Slaves were largely taken from conquered enemies, there was not an industry of taking and gathering slaves. African economies were instead more feudal and communalistic, rather than slave-based. It wasn’t until the arrival of the Europeans that slaves became as important as they did for gaining technology and avoiding invasion by the Europeans, and thus the slave trade proper was created. There existed proto-slave trade formations that grew vastly.
I think you’re getting a bit hooked on how I’m wording things. Am I denying the existence of anyone buying a slave ever before the Europeans arrived? No. Am I denying that there was a real slave trade, an economy of slavery, before the Europeans arrived? Yes.
I think this argument is missing the nuanced component where the continent of Africa experienced this brief moment between the fall of the roman empire and the rise of the european slave trade where Africa wasn’t being raped by Europe. As i understand my slavery history the early-middle roman empire got the ball rolling a few thousand years ago, granted to nothing near the scale of modern European exploitation
Slave based economies existed before feudalism, yes. The advancement from slave-based economies like Rome to feudalism was a progressive one, and was largely based on changing productive modes.
RetroFed
SaltyAmerican
Share on Mastodon
Share on Reddit
Share on WhatsApp
The slave trade practically did not exist. Slavery did, but it was not an industry. This is why it dramatically expanded.
Slave trade did exist. Where there are slaves there is usually slave trade.
Slaves were largely taken from conquered enemies, there was not an industry of taking and gathering slaves. African economies were instead more feudal and communalistic, rather than slave-based. It wasn’t until the arrival of the Europeans that slaves became as important as they did for gaining technology and avoiding invasion by the Europeans, and thus the slave trade proper was created. There existed proto-slave trade formations that grew vastly.
I think you’re getting a bit hooked on how I’m wording things. Am I denying the existence of anyone buying a slave ever before the Europeans arrived? No. Am I denying that there was a real slave trade, an economy of slavery, before the Europeans arrived? Yes.
I think this argument is missing the nuanced component where the continent of Africa experienced this brief moment between the fall of the roman empire and the rise of the european slave trade where Africa wasn’t being raped by Europe. As i understand my slavery history the early-middle roman empire got the ball rolling a few thousand years ago, granted to nothing near the scale of modern European exploitation
Slave based economies existed before feudalism, yes. The advancement from slave-based economies like Rome to feudalism was a progressive one, and was largely based on changing productive modes.