![[Pasted image 20250201172927.png]] The institution of slavery is not a recent phenomenon. Most civilizations have practiced some form of human bondage and unfree labor, and African empires were no different. Similar to the European serf system, those seeking protection, or relief from starvation, would become the servants of those who provided relief. People taken in battle were also traditionally enslaved. Debt might also be worked off through a form of servitude. Typically, these unfree workers became a part of the extended tribal family and their children were treated as full members of society. There is some evidence of chattel slavery, in which people are treated as personal property to be bought and sold, in the Nile Valley. It also appears there was a slave-trade route through the Sahara that brought sub-Saharan Africans to Rome, which had slaves from all over the world. **FOR MORE INFO:** Read [The Role of Islam in African Slavery](http://openstax.org/l/islamslavery) to learn more about the African slave trade. --- Next: [[1.28 Atlantic Slavery]] Back: [[1.26 Africa]]