History of Slavery

Slavery has been apparent in almost every country in history. Slavery was used in Rome, Greece, Britain, United States, Brazil and Peru to name a few. If was even stated that in Greece, slavery was so common that nobody tried to cease it. The success of countries such as Britain and the United States depended on their usage of slave labor. Many luxuries enjoyed today would not have been possible without past slave work. Many people today do not realize that slavery still exists and to what extent. It is important to understand how slavery began to see how it can be entrenched into so many countries.
Slavery is more common when there is a shortage of labor and a lot of land, but rarely found in hunter-gather communities. The trans Atlantic slave trade allowed for many people and products to be sold between Europe, Africa and the "New World." It started out by the Portuguese looking for gold along the African coast and setting up trading posts. The Portuguese brought in cloth, wine, copper and horses in exchange for gold, ivory and pepper. The first trading post was Elmina in 1482 and by 1500 the Portuguese had enslaved 81,000 slaves to different posts.
Race was involved in the founding of these trading posts due to the control of the Sub-Saharan by the Islamic Empire. In order to avoid direct competition with the Muslim merchants the Portuguese created more trade opportunities in Europe and the Mediterranean. The Portuguese also later gained access to two main rivers which brought them to Sub-Saharan routes.