A Brief History Of The Origins Of Slavery: Chapter 1

When Did Slavery Start? The Origins of Slavery.
The history of slavery is as long as the history of humanity and spans almost every single culture and ethnicity. As long as humans have had civilisation, we’ve had ways to subjugate each other.
Basically, we all suck. Welcome to A Day In History!

Long before the ancient Greeks, Romans, Persians and other civilisations, were even older ones, with few surviving records. Like the Mesopotamians.
This civilization gives us our first known records of slavery in law, although even these glimpses of over 4000 years into the past suggest that slavery is much older than the written proof we have today. Fragments of other texts have mentioned slaves in these civilizations, and earlier ones, but the legal records we’ll be looking at in this video are the ones from where we can distinguish the most information.
So, what are the first recorded instances of slavery? Let’s take a look and don’t forget to check out part 2 for a brief timeline of slavery all the way from these ancient records to modern day.
The First Evidence of Slavery: Pre-Written Records
In early civilisations, there are legal codes that include some of the first written, recorded instances of slavery, all of which are from different, but similar periods in Ancient Mesopotamia. The main five we’ll be looking at are The Code of Ur-Nammu, The Code of Eshnunna, The Code of Lipit-Ishtar, The Code of Hammurabi and The Code of Nesilim.
Each was inscribed on ancient tablets, or pieces of stele and contain multiple mentions and legal proceedings to do with slaves, suggesting it was a key part of the ancient civilisation’s workings and existed long before the records we have since uncovered suggest.

#slavery #history #whiteslavery #modernslavery #mesopotamia #fallofconstantinople #constantinople #historychannel

Timecode:
00:00 Start
01:14 The First Evidence of Slavery: Pre-Written Records
01:57 Number One: The Code of Ur-Nammu
04:12 Number Two and Three: The Code of Eshnunna and The Code of Lipit-Ishtar
06:03 Number Four: The Code of Hammurabi
07:52 Number Five: The Code of Nesilim

Video Editor & Motion Graphics: Ravi Chauhan

Sources

Copyright © 2021 A Day In History. All rights reserved.

[TheBruces]

The reason slavery has died out in the last 250 years is less because we discovered it was bad and more due to the industrial age and the proliferation of labor saving devices. Prior to this time almost all work was accomplished through human labor.

[dystopian-ooud]

Slavery is known to have existed as early as the Shang dynasty (18th–12th century bce) in China. It has been studied thoroughly in ancient Han China (206 bce–25 ce), where perhaps 5 percent of the population was enslaved. Slavery continued to be a feature of Chinese society down to the 20th century.

[ShadesApeDJansu]

RED PILL : You are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage... born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind. - Matrix 1 Morpheus

[wrappingpaper]

Idk if ur still reading comments, but I would love if you put the years (ish) in the corner of the screen when you talk about it. Love ur channel <3

[outhousephilosophies]

Glad you mentioned that not all people had slaves cause just off the top of my head I can think of a dozen or more people for whom slavery wasn’t feasible and a few where it was a huge sin that your ancestors would turn their backs on you for owning a person .

[Ogrem]

we are slaves still, slaves to the system

[jaibritz]

South African accent come throughhh. Great video 🙏🏻

[johnsamu]

You'd better say even BEFORE there was a civilization there was slavery.
The difference is that slavery was completely accepted at that time aka "the winner takes all".
The ancient Egyptian chronicles tell about Egyptian pharao's who rewarded soldiers with slaves, land and other items.
The idea that it is NOT acceptable to enslave other people is a rather modern concept.

[jasondashney]

Of course I've known about slavery all my life, but for some reason the part about handing over the firstborn son if you marry a free person caught me off guard. I didn't know you could use a baby as a transaction like that. Yikes.

[billurrego]

We all suck but some suck more than others

[nathanmchiyengi]

Can u do a video about polish Lithuanian Commonwealth

[Joe-zfb]

To work anyone in hard labor, against their will, with little or no pay, or not caring for their well being is despicable

[jamesmichaels]

The way African Americans talk about slavery you'd think it was created in America

[다미최-wb]

you fail to point out the prevalence of slavery in africa before europeans and of course the white slaves who were taken from ireland and mainland britain by the moors. a very incomplete study very disappointing

[JustTooDamnHonest]

Slavery was a way of life in the old world.

[andrewboos-hartig]

The word slave has origins with the word "slav" or Slavic. As far as the English language goes "slaves" started in Russia.

[dystopian-ooud]

Does India still have slavery?

The Global Slavery Index estimates that on any given day in 2016 there were nearly 8 million people living in modern slavery in India. In terms of prevalence of modern slavery in India, there were 6.1 victims for every thousand people.

[knotzed]

8:53 well duh its like if u damage someone's car u have to pay for the damage because the car (slave)might not work as well anymore.. they're not doing it because they feel bad for the slave...

[lynnleigha]

I think "an eye for an eye" should be written in the constitution

[JANEEDISTURBED]

PragU channel some of you have really got to watch of a video titled "Short History of Slavery". It definitely covers it all. And not one country or another are guiltless.