how was slavery in Africa before white people came there?

Question

please name more point you dont have to really explain them just lots of points maybe a short explanaition please if yor going to say to look it up dont bother

Answer 1

Slavery existed among the tribes and countries of Africa. When they fought wars, they would take prisoners and place them in a society away from their homes and friends and families, often never permitted to return. They would serve a few years of bondage and sometimes be released on good behavior and accepted into society. Most did not return to their village for pride and honor because it was considered a disgrace to be captured during battle. Other tribes were not so kind and would kill their prisoners of war or keep them in bondage for life.

When the white man arrived, slavery had been going on in Africa for centuries. Whites used missionaries and the trading companies who had already earned the trust of the natives, to breach their security and capture them, selling them into slavery if they lived through the Middle Passage to North America and Britain. The Middle Passage was the trip across the Atlantic to bondage.

The whites weren't the first to think of enslaving people. Slavery stretches back to biblical times. It's just that slavery in certain cultures was defined by the rules of society.

Answer 2

Slavery in Africa took many forms, as did slavery throughout the world. The most common form of slavery in Africa was simply capture during a raid. In exchange for living, the defeated person, or their families, were expected to perform whatever labors given them. they had few rights, but generally were not badly abused. Many would eventually be given their freedom,and become part of the tribe. Among the other types of slavery that existed were debt slavery, where a person who owed another money could be sold into debt in order to repay the debtor, apprenticeship, where in exchange for room and board(and if lucky a small allowance) a child or teenager would learn a profession from a skilled craftsman, serfdom, where the unlucky serf was literally part of the land. He could not legally move or change his job, and if his master sold the land, the serf stayed with the land, and the new owner. And slavery by conquest has been universal, through all ages of history. When the Roman empire collapsed, slavery in Europe became uncommon, mainly because it was no longer economically feasible. But it was still legal in most parts of Europe, and those rich enough to afford a slave might keep one or two as body servants or other skilled jobs. Depending on the culture, and type of slavery, the long term prospects for the individual slave varied from bleak to good. Some forms of slavery allowed a slave to work himself to freedom, where the master permitted or was required to allow a slave to earn money "on the side" of his regular duties. This is one reason slavery lasted so long in Rome. Most slaves had the opportunity to earn enough money to eventually buy their way to freedom, and their children could even become citizens. Other cultures set terms for how long a person could be a slave. Still others allowed slaves to be freed if their owner granted it to them. (Emancipation). This last was not uncommon even in the South, often done when the owner died and freed his slave in a will. In Europe, this last one was most common. Again, it was rare, as slavery was not practical economically. But since the Bible mentioned slavery, there was little opposition to the idea until the late 17th century. By then, slavery in the new world had become almost an economic necessity. And so people came up with more reasons to rationalize the institution.

Answer 3

The Arabs were enslaving Africans before white people visited Africa. In addition some Africans were enslaving their fellow Africans all the while. Even today there are still instances of black on black slavery in Africa. It's very sad.

Answer 4

Slavery has been endemic(everywhere) since people began to talk. It existed because there are many different nations in Africa and one group would gain power over anothe and either forceably or gradually enslave them. the Zulu maoved into South africa with their Bantu slaves.
The first Egyptians (including the 1st Pharoah) were black and they (Upper egypt) enslaved Lower Egypt (mediteranean whites) probably 5000 years ago, finally they mixed cultures. The Nubians and Abyssinians(Ethiopia-Sheba-Yemen) were great civilizations and conquered both Black and White cultures around them. The GHANA, Senegalese, Mandingo,Zimbabwe, cultures all conquered and enslaved.
The Tutsi and Hutu are probably Linguistically-genetically-and
culurally related but they have been murdering and enslaving each other for centuries before the European whites ever arrived. The arrival of Islam gave a new justification for exploitation and enslavement allowing the creation of a master-slave language called Swahili a blend of arabic and Bantu dialectics, this allowed the Muslim master to better communicate with their kaffirs( arabic word for inferior infidels, equivalent to the N word in american English).
Timbuktu was not only a great city of learning and culture but also a great center for the slave trade. Islamic traders would come from Mecca and as far as Samarkand to pick unusual exotic slaves for the Pashas-Emirs-Sultans, who were jaded with their European or Oriental slaves. They shopped for boys and girls, plus laborers and craftsmen.
I don't know if it was a bad as the balkans under the Ottomans, but it sounds possible they had similar attitudes.
The Ottoman turks would demand tribute of children from the eastern europeans. The boys were culled with the most promising being forceably converted to Islam to become soldiers (see Janissaries) and the rest were to be laborers or worst eunuchs(castrated), so they could guard Hareems. The girls would be concubines, house slaves or laborers. This also happened to a lesser extent in Visigoth Iberia(Spain-Portugal).[700-900 A>D>] I imagine it would happen in africa to a varying degree because the Moghuls also did this and worse(genocide on Hindus) when they conquered India.
Yes the African Islamic Kingdoms provided the slaves to the Ottomans who sold them to their Venetian(Venice) allies who could not use the first slaves ( slavs from eastern europe) who died in the hot humid sugar plantations the Venetians were setting up on Mediteranean Islands. The africans were better aclimatized to the heat than the cold climate slavics.
The fact that they were black made it easy for the Turks to separate them from the others.
The first africans in jamestown(williamsburg) were actually considered indentured servants for several generations, american slavery gradually evolved into the evil that it became over a generation or two.(They were brought in in 1622? by a dutch merchant whose wife,was one, and was purportedly an ancestor of Sally Hemmings-Thomas Jeffersons purported mistress and the octoon half sister of his dead wife-. It was a social justification with a stretch from religous dogma. The american abolitionist movement actually started in the south with slavery not ending in the north until 1840 to 1850. A great portion of NY City was built by slaave labor. The Irish were treated worse in new England than slaves in most of south. ( Missisiippi-Texas were very bad). Georgia slavery was illegal until 1760's and some states(Georgia-Virginia) had retirement at 65. slavery was actually more expensive than hiring tenant farmers in many areas, but it was not the "FREE" labor that attracted most to slavery, it was CONTROL over another human being, power is a terrible drug and people often enjoy the abuse that they can give to others.

Answer 5

Slavery is an ancient practice... before whites started visiting Africa to get slaves, slaves were taken from other tribes within Africa...the whites simple made it a bigger operation, by exporting them, when before it was only a local thing.

Answer 6

tribes often sold their children in exchange for cattle,currency,or slave workers. Alot of africans were kidnapped and taken to america, but alot were sold to teh white man by africans as well. Im not sure but how the africans treated their fellow slaves in africa though.....

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Tony 500 gives an excellent answer.

Answer 9

well there are so many differernt tribes in africa, and they all at sometime went to war, and then used their prisoners as slaves.

Answer 10

africa's slavery wasn't very bad. the slaves were somewhere between slaves and servants that worked for african royalty. but the african weren't overly cruel to them like white men were.