Compare slavery in the Americas to the pre-existing Muslim slave trade?

Question

I have this essay to write and I need a start and some ideas on this question. Help will be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Remember that slavery has been in existence since pre biblical days almost. It crops up everywhere in the Old Testament. It is not a new thing. But it has been in existence as part of the infrastructure of what is now the Arab world for millennia.

This is a huge topic. One thing is that the Muslims gave their slaves opportunity to rise to the top if they proved themselves skilled and worthy. This never happened in the Colonial days. The most a slave could hope for was going from being a field hand to a ladies maid. Slave women if they were smart and beautiful could rise very well within the harem.

America only enslaved black Africans. Muslims do not care about skin colour so much although there is a preference for fairer. American slavery is abolished. It is still alive and well in Muslim countries. The party line might deny it, but that is what party lines do best.

From archaeologists and records kept in ancient times, we learn that slave trade existed for a long time in the Arab world. Back in the days of the caliphs [early Muslim leaders], having a slave for a mother was not a stigma for a Muslim man. Due to polygamy, this was quite common. In America, many owners had children by their slaves. Rarely were these children acknowledged and often were they sold. Black blood was a major flaw in a white person.

Islamic law, in contrast to the ancient and colonial systems, accords the slave a certain legal status and assigns obligations as well as rights to the slave owner. The manumission of slaves, though recommended as a meritorious act, is not required, and the institution of slavery not only is recognized but is elaborately regulated by Sharia law. Perhaps for this very reason the position of the domestic slave in Muslim society was in most respects better than in the nineteenth-century Americas.

While the life of the slave in Muslim society was no worse, and in some ways was better, than that of the free poor, the processes of acquisition and transportation often imposed appalling hardships. As far as Islam was concerned, the horrors of the abduction and transportation of slaves were the worst part. But once the slaves were settled in Islamic culture they had genuine opportunities to realize their potential. Many of them became merchants in Mecca, Jedda, and elsewhere.

The way in which slavery was practiced in Islamic countries had both bright and dark sides. What is regrettable now is that this practice among Muslims is seldom openly discussed - as if slavery was exclusively a Western phenomenon. This deliberate silence enables Islamic propagandists in America to represent Muslims as liberators of the people of African origin, contrary to historical fact.

http://shifaa.blogspot.com/2006/09/did-arabs-invent-slavery.html
Good little comparison, very general

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery
Everything you ever wanted to know about slavery ... almost

Answer 2

Slavery started way back in the early bible times, when the Jewish nation were slaves for the Egyptians. Good intentions, became later abused. The Jewish Nation was just to work for the Egyptians, to pay back a debt. The Egyptians took advantage of the deal. Slavery was then used to demean a certain race of people, because of their religous beliefs. Slaves built up monuments, planted, and harvested of food for the wealthy people. The egyptians violently abused the slaves.
Man has dominated man through out the years, and they have followed the footsteps of the egyptians. Slavery is a sad thing, I'm sorry I don't know much about the Muslim slaves. As for the American Slave Trade. Well this time, was a time of great heartache for the African Americans. They suffered loss of family, security, and love. They were degrated as a people, and this destroyed the spirit of many of them. But I think it made some of them become powerful, and united in some ways. For many hatred ensued with in them, and this was passed down through out the generations. But who can blame them. I hope that Slavery will not repeated. But I still see it today around the world. Especially with alot of children.

Answer 3

Yes, I knew that, and slavery existed amongst people in Europe, too. The big difference is that as opposed to slavery based on race, slaves in both Africa and Europe were accepted into society, allowed to marry whomever they wanted, and the offspring WEREN'T slaves, as opposed to the slavery practiced in the Americas...

Answer 4

The muslim slave trade started earlier and finished later.
They didn't stop it, it was stopped against their will.
IF families were kept together, the young boys were usually castrated, and if more than one in ten survived the operation, it was thought that Allah had been very merciful.
No muslim I know of has ever expressed any guilt for this.

Answer 5

They were carried out slightly differently

One focused solely on african slaves the other did not

just find wat is simialr /diff... not hard