How did Europeans change the nature of slavery?

Answer 1

Europe and the Americas over a period of about 400 years, Ancient African slaves

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To be honest this question is not as easy to answer as the first person would imply...

To answer this question it is important to first consider the first slaves.. Most slaves in the ancient world were captured during war... this would include their families -- if the Greeks, Romans, or Mesopotamian etc etc -- could find them. This type of slavery was also life long.. and for the Egyptians it could be even longer..^^

Slaves could even be your own country men such as the case with the Spartans and the Helots (these slaves were treated very cruelly)..
The Helots were owned collectively by the whole Spartan city-state and were used to grow food and do basically everything else.... so that Spartan men could train for war..... (SPARTAN.......!) as King Leonidas would have said it)

Another form of slavery was indentured servants which could overtime receive their freedom... this form of slavery lasted anywhere from 2 to 5 years depending on the circumstances... The first slaves in America were mainly Scots, Irish and Germans.. they used this type of slavery as a means to pay for their way to the New World... this in fact was much cheaper then African slaves.. for a very long time in America..

So how did the Europeans change the nature of slavery.... that answer could take all day to answer... even if we don't consider the American slaves..

**However, most likely your teacher is looking for this answer... Slavery was hereditary meaning if you were a slave then your child would also be considered slaves.. if you had any... **

Yet we find this type of slavery was nothing new either... consider the Hebrews and the Egyptians (Moses and The Bible)... Romans and Greeks that practiced this type of slavery 3500 years ago..also

More over this question could even be more complex if we consider the Indian Coolies (not the American Indians but the India Indians).. that the British basically enslaved after they outlawed the slave trade..