the.com/enslavement
the oldest theft: stealing not what someone has, but who they are.
means The act of forcing a person into bondage as property, stripping them of freedom and control over their own life and labor.
from From "enslave" — the prefix "en-" (to put into) bolted onto "slave," plus the noun-making "-ment." The word "slave" itself carries a grim history: it comes through Old French and Medieval Latin "sclavus," which appears to be the same word as "Slav," the people. The grimly common explanation is that so many Slavic people were captured and sold in the medieval slave trade that their very name became the word for a person owned by another — a whole ethnonym swallowed into a condition.
- global scale
- More people enslaved today than any prior era.
- legal ghost
- Mauritania abolished slavery last, in 1981.
- hidden economy
- Forced labor generates billions annually worldwide.
- language root
- Slave comes from Slav, once Europe's captive trade.
- debt trap
- Bonded labor enslaves through impossible-to-repay loans.
transatlantic slave trade — approximately 12.5 million africans forcibly transported to the americas between 1501-1867
slavery in ancient rome — roughly 30% of rome's population were enslaved persons, particularly after military conquests
arab slave trade — approximately 9 million africans enslaved and transported across the sahara and indian ocean from 650-1920