A History of Slavery

The first slave owner is America was a black man called Anthony Johnson and the first slave (also a black man) was called John Caster. Does that surprise you? This was first brought to my attention on the Glenn Beck TV show. I checked on this later on and found this historical event on the PBS.org website. A court said that Caster could be a free man but Johnson appealed the order and wanted him to be his slave.

America was not the first country to have slaves. In 18th century BC Babylon had slaves. Greece had slaves in 7th century BC. Then we come to ancient Rome. Remember Spartacus? He was a white slave in Rome who led an uprising. In the Middle Ages (6 - 15th century AD) Germans captured Slavs and made them slaves hence the name. During this same period Arabia had slaves. The prophet Mohamed even had slaves. To be fair he freed them later on. As a side note, Jesus never had slaves. But I digress. I could continue but you get the point.

And the point is slavery was not a white/black issue. It was a human issue. Almost every culture had slaves. When you treat someone as your property it is wrong no matter who does it.

You can read more about the history of slavery on the History World.net website.