HIST116: Slavery: A World History Mid-Term

world history of slavery primary sources

Aristotle, Politics

• Time period: ~350 BCE

• Author: Aristotle

• What it’s saying:

  • Natural slaves exist, justifying slavery as a natural institution, hierarchy + natural order

  • Soul + body interaction

  • Some are ruled and some are rulers

  • Some ppl are not intellectually capable of taking care of themselves/being productive in their lives, therefore, need to be controlled/guided by enslavers/rulers

• Significance: Slavery was pervasive in ancient Greek society, Aristotle served to justify this action

Genesis, Chapter 9

• Time Period: 1400 BC

• Author: Moses

• What it’s saying:

  • Slavery can be inherited (generational slavery)

    • Ham and his descendants were cursed

  • Slavery part of the natural order

• Significance:

  • religious justification and morality for enslavers

  • “Ham’s descendants are Africans, so they can be enslaved”

  • Used as a justification for why African people looked different to Europeans

Roman Slavery Documents

Las Casas on Indian Slavery

Gandeaktena’s Decision to Become a Christian

• Time Period: 

• Author: 

• What it’s saying:

  • French in Montreal taking advantage of indigenous slavery, which came from a lack of labour + demand for more

  • economic network w/ indigenous societies

  • divide and conquer mentality

• Significance:

Ottobah Cugoano’s Narrative of Enslavement

• Time Period: 1787

• Author: Ottobah Cugoano

• What it’s saying:

  • the horrors and atrocities that Cugoano faced during the transatlantic slave trade

  • the psychological and physical violence he faced

  • kidnapped from his family at a young age by enslavers, where he endured the Middle Passage

• Significance:

  • shows what the enslaved endured (look at essay)

Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative

Stephanie Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery, Chapter 2

Details of the Amistad Case

Code Noir

• Time Period: 1685

• Author: issued by King Louis XIV

• What it’s saying:

  • governed slavery in French Caribbean colonies

  • emphasized Catholic conversion, legal protections, and strict social order

  • justified slavery as an institution but also deliberately stripped enslaved individuals of autonomy and any capacity for resistance or self-liberation

• Significance:

Early Virginia Laws

English Legal Opinions on Slaves as Property

Secret Diary of William Byrd II

“The Enslaved Family” WPA accounts