Slavery and the Slave Trade
The brutal institution of slavery -- the ownership of one person by another -- has existed for many thousands of years. From the 15th century, a savage new stage in the slave trade occurred. Europeans began capturing Africans and selling them for profit as slaves to work in European colonies in America and elsewhere. This resulted in the transportation of 12-15 million Africans as slaves. Upon their arrival in America the slave traders auctioned off their African captives to plantation owne...

The Triangle Trade
Some argue that the Triangle Trade was "only" a product of its times. Others, even at the beginning of the evolution of the system, thought it morally reprehensible. Economically, the middle passage didn't even make many fortunes for ship owners. Maybe if the individual slave had been assigned more worth, less atrocities might have occurred. Certainly, this was one of the bleaker episodes in human history and human dignity.

Saqaliba
Saqaliba: Slavs in Arab Slavery
Saqaliba was an Arabic word for Slavs, particularly Slavic mercenaries and slaves in the medieval Arab world in North Africa, Sicily and Al-Andalus. In the Muslim world, Saqaliba served in a multitude of ways: servants, eunuchs, craftsmen, soldiers, and even as caliph's guards. Many of them became prominent, and unlike millions of nameless slaves, their fate is generally known. In Iberia, Morocco, Damascus and Sicily their role may be compared with that of mamluks in the Ottoman Empire. Some ...