Most people tiptoe around slavery—regardless of whether or not scripture is in the spotlight. But in this sobering and eye-opening teaching from God Honest Truth, we peel back the layers of time to examine the reality of slavery—not as it appears in Scripture and not as it’s portrayed in popular historical re-imaginings, but for what slavery actually is as it played out across the globe in history.
Join us as we embark on a journey to understand the history of slavery across the globe and across human history. We will learn about how societies have grappled with, and in many cases, continue to grapple with. We will discover various examples of enslaved populations throughout history and the systems that employed them. We will expose the raw, unfiltered timeline of slavery outside the Bible: from the Greco-Roman world and Islamic trans-Saharan caravans, to the sugar plantations of Brazil, the Arab dhow raids on East Africa, and the largely forgotten White slave markets of the Barbary Coast. No excuses, no revisionist rubbish—just the historical facts.
This study does not explore slavery as illustrated in the Torah or practiced among the people of Yisra’ĕl, but rather focuses on how manmade systems of slavery changed and spread apart from Yahweh’s instruction through history and across cultures. In an upcoming video we will delve solely into slavery as it truly is from scripture.
So prepare for truth that cuts through centuries of myth and whitewashing. Come with an open mind and a ready heart, as we uncover the God Honest Truth of slavery in history.
#Slavery #HistoricalSlavery #GodHonestTruth #BiblicalTeaching #HumanHistory #ChristianEducation #TorahBasedTeaching
Transcript
All right, hit pause on the popular fairy tale. In this video, we’re not quoting Leviticus and we’re not apologizing or trying to make up for anything. Instead, we’re tracking cold hard chains across history and across civilizations. If you’re here for comfort or if you’re here for the same old revisionism, or if you only have a desire for someone to tickle your ear on this subject of slavery, then leave now. In this video, we’re not diving into what the Bible says about slavery, at least not yet. Instead, we’re taking a wide angle look at how slaver slavery has been practiced throughout history across different kingdoms and empires. This is a powerful and often too emotionally charged topic and one that demands our honest attention. So stay tuned because this video is the Godhonest truth regarding slavery and we start dusting off the lies in 20 seconds.
Hope you got your notes ready. cuz there’s a lot coming to you and it’s going to be a general overview. But before we get into all that, I do want to let everyone know that this series is going to be a overview, I’m sorry, this particular video is going to be an overview leading up to our detailed and specific video and teaching next week about slavery in the Bible. Now, what we present to you here in this video is not going to be even a drop in the bucket as it pertains to the information that is out there regarding slavery and history and also the amount of information that we collected ourselves. And if you would like to see more about that, you can go to our website, godhonesttruth.com. Click on the post for this particular episode and you’ll be directed to the article page where you’ll be able to find the on demand video that you see here. If you’re watching on a video platform, you’ll also be able to find the draw slides that you see on the video and you can go through those draw slides at your own pace, which is very convenient for study time. Down below that, you’ll also be able to see the notes that we took for this particular episode. and also for next episode and put them all in one notes file. So, it’s 23 pages right now and it’s going to grow, but there’s so much more information in that notes file that we put together for you free of charge then we could put together here and still have it at a reasonable length of time. Also, on that article page, we’ll have the transcript when it becomes available if that is so of benefit to you. So, a lot of information, a lot of stuff there to help you out. So go check it out today at godhonesttruth.com or go down below in the description and we have provided a clear and convenient link for you to that article post. All you got to do is click on it and it’ll take you directly to that article post on our website and that should be down there in the description whether you’re watching on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform. So go down there, click on it and check it out today.
Now, before we get into the main meat of this particular video or teaching, let’s go over some basic housekeeping, some things I want to bring up first before we get into that. Number one, this is going to step on some toes, especially some American toes. And yeah, it’s probably just some first world problems, but there’s a particular narrative regarding slavery out there that a lot of people have bought into a lot of rewriting of history. And this particular episode though is not an in-depth and exhaustive teaching on slavery itself is still going to step on some toes. So if you are thin skinned and you only want your particular narrative, you know where the off button is. Thank you for joining us. But for the rest of you, thank you for staying. Let’s go on. This is definitely not going to be the end all and be all of what slavery is or even everything about slavery itself. So with that being said, I am no, how do you say this? Um, I have not dedicated my life to the study and examination of slavery, the subject of slavery. So I’m open to being corrected if I get something wrong and please by all means feel free to let me donate know down in the comments or write to us at team@godhonesttruth.com and let us know so we can get that corrected. But like I said, I am definitely open to being corrected or educated on any particular point that may come up tonight. If it so happens to be an error, please by all means let us know. Let’s go over the point of this whole series in general. It’s going to be two videos tonight and next week, but the point of this series in general is because slavery in the Bible is rarely if ever talked about. And as a result, the topic of slavery within the Bible is not understood or is severely misunderstood, especially by those who do away with the Tanakh, the aka Old Testament. They don’t understand anything in there, they only understand bits and pieces about the New Testament. And when it comes to these more in-depth things like slavery, they have little to no understanding. And those who do, a lot of times they have misunderstanding. So this is to help correct that aspect of the Bible and slavery in general. Now the point of oh the point of this particular video is to give a more accurate of slavery in general throughout history because there are in just the secular part or aspect of things slavery in general is misunderstood sometimes and hopefully we can set some things straight through this particular video and without an accurate understanding of slavery in general an understanding of slavery in the Bible will be even more difficult. When you think that all slavery is the same thing, it’s not. We’re going to get into the forms and types here in a moment and you’ll see that well, I won’t spoil anything. We’ll get into it in just a moment. But slavery is often way misunderstood by the public. So hopefully this will, if it’s something that interests you, hopefully this will spark a fire in you to go further and study any particular aspect of slavery for yourself. And if not, then hopefully this information will at least help put out some truth and some correct information so that you will be better educated for discussions in the future. Slavery is often times presented in a biased manner. And I’m not speaking for any other country or culture around the world. This is coming from an American point of view. A lot of times slavery is presented in a biased manner. And that’s just not something it should be. Slavery should be presented in a holistic and complete manner, not just presented uh how should I say this? Slavery should not just be presented as something that happened at a particular point in time by a particular country or culture and just to a particular group. You’ll understand why in just a moment, but that is a biased way of putting it and we should not teach and understand slavery in a biased manner. We should understand it in a holistic manner as all-encompassing and it’s a big subject. It really is. There’s a lot of information to know and learn about it. So, it’s really hard sometimes and that’s why we’re only doing an overview of slavery in general tonight. But hopefully this will help offset some of that bias that tends to happen, especially here in the American narrative of slavery a lot of times. And also, this is not an attempt to minimize any atrocities that may have occurred, regardless of what point in history that they occurred, regardless of which society or culture they occurred in. And it’s also not an attempt to minimize any atrocities regardless of what race these atrocities occurred towards. As you can see, it’s more widespread than some people think, but we’ll get into that in just a moment.
Now, before we get into the deeper subject and overall, let’s go over a term titled conflation. There’s actually an actual term, conflate something. But what does it mean to conflate something? Well, according to miamwebster.com, conflate means to bring together or blend or confuse. It also means to combine things such as two versions of a text into a composite hole. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, conflate means to bring together, meld, or fuse. to combine two variant texts, for example, into one whole or to fail to distinguish between or confuse. And this is something we should not and this it’s not good to conflate various subjects and ideas, especially when it comes to something as serious as this subject of slavery. We’ll get into what I mean here in just a moment. Just gives you some examples. When you conflate something, it means you mix or combine these different ideas, concept, or pieces of information into a single hole, often in a way that blurs their distinctions or treats them as identical even when they are not. It’s taking two different things and making them seem as though they are part and parcel and cannot be separated. They’re always been together and they’re always one and the same thing. And this is not true. That’s called conflating. It’s like blending two separate things so thoroughly that you can’t easily tell where one ends and the other begins, even if they should be kept separate. Let’s go over some examples so you can understand what conflate means a little bit better. Number one, it’s probably something we’ve all experienced or even done ourselves, conflating a person’s net worth with their character. For example, someone might conflate wealth with goodness or assuming that because a person is rich, they must also be a good or moral person even though these are distinct qualities. Someone’s wealth or even appearance of wealth is different than the kind of person they are. And also, you shouldn’t conflate the image of wealth with actual wealth. I’ve learned this from Dave Ramsey. just because it they look like they’ve got it all together and they are rich and stuff like that. It’s just another loan sometimes and they could be swimming in debt over their eyeball. So, don’t conflate a person’s net worth with their character and definitely don’t present conflate the image that someone portrays as to what’s actually going on behind the scenes. It’s not always the same thing. Another example, conflating a brand name with the product itself. I do this so many times and so many people do this as well. But many people conflate things like Kleenex with all facial tissues or band-aid with all adhesive bandages. Even though these are the specific brand names for a general product, I do the same thing. I do that very thing right there where I say Kleenex even though it’s generic from the local grocery store, you know, or weed eater or something like that. But yeah, that’s an example of conflating. There’s something another American thing here too. But news outlets sometimes conflate protest and riots blurring the line between peaceful demonstration and violent behavior which affects public perception. And it really does. If whatever is going on is on the side of that particular news outlet, they call it a peaceful protest even though it’s actually a violent riot. And anyways, we’ll get on for the tangent. I wish they would just report it accurately, but hey, that’s another subject for another day and not the scope of this video. But yeah, there’s another example of conflate. Another example, someone might conflate socialism with communism, using the words as if they mean the exact same thing when in fact they are different political systems with different histories and practices. I personally do this a lot and unfortunately I still do this and I really shouldn’t. Socialism and communism are two different things. Now both lead to loss of freedom. Both lead to massive death but they are two different things. People often conflate law in scripture with man-made traditions. We’ve all experienced this, those of us in the messianic way of thinking. But they treat both law and man-made traditions as both of them as burdens. When in truth, Yahweh’s Torah is righteousness while man’s additions are what Yeshua rebuked. And that is so true. And truth be known, Torah is not actually law. It doesn’t actually mean law. Torah is more akin to instruction instead of law. And a person may conflate the American Civil War with the fight against slavery, forgetting that not all Union states oppose slavery. And not all Confederate soldiers owned slaves. And the Emancipation, which set enslaved people free here in America, did not happen until halfway through the Civil War. It was two years into the war before they put out the Emancipation Proclamation. So don’t conflate the Civil War in America with the fight against slavery because it’s not. Now one of the good things and positive things that came out of the Civil War was the end of slavery. But it did not start because of slavery. And to conflate is not always bad. It’s not always done with bad intent anyways. It can happen by accident. We all do this. I myself am definitely guilty. But when done knowingly and you know the two things should be separated, it can becomes a tool of manipulation fogging up truth by blending falsehood with fact. We saw that in the example of the news outlets calling a violent riot something like a peaceful protest, right? That can be a tool of manipulation. And in that example, they really do use it as a tool of manipulation and they blend falsehood with fact. Now, to get more on point towards tonight’s particular subject, the word slavery from miamwebster.com. Slavery, the state of a person who is forced, usually under threat of violence, to labor for the profit of another, a situation or practice in which people are coerced, to work under conditions that are exploitative. Or number two, submission to a dominating influence. So that is slavery. Now let’s look at the definition according to Miriam Webster for racism. One, a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Also behavior attitudes that reflect and foster this belief, racial discrimination or prejudice. to a the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another specifically. Or to b, a political or social system founded on racism and designed to execute its principles. Here’s something, again, I’m only speaking from the American perspective, but a lot of times the narrative here in America goes that slavery is racist, and that’s not true. That’s a conflation thinking that slavery and racism are intertwined when they are not. And you’ll see that as we come up here and look at the further information in this particular episode. Slavery and racism are two different things. Now, they were intertwined here in America and through the transatlantic slave trade, but they are not one and the same thing, and we should not conflate them as such. So, let that be known that slavery and racism are two different things that should be kept apart. In fact, throughout most of history, a lot of particular cultures and civilizations enslaved their own people. I mean, they would come down to being enslaved because they were in debt, because they were taken by a neighboring tribe who were of the same ethnicity or same race. But it wasn’t about racism. that didn’t happen till later on. And yeah, we’ll get into that in just a moment.
But anyways, let’s look at some types or some forms of slavery because this is where it begins to get really nuanced. When people talk about slavery are they meaning what kind of slavery? Slavery in general can encompass a whole lot of things. And this is something that really opened my eyes when I started doing this research into this particular subject. this a lot more nuance and a lot more in-depth than what we can get into here on one particular episode. Uh so once again, like always and especially this time, I invite everyone out there to go farther than what you get in this video and do your own research and do as much as possible to your own satisfaction. There’s a lot more information that goes into this. This is just a kicking off point. So number one, the first type of slavery that we’re going to look at is called Chhatel slavery. And this is probably the most common that people refer to when they talk about slavery in general. But Chhatel slavery, it is people are treated as personal property or chhatel to be bought, sold, inherited or punished without legal rights. This is the most recognized form of slavery in the western world. the most absolute form, a human reduced to property. They may be bought, sold, inherited, stripped of personhood. Their children follow their fate found in antiquity and in the American South until abolition. Now, this is something a little bit of a tangent. When I look at property here, especially like land and houses, stuff like that, they always call it like real property. You always wondered what’s the fake property that they’re actually talking about. But no, the opposite of real property, meaning something that can’t be moved, like a house or a land, something like that in general. That’s what real property is. The opposite of that nowadays is referred to as personal property, both tangible and intangible. But personal property can also go by the name Chhatel, meaning movable property. things like cars, clothing, computers, stuff like that. Just a little bit of a tangent. I thought it was interesting myself, but you know. Anyways, some examples of Chhatel slavery is the transatlantic slave trade, which we’re all probably familiar with and probably learned about in school. Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas and enslaved on plantations. Now that’s not completely true because it was also to England. It was also to Europe, various places, not just the Americas. Ancient Rome and Greece big time into slavery and Chhatel slavery. They enslaved war captives and they enslaved criminals and they were used for labor, entertainment, meaning gladiators fighting to the death. Even the women had other services that they would be used for in slavery and they were used for domestic service as well in Rome and Greece. Even some of the men were used for those other services sometimes. We’ll see that in just a moment. But Chhatel slavery persisted longest in the Middle East with transaharin Indian Ocean and Red Sea slave trades continuing to traffic slaves from Africa until the 1960s in some Arabian Peninsula countries such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen which finally outloaded it in 1962, Dubai who finally outlawed it in 1963 and Oman who finally outlaw outlawed it in 1970. Now, just because various countries have outlawed slavery does not mean it’s been done away with. We’ll just put it like that. More information on that coming up. Another type of bond or another type of slavery that we’re going to talk about is debt slavery, also called debt bondage or peonage like peon, right? This is where individuals pledge themselves against a loan, often with no realistic way to repay it, resulting in indefinite servitude. Occurs when individuals are forced to work to repay a loan or when they inherit a debt from a relative, all depending on the culture and society they’re coming from. This happened in places like South Asia, India, Nepal where generational debt bondage in agriculture and brick kils in medieval Europe in ancient Greece and Athens in addition to the Chhatel slavery and this debt bondage happened until Solon’s reforms saw peasants enslaved by unpaid debts. Ancient near east and Mesopotamia, these laws allowed three-year service for debtors, then released, but abuses still occurred. didn’t always release them. They held on to those slaves. This debt slavery existed in ancient societies, including pre-Colombian Meso America, where people unable to pay debts could be sentenced to work as slaves until the debts were cleared. So, this type of slavery was it’s not exactly like the previous form, but it is also a form of slavery. And well, slavery is slavery in my opinion. Contract slavery. This is something we’ve probably all heard about. And not to give anything away, but keep this particular one in mind. Contract slavery or indentured servitude. A contractual deal offered often for passage, work, or benefit that hides coercion. Contracts give a facade of legality, but in reality, the person is trapped, often unpaid with no freedom to leave. Things like this happened with the British colonial indentured servants. When people were trying to get over here, they didn’t have their own personal ships. They had to hire passage and that was expensive. So, they sold themselves into slavery into indentured servitude. These indentured servants in North America who signed passage served four to seven years after they got here to the colonies. Some endured abuse, non-payment, even sale of their contracts. So it wasn’t technically sale of the person. It was sale of the contract which means the person went with the contract. So I don’t really see the difference. Maybe there’s a making a distinction without a difference. But anyways, also the modern forms in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent were workers deceived with contracts and then forced into labor. The sad reality of the fact is that slavery is still going on in these various forms and even in 2025. It’s not been done away with. That’s something that you need to know and understand. It wasn’t done away with 200 years ago. It’s still going on today.
Then we all have another type or form called serfdom or bind the land labor. This is where the people have more rights than a slave. But the serfs can’t be sold separately. They stay with the land. They’re tied both to the land and the lord. The land or the lord of the land, the landlord. They owe labor, rent, and obedience, but maintain personhood and limited mobility. So even if the current lord of that land sells the land, they’re not really selling the people, but the people go with the land and therefore they’ve got a new lord whoever buys the land. So it’s almost like a reverse chhatel, but not really. I don’t know. This happened in medieval Europe a lot. Surfs inherited status and they were obliged to the manner but had no rights to subsistent plots and limited legal claims. And it happened in Eastern Europe as well. The second surfom persisted into the 19th century, sometimes nearing Chhatel status. So this got pretty severe. Even though it’s a bit nuanced and people want to call it different, it’s still a form of slavery. So it’s still slavery. Another type or form of slavery is forced labor state or war slavery. I’m sure you’ve probably all heard about this particular nuance type of slavery. This is where people are compelled to work under threat or coercion, often without pay or freedom to leave. Some examples of that is in Nazi Germany and also the Soviet goologs where they people were forced by the millions into brutal slave labor and then they would often times be killed afterwards or during the process because they work too hard things like that. But yeah, another modern example of slavery. Also, modern fishing, mounting and construction industries, especially in Southeast Asia and Africa. Ancient emperors constructed work conscripted war captives for public works. People like the Egyptians, the Babylonians, things like that built the pyramids, the roads, and the temples for that particular society. Contemporary modern day Myanmar and North Korea are reported to use civilians for forced labor under state control. Don’t know much about Myanmar, but North Korea is bad news. And during all my research and going through all these various things, I saw that North Korea was probably the number one culprit in today’s world for the slavery. still having slavery and North Korea number one. Leave it there. Another type or form of slavery here. Pawnship or panyaring. This happened most pretty much all in West Africa. But this is unique to parts of Africa. Individuals or family members pledged as collateral for credit with kinship protections to limit sale. When debts went unpaid, seizure or panyarin sometimes escalated into enslavement. This happened with West African societies, of course, pre-colonial and things kind of changed after the ships and Europeans got there. But it was pawn ship among the Akan, Yoruba, and Igbo people, if I’m pronouncing those correctly. When creditors seized persons by force, it was known as panyarin used to enforce repayment or even feed the Atlantic slave trade. So these West Africans or especially West Africans, but others as well, when they would take people by force and they needed debt repaid, they had someone captive, they would sell them as a slave into the transatlantic slave trade. So it wasn’t just Europeans coming in and taking people by force. They were being sold by their fellow Africans a lot of times because like in other parts of the world in other times in the world, Africa was a slave society and lots of slave societies. Slavery was already established in Africa way before the Europeans got there. So it just kind of went hand in hand at that point. and pawnship or ponaring is one type or form of slavery that existed in Africa pre-Europeans. Another type or form is descentbased slavery. This is slavery inherited through birth. Individuals are born into a slave class. This happened a lot within well it happened within the uh United States southeast here. It happened also within Greece and Rome places like that. But it wasn’t because you were indebted to someone. It wasn’t because you were a captive from war. It’s just because you were born and your mother or your father was a slave and therefore you were born as a slave as well. This happened in Moritania until recently. Black a Africans born into slavery under Arab Berber masters. West African kingdoms things like Mali and Songhai. Slavery was institutional and hereditary. So once you’re once you’re in slavery, then your descendants are also in slavery as well. Another type or form of slavery is called child slavery. And this is the enslavement of children for labor, even military use or sexual exploitation. as we’ve got unfortunately today with the human trafficking market. It’s horrid, but yeah, it happens and it still happens. For instance, we got particular parts of Africa where child soldiers are forced to fight, coerced into armed conflict by rebel groups. You probably heard various things on the news about such things. There’s also child labor in cocoa and textile ind industries, especially in West Africa and South Asia. also down in South America and various places like that that do cocaine or etc etc. I mean child slavery and child labor forced child labor is all over the place even in today’s day and age.
We also have another type or form called domestic servitude. Don’t take this too far. Don’t confuse anything. Don’t conflate it with other stuff. But the domestic servitude is where individuals work in private homes under coercion, often isolated and abused. I could make a joke right there, but let’s stay serious for this particular teaching. Yeah. Any domestic servitude is where individuals work in private homes under coercion. They’re forced to. They’re often isolated and abused. This happens in modern Gulf States where migrant domestic workers face restrictions and abuse under the Catholic system. And some historical examples is you see the household slaves in ancient China and Egypt. Think Joseph when he went to work for Piper. He was a domestic servant. He was a household slave. He was sold in slavery by his brothers. So this is one example you can see from scripture already. Joseph was a slave and he was a domestic slave to Potterer. Going on another form and our last form that we’re going to cover here. This is military slavery and this is when enslaved individuals are used as soldiers or military labor. This happened with the Ottoman Empire with especially with the janiseries who were supposed to be fairly renowned. They took Christian boys and trained them as elite soldiers. The Islamic caliphates also did pretty much the same thing. enslaved Africans and Turks and they used them in military campaigns and kept their own people from dying. Another form of slavery. The Islamic world with the Mamlukes meaning one who is owned were purchased as young boys often from Christian territories and they were trained as elite warriors just like the Ottoman Empire did with the janiseries. But these Mammlukes, their status was above ordinary slaves and they received rigorous training in martial arts, Islamic sciences and court etiquette. So sounds like they were well taken care of, but in reality they were still slaves and they were military slaves at that. Going on, ancient Rome used military slaves. After a defeat in 216 of BCE, Rome enlisted 8,000 young slaves into the army known as voluntari or volonus promising them freedom for service. Slaves were generally present throughout Roman society including military contact. Slaves were something big within ancient Rome. It was huge huge practice. But the US army in the 19th century and this is pre civil war but the US army functioned as a slaveolding institution itself with thousands of enslaved people serving as officers servants and this happened even in the free states in the north. If you were a military officer from the north, you were from a free state, more than likely you still had a servant serving you, a black servant serving you, taking care of prepping your uniform or ex whatever. It’s like a squire from medieval Europe. But yeah, the US Army functioned as a slaveolding institution as well. There were also what’s known as comfort women during World War II. And this gets, if slavery is not dark enough, it gets even darker. During World War II, Imperial Japan organized a governmental system of comfort women, mostly Korean, Chinese, and Filipino women who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers. And yeah, that’s bad. But it wasn’t just the Japanese that done this. There’s also others as well. But you have this whole military slavery, and it’s this sexual slavery as well. But it all kind of blends into one. And like I said before, slavery is slavery. No matter what nuance, title, or label you give it. Chhatel slavery, indentured servitude, military slavery, child slavery is all slavery. Now, decide for yourself if all forms and types of slavery are bad or not. Don’t go off it yet. Wait till we hear the information from next week about the Bible. But we’ll get into that next week.
Now, let’s get into some history and the human habit of harnessing. Go over some various civilizations, some various points in history, and look at the undisputable fact that slavery has happened throughout history and has happened throughout the world in just about every single culture and civilization on Earth. In fact, slavery has been around in various cultures and in history much much longer than a history of non-slavery has. Like I said, it’s still going on today. But going back all the way to the time of Mesopotamia, looking at the code of Hammurabi, and here the code of Hammurabi from Wikipedia.org, or it states the code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed during 1755 to 1750 BC. It is the longest, best organized and best preserved legal text from the ancient near east. It is written in the old Babylonian dialect of Aadian reportedly by Hammurabi, sixth king of the first dynasty of Babylon. I and I invite you to go look through this yourself. It’s very very interesting the way they thought back then. And as you read through some of these laws in the code of Hammurabi, there’s a bunch of them, but you’ll see various things there. They make a distinction between male and female. Obviously, most everyone does, but you also see about four different types of people that’s mentioned there. You got the royals, you got the man, you got the free man, and then you got the slave. Royals, pretty self-explanatory. I’m thinking the man is a regular non-slave citizen. The free man, if I’m reading it correctly, free man is a former slave who has been freed. And then a slave obviously is the slave in the particular situation. But here there’s a whole bunch of laws in the code of Hamarabia about slaves. And here on your screen, I’ve actually listed off just a few of those. Here in law number 15, if a man aid a male or female slave of the palace or a male or female slave of a free man to escape from the city gate, he shall be put to death. So apparently in the code of Hammurabi, you cannot aid slaves going away. That’s a death penalty. And code 199, if one destroys the eye of a man’s slave or break a bone of a man’s slave, he shall pay 1/ half of his price. And if you read the surrounding laws that go with that, if it does the same thing to a free man, the punishment is a lot lot different. And then finally, 205, if a man’s slave strikes a man’s son, they shall cut off his ear. If you read through that, you’ll see various laws contain pertaining to different things. But especially with slaves and citizens, things like that, the differences are stark. Slaves are treated a whole lot differently than the regular citizens or free men. But this is the Mesopotamia. They had slaves and they had codes and laws for slaves even way back then. went on to ancient Egypt and ancient Egypt have slaves obviously but it wasn’t just back in the bible times it was all throughout history but anyways from wikipedia.org or quote slavery in ancient Egypt existed at least since the Old Kingdom period. There were three types of enslavement in ancient Egypt. Chhatel slavery, bonded labor, and forced labor. Egypt’s labor culture encompassed many people of various social ranks. End quote. And this is something I learned also that the pyramids were not built by slaves. They were actually built by workers who got paid. So probably not much probably like Orvet labor. Corvee is another type or form of slavery. But anyways, going on looking at slavery in Egypt from Wikipedia.org. Quote, “Egyptian slaves specifically during the New Kingdom era originated from foreign lands. The slaves themselves were seen as an accomplishment to Egyptian kings reign and a sign of power. Slaves or boach were seen as property or a commodity to be bought and sold. Their human qualities were disregarded and were merely seen as property to be used for a master’s labor. Unlike the more modern term surf, Egyptian slaves were not tied to the land. The owners could use the slave for various occupational purposes. The slaves could serve towards the productivity of the region and community. Slaves were generally men, but women and families could be forced into the owner’s household service. So, yeah, obviously ancient Egypt had slaves because we read that in the Bible, but just want to put it out there. Some more information about slavery in Egypt. Moving on into Greece from crunching.com. Quote, “In ancient Greece, there were two main types of slaves. Chhatel slaves and stateowned slaves. Chattel slaves were owned by individuals who had complete control over their lives, including their work and living conditions. State-owned slaves were owned by the state and were used to work in mines, perform public works, or serve in the army.” End quote. So, here you got the military slavery as well as the forced labor slavery. So, and the chhatel slavery. So, it’s all there even in ancient Greece. And it gets even worse. Check this out from historyextra.com. Quote, “Treating other humans as property was part and parcel of Greek life with enslaved people used across virtually all areas of society. Enslaved people were an integral part of society in ancient Greece. Even Aristotle, arguably one of Athens’s most progressive thinkers, referred to enslaved people as KMAs, a phrase that roughly translates as animate property or property that breathes. Many enslaved people were foreigners who had been captured during wars. The sons of defeated enemies might also be forced into slavehood, sometimes ending up serving the clients of male brothel. End quote. Take that into account. If wow, the Greeks were messed up. I’ll just leave it there. Yeah, they were very messed up. That last quote right there, it says, “Some of these boys and men that were captured, they were a defeated enemy. When they went to war and they got defeated and the Greeks took them captive, they would be forced into serving at the male brothel. As far as I’m going with that, you probably already picked up on it.” And then moving into Rome. Rome had slaves and all across the empire and all throughout their history. Slavery was something big and a big part of Rome itself. But from world history.org, quote, “Slavery was an everpresent feature of the Roman world. Slaves served in households, agriculture, mines, the military, workshops, construction, and many services. As many as one in three of the population in Italy or one in five across the empire were slaves. Slavery, that is complete mastery or dominium of one individual over another, was so embedded in Roman culture that slaves became almost invisible and there was certainly no feeling of injustice in this situation on the part of the rulers. End quote. And you’ve probably seen that old Charlton H movie of Spartacus, right? that was about Roman slavery and Spartacus actually did exist and there was an actual slave revolt led by Spartacus in Rome. Yeah, Roman slavery that was something slaves were a big part of Roman society and they would serve even prestigious jobs sometimes as doctors or as bookkeepers or as government uh workers, things like that. And sometimes in as a slave in Roman society, you could even live better than some of these citizens. You didn’t definitely didn’t have all the rights that the Roman citizen did, but you wouldn’t a lot of times worry about where your next meal was coming from or whatnot. So yeah, slavery was big within ancient Rome, Africa.
And then we talk about Africa. Africa is a continent. Just to remind you, it’s not a country. So, not every country in Africa is the same as every other country, but talking about the continent of Africa and slavery from ourhistory.org.uk. Quote, “Many African societies practiced forms of slavery that varied greatly in terms of their nature and impact. Slavery was a deeply ingrained part of many African cultures. In some regions, slaves were integrated into households and communities, acquiring certain rights, and even pathways to freedom. Slavery often resulted from local conflicts, raids, and warfare, where prisoners of war were enslaved. Additionally, people be could become slaves due to debt, punishment for crimes, or kidnappings. Many African kingdoms and leaders engaged in the transatlantic slave trade, trading captured individuals for European goods such as firearms, alcohol, and textiles. End quote. And then from africa.businessinssider.com, quote, in the 21st century, the word slavery may seem distant. However, the unpleasant reality is that slavery is still in existence all across the world, and Africa is no exception. The pervasive existence of contemporary slavery in Africa is exacerbated by systemic failings in governance and law enforcement, weak legal frameworks, corruption, and insufficient resources all impede attempts to eliminate slavery effectively. End quote. So like we said earlier, something that this is to go against the American narrative a lot of times, but in Africa, slavery was already ingrained and established as part of African culture even before the Europeans got there. And unfortunately, slavery is still going on in Africa to this day, according to Business Insider. And it’s unfortunate because a lot of times those types of slavery are horrific conditions. They traded as cattle or chhatel. And a lot of times with in the African slavery, the men would be killed because it was the men who even though they could work good or work better in general, work better than women or children, the men were more often to fight back or run away or something like that. So they would more often just kill the men and keep the women and children. And this happened during the in the European times as well when people were during the transatlantic slave trade. The Africans would trade other African males to the Europeans to be taken away instead of killing them. They would make money off of them. But a lot of times they would keep the women and children. But in a sense that the males then would be kept alive. Whereas, if the Europeans hadn’t been there, there would still be slavery and the men would have died. I am not going to call it a good thing. I’m not going to call it a positive thing. I’m just stating it for what it’s worth. Traditional African slavery would kill the men. But once the Europeans arrived, they traded the males to the Europeans, take across the Atlantic, thereby keeping the males alive. But yeah, Africa, they had slavery before the Europeans came. And unfortunately they are one of those parts of the world where they still have slavery going on. And it happens today more than just Africa. It happens in Asia. It happens all over the place. But it’s still happening happening in Africa even to today.
Now let’s look at the Aztecs because we’ve already looked at the Middle East with Greece and Rome, Mesopotamia, stuff like that. We’ve looked at Africa. We’ve Egypt, etc., etc. But what about the quote unquote new world? Well, let’s look at the Aztecs down in South America and Middle America, whatever you want to call it. But this comes from Wikipedia.org. Quote, “Slavery in the Aztec Empire and surrounding Mexico societies was widespread with slaves known by the nuhal word loot. Slaves did not inherit their status. People were enslaved as a form of punishment after being captured in war or voluntary to pay off debts. A slave who was sold three times as encouraable could be sold to be sacrificed. Those slaves commanded a premium in price. Anyone could be a slave, though commoners were more likely to enter slavery voluntarily. But because slaves were looked down upon, it was usually the last option one took to pay off a debt. End quote. And this is something that happened is fairly common within slave operating societies. Um when someone got into debt or they couldn’t pay something off, they sold themselves voluntarily into slavery in order to pay off the debt. It would only be for a certain time generally. That was the idea. That was something that was common throughout the world, not just the Aztecs. But for those of you who didn’t know, the Aztecs were one of those people who also did human sacrifice and slaves were a part of the human sacrifice as well. Then let’s go back across the pond to look at the Vikings. Vikings were big into slavery as well from the archaeologist.org. Quote, “Some historians now argue that the Vikings were responsible for more human trafficking in the period 750 to 1050 than any other civilization. Although slavery existed in some form in Scandinavia long before the Viking era, it was during this period that we saw a sharp uptake in the number of slaves. Viking raids, which remain infamous for their ferocity and scale, were significant sources of slaves. Monasteries, villages, and towns across Europe, particularly in the British Isles, were favorite targets. Poverty or debt could push individuals into slavery, either voluntarily or involuntarily. Furthermore, the children of slaves were automatically considered slaves, perpetuating this cycle across generations.” End quote. So, here we got some more themes about what we’ve already looked at. We got people that could go into slavery voluntarily or be captured and taken against their will. And we’ve also got that descentbased slavery where the children of slaves were automatically considered slaves themselves once they were born. So moving on, let’s look at Asia now. The Asia region from academic. quote, “The dynamics of the West African and wider Atlantic slave trade are not that different from what we encounter in the Indian Ocean and Indonesian archipilago worlds. Local inequalities, cast indebtedness, slave lineage, and conflicts, meaning warfare or punishment, were sources for an expanding long-distance slave trade in West Africa, as well as different parts of Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Western Indian Ocean. many of these dynamics existed before the arrival of Europeans. End quote. And found this out during the research part of this particular exercise. But yeah, ex slaveries existed for a long time in China itself going way back in the day to various different kingdoms and dynasties that existed. And well, that’s the whole point of what we’re trying to tell you here is that slavery is not just something that happened at a particular point in history, not just with a particular country or colony. And it didn’t happen to just one particular group of people. It happened all over the world, all throughout history. And this is the point we’re trying to get across here. But also from walkfree.org, or quote the 2023 global survey index in estimates that 5.8 million people were living in modern slavery in China on any given day in 2021. This equates to 4 in every thousand people in the country. It is second only to India when the estimated number of people living in modern slavery is considered. End quote. That’s modern estimates about slavery. people who are living in modern slave conditions. 5.8 million people enslaved in China today. Let that sink in.
Going on coming back to the North Americas and looking at the Native Americans here in North America from world history.org. Quote, “Slavery was practiced by the Native Americans before any Europeans arrived in the region. People of one tribe could be taken by another for a variety of reasons. This practice continued throughout the colonial era, aided and encouraged by Native American tribes themselves up through 1750. Each tribe understood itself as inherently superior to other tribes. And although they would form alliances for short periods in a common cause or for longer periods as confederacies, they frequently warded with each other for goods in the name of tribal honor and for captives among other reasons. Men, women, and children taken captive were then enslaved by the victorious tribe, sometimes for life and other times for a given number of years and in still other cases until they were adopted and became members of the tribe. End quote. So even here before the colonies, before the arrival of the Europeans, there was slavery in North America, there was slavery in Central America, there was slavery in South America, there was slavery in Africa, there was slavery in India, there was slavery in China, in Korea, there was slavery in Scandinavia, there was slavery in Europe, there was slavery in the Middle East. And this happened back in the thousands of years BCE, even the hundreds of years BCE, even the hundreds of years of the common era all the way up through today and even today. It’s happened all throughout history. It’s happened in just about every single culture and society on Earth. Slavery is not something that just happened to one particular people at one particular point in time in one particular location or one particular country. No, this is way more widespread than any of that. And this hopefully has opened your eyes to help you come to a better understanding of a general overview of slavery and the occurrences of slavery. That’s a little bit about slavery around the world throughout history and stuff like that. And we also went over various types of slavery as well. All in an effort to better prepare you for next week’s teaching on slavery in the Bible and going over actual scriptures, early writers, early Christian writers that would reference this subject. All to get you ready for that. So hopefully that’s opened up some eyes. Hopefully that’s gave you some information. And if it’s piqued an interest in you, definitely I encourage you go farther in your studies. Do your own research, learn more, and if you find anything out, let us know. Write us an email. Let us know what you found out. Once again, there’s so much more in the notes that we didn’t include or could not include in this particular teaching. So go check it out on our website. And like always, go further in your studies on your own even.
So in summary, just to recap what we have covered and then it’s really has been a lot and it’s still only been just a drop in the bucket on this particular subject. But going over just to warn you, conflate it means to mix or combine different ideas, concept, or pieces of information into a single hole, often blurring their distinctions or treats them as identical. when they are not. We went over various examples of conflating and things we each individually do a lot of times like conflating socialism with communism or conflating the brand name Kleenex or Band-Aid with the product in general. That’s conflation. But when it comes to the subject of slavery, let’s not conflate things that should not be conflated. We should not conflate slavery with racism. We should not conflate slavery with abuse. We should not conflate various things thinking they are one and the same because they’re not. Slavery is its own separate subject. Racism is its own separate subject. Abuse, physical abuse is its own separate subject. And those three do not go hand in hand together. Sometimes they occur all at the same time, but they are not one in the same thing. There are different forms and types of slavery that we went over during this presentation. However, there are even more than what we went over and sometimes the types or the forms get different names or they might be described a little bit differently. But these are the main types that I was able to find in my particular research. And the types we went over during this particular teaching are Chhatel slavery, debt slavery or debt bondage or peonage, contract slavery, also known as indentured servitude, surfom or bind the land labor, forced labor, state or war slavery, pawnship or puring which from what I found out it was particularly isolated to West Africa. There is descentbased slavery where you’re born into slavery. There is child slavery where ch children are enslaved. There is domestic servitude where people are forced to work in domestic situations and often isolated and abused. And then there is military slavery that we went over in this particular teaching where people are used for military service or military projects, things like that. Slavery has been practiced by the vast majority of the world throughout the majority of history. In fact, you look at the overall pie of history or the timeline of history, you’ll see that the vast majority of history has involves slavery much more so than points of history that did not have slavery. civilizations, cultures have practiced slavery all around the world, all throughout history and some of those that we have went over during this particular teaching is Mesopotamia, the Babylonians, things like that. Ancient Egypt, obviously we read that in scripture. There is ancient Greece, ancient Rome, there is Africa and just about every single country in Africa. There are the Aztecs and of course also the Mayans to a certain degree. There was the Vikings. The slaveryy’s been practiced and still is practiced in the Asiatic region as well. And we saw also that Native Americans even here in America, they were practicing and engaged in slavery even long before the Europeans came over. to slavery is something that is almost ingrained in just about every single society around the world and not any country I know of or any piece of land on earth is free from the history of slavery. But take all that we learned about slavery as an overview around the world in this particular video. Remember that. Take notes. take the notes that we gave you and compare it to what we learned about slavery in the scriptures. And that’s coming up next week. Make sure to check that out. Compare it to what you learned tonight and see how that all fits together and make your own mind up. But at the very least, you’ll be a lot more educated and know a lot more about what the Bible says about slavery after next week in the end of this particular two-part series.
