Slavery Source Book

Slavery Source Book

26 Sources of Evidence about Slavery, from Ancient Times to the 21st Century www.learnhistory.org.uk

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25:44 As for your male and female slaves who may belong to you, you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. 25:45 Also you may buy slaves from the children of the foreigners who reside* with you, and from their families that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property. 25:46 You may give them as inheritance* to your children after you to possess* as property. You may enslave* them perpetually*. However, as for your brothers the Israelites*, no man may rule over his brother harshly.

Transcript: ‘Vegetus, assistant slave of Montanus the slave of the August Emperor, has bought the girl Fortunata, by nationality a Diablintian (from near Jublains in France), for 600 denarii. She is warranted healthy and not liable to run away ...’

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SOURCE A Book of Leviticus, Old Testament Word list reside = live inheritance = what is passed from parents to children when they die possess = own enslave = make into slaves perpetually = forever Israelites = Jews

SOURCE B Wooden tablet found buried in London in 2003. The 5.5in by 4.5in tablet, found at a City building site, shows that Fortunata cost 600 dinarii, two years' salary for a Roman soldier. The girl was bought by Vegetus, an assistant slave owned by Montanus, who in turn was owned by the emperor. They were both officials in London. As a slave, Vegetus could not technically own property, but in practice Fortunata would have been regarded as one of his personal possessions, possibly a concubine (prostitute)

A wealthy Roman would buy a slave in a market place. Young males with a trade could fetch quite a sum of money simply because they had a trade and their age meant that they could last for quite a number of years and, as such, represented value for money. Someone who was a cook by trade could be very expensive. Once bought, a slave was a slave for life. A slave could only get their freedom if they were given it by their owner or if they bought their freedom. To buy your freedom, you had to raise the same sum of money that your master had paid for you – a virtually impossible task. If a slave married and had children, the children would automatically become slaves. Young children were sometimes killed by their parents rather than let them become slaves. As he gazed around the slave camp, Patrick realized that thousands of Britons had been captured and brought to Ireland. Eventually, the slaves were organized and marched off to the primitive homes of their new owners. Putting one weary foot in front of the other, Patrick numbly walked the path his captors had forced upon him. What lay ahead for him, he did not know. Most of the island is flat and overgrown with forests, although many of its districts are hilly. It bears grain, cattle, gold, silver, and iron. These things, accordingly, are exported from the island, as also hides, and slaves, and dogs that are by nature suited to the purposes of the chase; the Celti, however, use both these and the native dogs for the purposes of war too. The men of Britain are taller than the Celti, and not so yellow-haired, although their bodies are of looser build. The following is an indication of their size: I myself, in Rome, saw mere lads towering as much as half a foot above the tallest people in the city, although they were bandy-legged and presented no fair lines anywhere else in their figure. Their habits are in part like those of the Celti, but in part more simple and barbaric— so much so that, on account of their inexperience, some of them, although well supplied with milk, make no cheese; and they have no experience in gardening or other agricultural pursuits.

SOURCE C From a schools history website. 2000-2007 historylearningsite.co.uk Chris Trueman BA (Hons), MA taught History and Politics at a major secondary school in England for the last 26 years. Chris graduated with a BA (Honours) in History from Aberystwyth University, Wales in 1979

SOURCE D Christian History Institute Patrick; The Making of a Missionary © 2007 – The story of Saint Patrick

SOURCE E From ‘Geographica’ by Strabo, a Greek historian and geographer, who lived between 64BC and AD24. Strabo’s book is a descriptive history of the peoples of the world.

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These invaders drove the Britons to the north and west. The Saxons called the native Britons, 'wealas', which meant foreigner or slave, and from this term came the modern words Wales and Welsh.

SOURCE F Anglo-Saxon England by Kim Woods

The Vikings were notorious for their slave-raiding and trading practices, which were largely incited* by the demand for slaves in the Muslim east and southwest. The Islamic demand for cheap labour in Baghdad, Samarra, Cairo and Cordoba created a need for slaves that the Vikings and other traders met. Anglo-Saxons were sold in Dublin and transported east and southwest, and on arrival in Islam they worked in bondage* alongside Turks, Slavs and Africans. There is a maritime* town, called Bristol, which is on the direct route to Ireland, and so suitable for trade with that barbarian* land. The inhabitants of Bristol took men whom they had purchased from all over England and they carried off to Ireland; but first they got the women with child and sent them pregnant to market. You would have seen queues of the wretches* of both sexes shackled* together and you would have pitied them; those who were beautiful and those who were in the flower of youth were daily prostituted and sold amidst much wailing to the barbarians. Oh execrable crime, wretched* dishonour, men who remind us of beasts, to sell into slavery their nearest relative because of their necessities. 41. Also we forbid any one to sell a Christian into a foreign land and especially to heathens*. For let great care be taken lest their souls for which Christ gave His life be sold into damnation. 15. And we prohibit* any one to sell a man out of the country.

SOURCE G Kathy Lavezzo – ‘Angels on the Edge of the World - Geography, Literature, and English Community, 1000-1534’ 2006 incited = encouraged bondage = captivity

Moreover, although it has been decreed by the Lateran Council* that Jews should not be allowed to have Christian slaves in their houses, either under pretext of nursing their children, or as servants, or for any other reason whatsoever

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SOURCE H The Life of St. Wulfstan, 1066 maritime = seaside barbarian = uncivilised wretches = lowly persons shackled = chained execrable = disgusting SOURCE I Laws of King William I, 1080. Despite these laws banning the sale of English slaves to foreigners, Giraldus Cambrensis reported that the trade was still thriving one hundred years later. heathens = non-Christians prohibit = ban SOURCE J Pope Innocent III: The Keeping of Slaves by the Jews, 1204, a letter from the Pope to King Philip Augustus of France. Lateran Council = Catholic Church leaders

"FORTY SHILLINGS Reward. RUN away from the subscriber*, living in Salisbury township, Lancaster county, an English servant man, named THOMAS WILLIAMS; he is about 20 years of age, 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high, of a fair complexion*, has a good countenance*, smooth face, is very bashful*, has small legs, with little calf, wears his own hair; had on, when he went away, a very dark brown coloured broadcloth coat. He was bred on the borders of Wales, and has something of the Welsh accent in speaking; he has been in Ireland, from which place he sailed for America; has been a year and 8 months in the country. Whoever apprehends* the said servant, and secures him, so that his master may have him again, shall have Twenty Shillings reward, if taken in the county, if out of the county Forty Shillings, and reasonable charges, paid by July 14, 1772.WILLIAM FULLERTON.” FIVE POUNDS Reward. RUN away on the second day of January, 1772, from the subscriber, living near Winchester, in Virginia, a servant lad, named JOHN ROBINSON, 18 years of age, he is a short well set lad; had on a wool hat, two old cloth coloured jackets, a great coat, of the same colour, leather breeches*, blue cloth leggings, and blue stockings; he came from Ireland; has lived in Philadelphia, Chester, and Cumberland county; he had on an iron collar. Took with him a brown waggon HORSE, branded on the near buttock with G.B. and a leather saddle. Whoever secures the lad, shall receive Three Pounds reward, and Forty Shillings for the horse, if not found with the lad, and reasonable charges, paid by me DAVID DAVIS. “Was taken up, on suspicion of being a run away, and now confined in the gaol* of Chester county, Pennsylvania, a Black Man, who calls himself SHADRACK MACKLIN, Appears to be about 21 or 22 years of age; about 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high; full face; thick lips; a small scar under his right eye, says he was brought up with Sampson Davis, a colored* man, and a house carpenter, near Milford, Sussex County, state of Delaware, and set free by him March 1809 but has no credentials* to show this was the case. Any person owning said black man, is desired to come forward, prove his property, pay charges and take him away before the 17th of December next, otherwise he will be discharged from prison.”

SOURCE K The Pennsylvania Gazette July 23, 1772 subscriber = person who placed the advert complexion = face countenance = facial expression bashful = shy apprehends = captures Twenty Shillings(One Pound) is worth about £90 today Forty shillings about £180 SOURCE L February 6, 1772 The Pennsylvania Gazette breeches = trousers Five Pounds is worth about £450 today.

SOURCE M 1809, West Chester, Pennsylvania gaol = jail colored = mixed-race credentials = proof

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In South Carolina the largest group of colored slave masters in the city of Charleston worked in the clothing business. Many business owners found that slavery provided them with the labor needed to fully exploit the market for clothing. By their own industry, colored women acquired the capital to purchase slaves. In 1847, Caroline Lubet, a mulatto* businesswoman of Charleston City, bought a 26-year-old woman named Elizabeth for $425. In 1850 she was reported to be the owner of two black women and an 18-year-old mulatto girl. Her ownership of slaves lasted until 1865 when she was forced to emancipate* her slaves.

SOURCE N Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860 by Larry Koger, 1995 mulatto = mixed-race emancipate = free SOURCE O This is an Ostarbeiter file for a Russian girl named Anna Asarowa. She was 19 years old at the time she was conscripted. The Ostarbeiter program brought conscripted labor from the occupied east to the Reich. These young people were essentially prisoners, slave laborers -- restricted to their place of residence (in some cases labor camps) and forbidden to fraternize with Germans. Most Ostarbeiters were Polish or Russian. Such workers were required to wear an identification patch with "Ost." Because they were regarded as subhuman, they were ordered to be separated from the Germans. Those who tried to escape were hanged where other workers could see their bodies. Many Ostarbeiters perished in Germany because the German authorities ordered that "they should be worked to death." Others who were working in German factories were killed in Allied bombing raids.

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The Japanese considered these men fit for work. The man on the right can't do his shorts up because his stomach is swollen with beriberi. Ossie Jackson (centre) has wet beriberi in his legs, which are virtually the same diameter from his ankle up to his thighs. Benjamin Pearce (left) is also suffering malnutrition and beriberi. Photograph and text by Australian George Aspinal, who was sent to work on the Burma-Siam Railway in 1943. North African pirates abducted and enslaved more than 1 million Europeans between 1530 and 1780 in a series of raids which depopulated coastal towns from Sicily to Cornwall, according to new research. Thousands of white Christians were seized every year to work as galley slaves, labourers and concubines for Muslim overlords in what is today Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya, it is claimed.

SOURCE P The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by British, Australian, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project inspired by the need for improved communications to maintain the large Japanese army in Burma. During its construction more than 16,000 prisoners of war died-mainly of sickness, malnutrition and exhaustion - and were buried along the railway. Burmese and Malay slave labourers too died in their thousands-exactly how many will never be known. The Japanese kept no records and it was impossible for anyone else to do so, nor were the graves marked, but between 80,000 and 100,000 perished.

SOURCE Q Rory Carroll, Africa correspondent Thursday March 11, 2004 The Guardian

Almost all the inhabitants of the village of Baltimore, in Ireland, were captured in 1631, and there were other raids in Devon and Cornwall.

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“A lad was ordered to sweep a chimney at Wandsworth; he came down after endeavouring to ascend (climb), and this occurred several times before he gave up the point; at last the journeyman took some straw or hay, and lighted it under him to drive him up; when he managed to get up the last time, he found there was a bar across the chimney, which he could not pass; he was therefore obliged to come down, and his master beat him so cruelly that he could not stand for a fortnight.” http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/etext/scoble/scoblem.html "The Coolies were locked up in the sick house, and next morning they were flogged with a cat-o'-nine-tails; the manager was in the house, and they flogged the people under his house; they were tied to the post of the gallery of the manager's house; I cannot tell how many licks; he gave them enough. I saw blood. When they were flogged at manager's house, they rubbed salt pickle on their backs."-- Elizabeth Caesar. "The fact that slavery - in the form of human trafficking - still exists in the 21st century shames us all. From Himalayan villages to Eastern European cities, people - especially women and girls - are attracted by the prospect of a well-paid job as a domestic servant, waitress or factory worker. Traffickers recruit victims through fake advertisements, mail-order bride catalogues and casual acquaintances.

SOURCE R Account by BM Forster, a gentleman from Walthamstow, London in ‘London Labour and the London Poor’ by Henry Mayhew 1851 SOURCE S A witness describes treatment of Indian ‘Coolies’ in Demerara, Guyana in 1838. Hundreds of thousands of Indian and Chinese people were transported to Mauritius and the Caribbean to replace the labourers of the sugar plantations after the supply of African slaves was stopped in 1807

SOURCE T Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Upon arrival at their destination, victims are placed in conditions controlled by 2007. traffickers while they are exploited to earn illicit revenues. Many are physically confined, their travel or identity documents are taken away and they or their families are threatened if they do not cooperate. Women and girls forced to work as prostitutes are blackmailed by the threat that traffickers will tell their families. Trafficked children are dependent on their traffickers for food, shelter and other basic necessities. Traffickers also play on victims' fears that authorities in a foreign country will prosecute or deport them if they ask for help.”

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There are reports of girls from Togo trafficked far from their home countries to work as domestic workers.18 Perceived as a cheap and always available labour source, children in West Africa are trafficked to work on tea, cotton and cocoa plantations. Mining and other hazardous industries are additional sectors that sometimes use trafficking as a way to recruit the labour force. Women and girls may be trafficked as brides for various reasons. In fact, there is a growing demand by older men for young, virgin brides in times of the high risk of HIV/AIDS infection. This practice is reported in extended families in western Kenya, Zimbabwe and parts of Ghana. In these countries, girls as young as eight are selected as child brides to ensure their “purity”. A group of Tanzanian girls in Sweden described to medical personnel how an African woman came to their parents’ house and offered the girls “education opportunities” abroad. The girls were taken to Sweden by the woman, kept in her house and shown sex videos and then forced to work on the streets as prostitutes.

SOURCE U UNICEF Report, September 2003

SOURCE V UNICEF Report, September 2003

SOURCE W UNICEF Report, September 2003

SOURCE X BBC Special Report – Slavery in the 21st Century

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Oliver Cromwell "barbadosed" Irish who refused to clear off their land and allowed other Irish to be kidnapped from the streets of Ireland and transported to Barbados. Those who were barbadosed were sold as slaves or indentured servants, to British planters. They lived in slave conditions and had no control over the number of years they had to serve. The number of Barbadosed Irish in not known and estimates very widely, from a high of 60,000 to a low of 12,000. Both Africans and Irish suffered in harsh conditions and joined together to revolt against British settlers.

SOURCE Y Tangled Roots is a research project about the shared history of African Americans and Irish Americans. It grows from the mission of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Abolition, Resistance and Slavery at Yale University

SOURCE Z c.1890 Slavery in Zanzibar. A glass lantern slide Inscribed: 'An Arab master's punishment for a slight offence. The log weighed 32 pounds, and the boy could only move by carrying it on his head.' Unknown photographer, c. 1890. © National Maritime Museum, London

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