British military was rebranded as enlightened liberators in the 19th century. This new persona also came with an air of cultural superiority and a justification for colonizing ‘backward despots’.
Black clearly illustrates that the emancipation movement did not disrupt the socio-economic order. The decedents of slaves largely lived out similar lives as their ancestors. Upon Emancipation Day (celebrated in Britain) the former slave owners were given the hefty sum of £20 million, which was quite a lot for the time. They also quickly flooded the Caribbean labor market with workers from India. British capital often flowed into places that still relied on slave labor, such as Brazil.
Slavery does still exist and I hear from time to time that certain products are produce by exploited labor. Black ends the book by considering some famous science fiction films that include a theme of slavery and subservience, especially involving robots. Eh. One hopeful aspect is that slavery has been diminishing during the twentieth century, though far from being eradicated. As someone who believes in the aspirations of democracy and individual rights, it would be great if historical scholarship took on this difficult and uncomfortable subject more often.
While historians have made “heroic efforts” to calculate ancient kingdoms’ GDPs, I haven’t come across any attempts to explain slavery’s role within bygone economic systems. David Graeber’s ‘Debt’ had an interpretation of changes in enslavement throughout world history (chapters 9 – 11), but a second or third interpretation on this subject would be nice. The first chapter of Black’s book is a scattered account of various moments in slave history of the ancient world. I was left considering how much one can read about all the powerful kings and rulers now commemorated in statues with a warhorse or sword and comparing that account to the countless slaves that have gone unremembered. There is no god.
When talking about global slavery, we still seem to be stuck at the point of discussion “did you know slavery has exists for thousands of years, if not longer? Europeans were not the only ones who had slaves.” Yeah, I did know that. How can we take the conversation further? How have former slave economies developed over generations from emancipation? So often, the people I do hear bring up global slavery to disregard another’s grievances over America or the West’s role in slavery.
Black was clearly not trying to diminish the legacy of slavery of today in the West. I had read a bit about the abolition movement in Britain in the 19th century, so chapter 5 and 6 were a nice comprehensive overview. Britain had mastered the biz in slavery during the 18th century, though they then became the leaders in abolition in the 19th century. Black describes this objective means of abolitionists as entirely socially motivated – the abolition was not propelled by economic circumstances, simply a moral objective. These objective means served a subjective end. As the British military was rebranded as enlightened liberators in the 19th century. This new persona also came with an air of cultural superiority and a justification for colonizing ‘backward despots’.
Black clearly illustrates that the emancipation movement did not disrupt the socio-economic order. The decedents of slaves largely lived out similar lives as their ancestors. Upon Emancipation Day (celebrated in Britain) the former slave owners were given the hefty sum of £20 million, which was quite a lot for the time. They also quickly flooded the Caribbean labor market with workers from India. British capital often flowed into places that still relied on slave labor, such as Brazil.
Slavery does still exist and I hear from time to time that certain products are produce by exploited labor. Black ends the book by considering some famous science fiction films that include a theme of slavery and subservience, especially involving robots. Eh. One hopeful aspect is that slavery has been diminishing during the twentieth century, though far from being eradicated. As someone who believes in the aspirations of democracy and individual rights, it would be great if historical scholarship took on this difficult and uncomfortable subject more often.
May 6, 2023
Detail, detail, detail ! This book contains a part of the human evolution that shows us to be a very ruthless and unkind species. Slavery has been around since time and immemorial. It continues today with the flourishing sex trade and indentured servitude. Unless you actually read about the history one's knowledge of this fact is lost on most people. The book is a tough read as it is filled with dates and detail. This can prove to be relentless in filling your head with the countless minutiae. The minutiae is by no means trivial but the wave upon wave of detail does slow down the ability to absorb and remain connected. Once started I had to force myself to press on to see this to its conclusion. If anything one gets a dark and dim view of humanity. Slavery is a blight that will forever be part of history of mankind. Totally sad but totally true.
May 22, 2021
Brief as in shallow, conventional, white washing text of a academic bureaucrat who needs the number of texts in order to get the better pension plans from the taxes collected from the poor and the needy.
May 22, 2023
A very good read which covered various historical periods of slavery in history. The book also follows how the global process of how the banning slavery happened. The role Britain played in abolishing the slave trade is covered fairly extensively - a fact that is often overlooked today
August 22, 2015
Good, yet I want more detail.
September 4, 2024
Whew! The first section is a breathless gallop through all the forms of slavery the world has ever known up to 1500 CE. That's a lot of slavery. I think I was even panting a bit by the time I got to the end. It does contain lots of information, but because it's not really systematic, you find yourself grabbing at bits of it in passing. And some of it does seem a bit dodgy. Aristotle, Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick version), The Barbary Corsairs, Caliban fly across the text like clouds over the desert. We dash from the Black Sea to Han China in a couple of sentences. Black writes that Jesus said very little about slavery because it didn't exist in his community. Wrong. Jesus said absolutely nothing at all about slavery - English translations of the Bible use the word 'servants'. Slaves belong in the Old Testament. There would have been numbers of the enslaved in his community, but OK, as he was a carpenter, maybe not in his actual street. Anyway, he was too much of a gent to use an ugly word like 'slave'. Black doesn't always seem entirely sure he knows what slavery really is, but he knows it when he sees it.
Things settle down a bit when we get to 1500 and Black describes how new transport links facilitated the global transport of enslaved people. It's clear he feels on more solid ground here. Old empires were destroyed and maritime nations established new ones. (I'll never understand why the idea 'stop the boats' is so difficult for modern progressives to understand.) Non-consenting labour was filched from Africa, India and Afghanistan, while Morocco, Portugal and Spain wrangled over who had rights over what. Meanwhile, the Barbary Corsairs rampaged on unabated, and Russia was invaded by the Tartars. Ethiopian women were coveted in Egypt. Black believes that the trade across the Sahara and the Indian Ocean combined may have been greater than across the Atlantic. The interesting point is made that while sugar and cotton plantations in the Americas required enslaved men to do the heavy work required, the equally demanding grain industry in Eastern Europe used serfs, working under identical conditions. Black describes how the capitalist market in slaves was established and for me, this was one of the most interesting sections of the book, giving breadth to a topic about which a measure of tunnel vision is often involved.
The strength of this book is the informative breadth the writer gives to the slave trade, placing it in a global context in an account which is mercifully free of ideology. Slavery before 1500 is such an enormous and interesting topic that it deserves a book to itself, preferably with pictures and charts, because there was too much information in this book and it was all a bit superficial and indigestible.
What I learned from this book is that our post-industrialist norm of employment, wage labour, would have been somewhat counter-intuitive in former times. Money was invented in Mesopotamia in about 3000 BCE, and there was a lot of slavery before that. Even afterwards, a hierarchical society meant that those at the bottom of the pile did the hard work and weren't expected to complain. Unfree labour was the norm and workers were no more highly thought of than machinery is now, and probably less if we are thinking of, say a Ferrari or a Playstation 5. Barter, self employment and trade were the preferred ways of getting a living up to the Industrial Revolution, as they all offered a measure of independence, and through the ages we should probably be looking at a history of paid employment as more exceptional than slavery.
Black wisely follows his penultimate chapter 'The End of Slavery' with a final one: 'A Troubled Present'. Though slavery is illegal all over the world, there are now more slaves than there have ever been. Though I'm not sure I needed the science fiction bit at the end. But then, if you're interested in science fiction, maybe you would...
Things settle down a bit when we get to 1500 and Black describes how new transport links facilitated the global transport of enslaved people. It's clear he feels on more solid ground here. Old empires were destroyed and maritime nations established new ones. (I'll never understand why the idea 'stop the boats' is so difficult for modern progressives to understand.) Non-consenting labour was filched from Africa, India and Afghanistan, while Morocco, Portugal and Spain wrangled over who had rights over what. Meanwhile, the Barbary Corsairs rampaged on unabated, and Russia was invaded by the Tartars. Ethiopian women were coveted in Egypt. Black believes that the trade across the Sahara and the Indian Ocean combined may have been greater than across the Atlantic. The interesting point is made that while sugar and cotton plantations in the Americas required enslaved men to do the heavy work required, the equally demanding grain industry in Eastern Europe used serfs, working under identical conditions. Black describes how the capitalist market in slaves was established and for me, this was one of the most interesting sections of the book, giving breadth to a topic about which a measure of tunnel vision is often involved.
The strength of this book is the informative breadth the writer gives to the slave trade, placing it in a global context in an account which is mercifully free of ideology. Slavery before 1500 is such an enormous and interesting topic that it deserves a book to itself, preferably with pictures and charts, because there was too much information in this book and it was all a bit superficial and indigestible.
What I learned from this book is that our post-industrialist norm of employment, wage labour, would have been somewhat counter-intuitive in former times. Money was invented in Mesopotamia in about 3000 BCE, and there was a lot of slavery before that. Even afterwards, a hierarchical society meant that those at the bottom of the pile did the hard work and weren't expected to complain. Unfree labour was the norm and workers were no more highly thought of than machinery is now, and probably less if we are thinking of, say a Ferrari or a Playstation 5. Barter, self employment and trade were the preferred ways of getting a living up to the Industrial Revolution, as they all offered a measure of independence, and through the ages we should probably be looking at a history of paid employment as more exceptional than slavery.
Black wisely follows his penultimate chapter 'The End of Slavery' with a final one: 'A Troubled Present'. Though slavery is illegal all over the world, there are now more slaves than there have ever been. Though I'm not sure I needed the science fiction bit at the end. But then, if you're interested in science fiction, maybe you would...
January 23, 2026
In much of today’s media, slavery is portrayed as a practice perpetrated by the English and the Americans.
In reality, as this book clearly demonstrates, slavery is almost as old as human civilisation itself. All the ancient city-states and empires, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, relied on it.
The Bible and the Koran accepted it as a part of the divine plan.
This book examines the evolution and extent of slavery up to the present day. However, as the title suggests, it is a brief volume that at times feels a bit rushed. Even so, it is highly revealing, the reading is painful, and the book exposes the barbarous side of the human race.
What is most shocking is how widely the exploitation of slaves was accepted across cultures, societies, and religions throughout history, spanning the entire globe.
More shamefully still, slavery is not confined to the past is still allowed to be practised today in some regions, particularly in parts of Africa - about one million slaves are held in Mauritania as inheritable property, out of a total population of 3.2 million in 2007.
In Niger, there are at least 43,000 slaves out of a total population of 14.9 million in 2007
Slavery returned in Sudan as a side-effect of the civil wars between the north and the south.
In Brazil in 2010, the number of child prostitutes was estimated at a quarter of a million (out of a population of 191.3 million), some of them sold into prostitution by impoverished parents.
Some of the more surprising facts I found in the book:
- An estimated one million Christians were seized as slaves by Muslims in and around the Mediterranean during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. While significant, this had a far smaller demographic impact than the transatlantic trade in African slaves to the New World.
- Irish raiders captured people, including from Britain, and sold them as slaves in Ireland. In the fifth century, the future St Patrick was one of these.
- Sultan Mawlay Isma’il of Morocco maintained a corps of black slave soldiers.
- While the Western and Islamic demand side of the slave trade was morally reprehensible, so too was the African ‘supply’ side. African agency extended even to the use of African “guardians” aboard slave ships.
- in French West Indies, free blacks owned around 100,000 slaves. This reflected how hierarchy was used to suppress resistance, involving privileged slaves, slave drivers, overseers, and free black planters and slave owners.
- As a reminder of the prevalence of slavery, the southeastern Native Americans, such as the Cherokee and Creek, owned thousands of African slaves by the 1830s.
Whatever their race, Comanche captives were enslaved, a practice that continued into at least the 1870s.
- Slaves were also transported into the Islamic world from the north, particularly from Ukraine and the Caucasus, although this trade declined as Russian power expanded southward, especially after the conquest of Crimea in 1783.
- The Russian conquest of Tashkent in 1865, of Bukhara and Samarkand in 1868 and of Merv in 1884 were also significant for the ending of slavery. When the Russians occupied the oasis of Khiva in 1873, they liberated 30,000 slaves, some of whom were Russians, although many were Persians, victims of the slave raiding by more nomadic societies on their more settled counterparts.
- The French conquest of Madagascar in 1894–95 was followed by the formal abolition of slavery there in 1896.
- In New Zealand, Māori society practised slavery alongside cannibalism
- Slavery was formally abolished in Korea in 1894, in Zanzibar in 1909, and in China in 1906
- Ethiopia was only admitted to the League of Nations in 1923 after agreeing to ban slavery and the slave trade, bringing an end to a major legal source of slaves.
In reality, as this book clearly demonstrates, slavery is almost as old as human civilisation itself. All the ancient city-states and empires, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, relied on it.
The Bible and the Koran accepted it as a part of the divine plan.
This book examines the evolution and extent of slavery up to the present day. However, as the title suggests, it is a brief volume that at times feels a bit rushed. Even so, it is highly revealing, the reading is painful, and the book exposes the barbarous side of the human race.
What is most shocking is how widely the exploitation of slaves was accepted across cultures, societies, and religions throughout history, spanning the entire globe.
More shamefully still, slavery is not confined to the past is still allowed to be practised today in some regions, particularly in parts of Africa - about one million slaves are held in Mauritania as inheritable property, out of a total population of 3.2 million in 2007.
In Niger, there are at least 43,000 slaves out of a total population of 14.9 million in 2007
Slavery returned in Sudan as a side-effect of the civil wars between the north and the south.
In Brazil in 2010, the number of child prostitutes was estimated at a quarter of a million (out of a population of 191.3 million), some of them sold into prostitution by impoverished parents.
Some of the more surprising facts I found in the book:
- An estimated one million Christians were seized as slaves by Muslims in and around the Mediterranean during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. While significant, this had a far smaller demographic impact than the transatlantic trade in African slaves to the New World.
- Irish raiders captured people, including from Britain, and sold them as slaves in Ireland. In the fifth century, the future St Patrick was one of these.
- Sultan Mawlay Isma’il of Morocco maintained a corps of black slave soldiers.
- While the Western and Islamic demand side of the slave trade was morally reprehensible, so too was the African ‘supply’ side. African agency extended even to the use of African “guardians” aboard slave ships.
- in French West Indies, free blacks owned around 100,000 slaves. This reflected how hierarchy was used to suppress resistance, involving privileged slaves, slave drivers, overseers, and free black planters and slave owners.
- As a reminder of the prevalence of slavery, the southeastern Native Americans, such as the Cherokee and Creek, owned thousands of African slaves by the 1830s.
Whatever their race, Comanche captives were enslaved, a practice that continued into at least the 1870s.
- Slaves were also transported into the Islamic world from the north, particularly from Ukraine and the Caucasus, although this trade declined as Russian power expanded southward, especially after the conquest of Crimea in 1783.
- The Russian conquest of Tashkent in 1865, of Bukhara and Samarkand in 1868 and of Merv in 1884 were also significant for the ending of slavery. When the Russians occupied the oasis of Khiva in 1873, they liberated 30,000 slaves, some of whom were Russians, although many were Persians, victims of the slave raiding by more nomadic societies on their more settled counterparts.
- The French conquest of Madagascar in 1894–95 was followed by the formal abolition of slavery there in 1896.
- In New Zealand, Māori society practised slavery alongside cannibalism
- Slavery was formally abolished in Korea in 1894, in Zanzibar in 1909, and in China in 1906
- Ethiopia was only admitted to the League of Nations in 1923 after agreeing to ban slavery and the slave trade, bringing an end to a major legal source of slaves.
January 14, 2022
Black has crammed so much into this "brief" history, I come away disputing this choice of adjective. I admit this book could have been more detailed, more rigorous in exploring the intricacies of slavery throughout human history. But in reality, I didn't want it to be. Even as it is, it felt a little much; like Black was trying to cram so much in that result was almost too much to handle. Because of this, the book comes off as dry, a lifeless history mostly relaying straight facts. The final chapter, however, was phenomenal; Black's commentary on the lasting legacies of slavery is refreshing in a world where it is difficult to have an honest conversation about the history of slavery. I also appreciated his continued refrain about the universality of slavery; this was not solely, or uniquely, an American issue. And in much of this book, America was merely another player on the world scene. While a slog at times, I come away with a richer and more thoughtful understanding of this tragic stain on human history, and its lasting manifestations.
May 4, 2023
This book is well-researched but what I get is completely different from what I expect. I want to read about slavery where focus is only on one society e.g. India, the American South or South East Asia. I want an in-depth analysis of the types of slaves, the work they were tasked with, their daily lives, the punishments they received, their rest day, the secular and religious justification for slavery and so on. I also want to hear a more personal experience from the slaves themselves.
However, what I get instead is a book about slavery as it is practiced worldwide since the antiquity until now. The writer talks about colonialism, the slave trade, the plantation business, among others. They are informative, yes, but he keeps jumping from one region to another. Now he's talking about slavery in sugar plantation in West Indies, next he's talking about cotton production in the South.
I do not, however, blame the writer. I picked the wrong book.
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Read from Apr 18 - 4 May
However, what I get instead is a book about slavery as it is practiced worldwide since the antiquity until now. The writer talks about colonialism, the slave trade, the plantation business, among others. They are informative, yes, but he keeps jumping from one region to another. Now he's talking about slavery in sugar plantation in West Indies, next he's talking about cotton production in the South.
I do not, however, blame the writer. I picked the wrong book.
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Read from Apr 18 - 4 May
December 5, 2021
This was not what I expected. I expected stories about life as a slave with a focus on ancient times from the renaissance and back. Instead, What I received was a focus on Western slavery after the renaissance with a huge focus on the transatlantic slave trade and economics (the boring kind). This was a shocker (also not the good kind), and I was disappointed at how boring this book was, given how Jeremy Black wrote the very entertaining and informative A Brief History of the Samurai.
However, I did learn some very interesting facts about the slave trade and slavery overall, so I will not give this a 1 star because it was useful for me, and there were rare moments that were interesting in the book. However, I would not recommend this because I have had more entertaining and more fruitful rewards scouring for information related to slavery on google and Wikipedia.
However, I did learn some very interesting facts about the slave trade and slavery overall, so I will not give this a 1 star because it was useful for me, and there were rare moments that were interesting in the book. However, I would not recommend this because I have had more entertaining and more fruitful rewards scouring for information related to slavery on google and Wikipedia.
July 23, 2021
Whilst I did expect this book to be academic and to provide a broad overview rather than going into detail, I still found myself wanting to skip large paragraphs of entirely names and dates. I also found some of the writing inaccessible for the standard reader, which to some extent again is to be expected for academic work, but it wasn't always necessary in the context. However, the book does provide an overview of the history of slavery, just as it aims to, with plenty of detail for an overview.
June 10, 2019
Short but profound
An articulate, demanding and pithy account - showing a fine historian’s balance. I loved the carefully argued reminder of the role that history plays in guiding us to a more constructive approach to the future.
An articulate, demanding and pithy account - showing a fine historian’s balance. I loved the carefully argued reminder of the role that history plays in guiding us to a more constructive approach to the future.
April 2, 2023
A book of this kind rarely satisfies the non-academic reading community - too short for most. The author has a good grasp of the material and for the casual reader, the coverage is informative. A worthwhile read.
June 4, 2022
Very discriptive
September 2, 2025
More a text book than a popular history book. I think I absorbed about 20% of the very dense facts. But it was worth persevering and thinking about carefully.
August 12, 2016
This is a non fiction book that discusses the history of slavery up to present day! I really enjoyed reading about how slavery is still a real issue today, and that learning about slavery can help us learn about the future of slavery! There were a couple parts that were a little dry, but overall I enjoyed reading about the connection to real world problems! And as a social studies teacher who teaches about the repercussions of world slavery and global issues, I found a couple arguments I could bring into my classroom! The students are making documentaries about global issues and one is on children's rights and child slaves! I love when my reading relates to my teaching! It's like a double win!
Any who, I would recommend this book for people who enjoy reading non fiction historical books! If you don't like non fiction, this is not the book for you!
Any who, I would recommend this book for people who enjoy reading non fiction historical books! If you don't like non fiction, this is not the book for you!
February 2, 2015
Started well but I was under the impression that the book would go into more detail of the lives of the slaves.In fact just the politics of the trade. I got bored in the end and skim read last 50 pages
June 13, 2017
Not structured or presented in a disinterested manner, filled with stilted and opaque verbosity.
Read
February 16, 2018dnf
i think non fiction books with a large topic are just not for me... i hate reading books when half of them are dates and names. i just get lost and dont feel like reading the book
i think non fiction books with a large topic are just not for me... i hate reading books when half of them are dates and names. i just get lost and dont feel like reading the book
May 18, 2018
Although I'm interested in this topic and this book was a comprehensive investigation of slavery around the world through the ages, it read too much like a text book. Sadly, I gave up after eighty pages.
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