There have been slaves in just about every country and culture at some point in time.

For a long time almost the entire population were barely above slaves England used to be a feudal system in which all the commoners were thought to be genitically inferior to the royalty and thus were treated like sheep or cattle (ie. used, abused and discarded if and when necessary). Your entire life was at the mercy of your betters.

Britain technically abolished slavery in 1807, after the Haiti experience - and replaced slavery with indentured labour. Upfront, indentured labour was only slightly more expensive but was far more cheaper in the long run. Indentured labour also came fewer issues related to capture, transport, trade and maintenance of slaves - with a veneer of respectability that was needed for propaganda purposes. Also, Britain had India - a huge colony to fall back on for indentured labour. British trade and agriculture brought pressure to stop slavery by other European kingdoms. Paid labour had made French products uncompetitive - which made Napoleon re-introduce slavery. This re-introduction of slavery by the French (circa 1804) diluted British resolve to end slavery. While slavery was supposedly abolished in 1807, trade in slaves continued. Slave ships and traders had to pay a fine of GBP100 per slave, if caught. The law was not seriously implemented. In the few cases where slave ships and traders were caught, slaves were simply thrown overboard. Finally, further rebellions in Barbados (1816), Demerra (1823) and Jamaica (1831-32) forced the British hand. Freedom to British slaves came finally in 1833 after the British Government passed yet another law, to outlaw slavery, Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 - and paid ‘compensation’ to slave owners. An egregious and glaring example was the ‘compensation’ to the Bishop of Exeter and his partners of GBP12,700 to ‘compensate’ them for the ‘loss’ of 665 slaves in 1833. From 2ndlook.wordpress.com

Yes! There is record of slaves trough out European history, even the word slave has it's origins in the Slavic (a European population) that was enslaved by the Germans and sold to other European countries. And after the 1400's, there were slaves brought to Europe being the first captured by Portuguese in the Africa coast and brought to Lagos, Portugal. Other slaves followed and there are reports of thousands of slaves in Madeira, Portugal, for instance. There is also reports of slaves in Spain, France, Germany, The Netherlands and England. What happen to them after mid-1800's I don't seem to find out. Probably is another mystery like the Afro-Argentineans. But this is not fomenting the hatred. It is just distributing knowledge because we, as human beings, owe to ourselves the remembrance of history. Denying the Holocaust of Africans is, as an European might understand, as bad as denying the Holocaust of Jews and Roma.

Britain was one of the main slaving nations of Europe.The two main ports that were used were Bristol and Liverpool.Many of the British aristocracy made their family fortunes out of this sordid trade and used their fortunes to build big country mansions. Many of their descendants are still living in the country today.One name that comes to mind is the Hume (Home) family who some in later years served in the British House of Lords, and Houses of Parliament.Incidently, when the slave trade was outlawed in 1807, these slave traders asked for compensation from the government for loss of revenue.And guess what, they were all handsomely compensated.

dislasluis: The ordinary British citizen were treated like slaves by our rich and privledged.We had to work on their land,and clean their houses.When we got married the Lord had a right to make love to our wives on the wedding night.And if we were starving and stole a sheep to keep our family,we were either hung or deported to Australia.What these Lords did to the Irish people in Ireland is unforgivable and it will never be forgotten. Arisztid is not showing signs of paranoia he is only pointing out that other people other than Africans were slaves to the ruling classes of Europe,as we were in Britain.Slavery is not unique to the United States you know!

dilasluis: I agree with you, African slaves did suffer,but did not suffer anymore than the white skinned slaves of Europe in the middle ages.The Arabs had been slave trading for over a thousand years before they started rounding up the Africans to feed the European slave market.The Arabs had white Christian armies called Jannissaries which they rounded up from Christian families in the Balkans.They used them to fight other Arab countries because their religion forbade them to fight other Muslims.We British were slaves to the land owners in the medieval times right up to the 1800s.So you see slavery affected all races and not just those from the continent of Africa.You are not the only humanitarion on here and its wrong to assume that you are.Just because some of us have a white skin it doesnt make us less human than someone with a darker skin,and the vast majority of us are not racialists either.I agree with you, African slaves did suffer,but did not suffer anymore than the white skinned slaves of Europe in the middle ages.The Arabs had been slave trading for over a thousand years before they started rounding up the Africans to feed the European slave market.The Arabs had white Christian armies called Jannissaries which they rounded up from Christian families in the Balkans.They used them to fight other Arab countries because their religion forbade them to fight other Muslims.We British were slaves to the land owners in the medieval times right up to the 1800s.So you see slavery affected all races and not just those from the continent of Africa.You are not the only humanitarion on here and its wrong to assume that you are.Just because some of us have a white skin it doesnt make us less human than someone with a darker skin,and the vast majority of us are not racialists either.

I was once at the gates of hell. I stood there and I saw my human fellows. I asked them: Why am I here? Does it matter? They replied. You are here! That's really what is important. But than the need to understand why was stronger than everything else so I separated myself from my humanity and went to the devil. The devil said: you have an heritage of murder, deceit, slavery, robbery, injustice, racial profiling, hatred, religious hatred, xenophobe, ignorance, disrespect, injustice... As he went on and on I was thinking to myself: Me? I have done nothing like that. And the devil replied to my thought: You alone could not save the collective soul of your human brothers, so what did you expect?! And I hope you all vote negatively on this remark because I learned that it doesn't matter how accurate your answer is, what does matter is if you are likable or not. I don't want to be part of a community of people who are so sadly the way they are and that can't show love or respect to Africans, our brothers that endured 400 years of slavery, 100 years of social injustice and still endure it. For me it is as sad as people who are anti-semite. Or now, the new trend, anti-muslim. Or anti-someone else just because of a difference. As I am writing this I couldn't be more sad. After voting negatively on this answer, close your eyes for moments and say to yourself: I am not racist! And believe in that and comfort yourself that all your answers were just because the person, who everyone thinks it is dark colored, is wrong. She is wrong! I am not racist! I know that because I've tried and tried and freed my mind from that learned behavior. And I respect everyone in spite of their religion, skin color, job, sexual preferences, culture or any other social marker. I just don't tolerate injustice. So, my friends, the only ones who can really understand the profoundness of what I am here saying because they go outside of pre-conceived ideas, paranoia (I am not persecuting anyone and don't defend yourself, make logical arguments) and other illogical arguments, be careful of what you don't advocate because in some time people may say to you: welcome to hell! You have lost your privileges.

dislasius: No one has said that the descendants of African slaves do not have the right to ask for compensation.They have the right and I agree with them. We are not ignorant,and all we are saying is, other people including white people have been slaves to white Europeans. We are not against you for defending Africans,and you are a good person for defending their rights. The Jewish people have started asking for compensation for the Holocaust from Germany and they have the right too. The Jewish people who put their gold into the Swiss banks during the early 1930s all died in the Holocaust. So who should have their gold now? We do not think your skin is black because we are not racialists. I am not blaming the Arab man, but saying he was responsible too. What I am saying is, they should also pay compensation too, but how do you suggest that this can be done. We all have a right to voice our opinions on AB, and if someone says that reparations should not be made,that is fair comment as it is their opinion and should be respected. Today in Africa there is still a slave trade going on,but this time it the Africans making slaves of other Africans,so what is your opinion on this?

dislasius: You are wrong the Jewish business people in Germany from 1933 put their money into Swiss bank accounts as they didn't want to put it into the Nazi banks in Germany because at that time they were being persecuted by the Nazi's.At the time they were forcing them to sell their businesses to non Jewish Germans at a fraction of the price the business was worth.This went on until the end of 1943. The ones who went to the concentration camps if they had gold on them it was taken off them and went in the SS funds for after the war to pay for the transportation of the Jews to the camps.The transport trains had to be paid for and were not free,and every country the trains passed through wanted a tariff per head for every Jew on the train for using their railway line. Do not get mixed up as we are talking about two lots of gold here.I do know what I am talking about,but you have seem not to understand what really happened to the gold from Germany.It is this gold that is in the Swiss Banks.You are wrong the Jewish business people in Germany from 1933 put their money into Swiss bank accounts as they didn't want to put it into the Nazi banks in Germany because at that time they were being persecuted by the Nazi's.At the time they were forcing them to sell their businesses to non Jewish Germans at a fraction of the price the business was worth.This went on until the end of 1943. The Jews who went to the concentration camps if they had gold on them it was taken off them and went in the SS funds for transportation of the Jews to the camps.The transport trains had to be paid for and were not free,and every country the trains passed through wanted a tariff per head for every Jew on the train for using their railway line.

Yes, there were slaves in Europe before there were slaves in America. The Bible documents slavery in the middle east thousands of years ago (if you want to use the Bible as documentation). Slavery simply moved across the earth. This is such a sad segment of our world history.

the romans took slaves from Britain, and i'm sure they kept them on the colonies they had in Britain.

There were slaves there before there were slaves in America.

Yes I think almost every country all over the world in some period of time has experience slavary. I think what we need to do now is learn from these past mistakes and stop slavery in countries where it is still happening.

There were slaves in practically every country in every continent in the world. Even today slavary exists. Only it is called bonded labor. The bonded laborers are essentially slaves. Only the price paid in advance is called the advance money.

Last recorded slavery in Europe was in WW2, Hitler ran slave labor camps to build infrastructure for his war machine, done so by Jews and other minority ethnic groups. Although it is said that the USSR did practice this as well, well after WW2 but, I have no basis if fact to refer to.

Yes - in England for sure. RFK Jr. wrote an awesome piece about how the debate over abolishing slavery in England tracked the clean energy debate here - interesting read! Eventually slavery was abolished in England and an economic boom took place as people innovated to replace the free source of energy.

I read in a book on Roman Civil Law that around 300 AD there was a spate of slavery in Rome, and the rule was that if you could get possession of a man, you owned him.

In ancient Greece (part of Europe) 90% of the population were slaves. In, I think it was Rome, one of the Senators proposed that slaves should wear identifying clothing or some kind of badge (apparently slaves and freemen dressed alike). Another Senator said, "This is a bad idea. They may look around and see how large their numbers are."