Slavery has been a dark side of human existence
since the beginning of time… it is still ongoing on so many levels across the
world...
“Democracy” itself was based on slavery…
without slavery, ancient Greeks such as Athenians could not practice democracy
which allowed about 20% of the people (free men born in that city-state) to
participate…
As for America, the first documented slave is
considered to be a black man named John Punch...
Curiously, there are claims that John Punch is
an ancestor of both the first African American winner of Noble Peace Prize,
Ralph Bunche, as well as the first African American president, Barack Hussein
Obama II (who was also awarded the Noble Peace Prize during his first year in
office)...
The first legal slave in America is considered
to be a black man named John Casor, who was owned by a wealthy black landowner
Anthony Johnson...
Johnson went to court to legally enslave Casor... the slave owner Anthony
Johnson himself arrived in the New World as indentured servant via having been
sold to Arab Muslim slave traders in the first
instance... there are claims that slave owner Anthony Johnson is viewed as
"the black patriarch" to some capacity for African American
communities...
On this day -- May 30, 1854 -- the
Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress permitting inhabitants of
the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether or not to allow
slavery within their borders...
According to Heuman and Burnard’s “The
Routledge History of Slavery” (2011), between 10th-13th centuries the majority
of slaves in West Asia (“Middle East”) were Circassians, Central Asians, and
Africans until early 20th century when slaves also constituted of Iranians,
West Indians, Indonesians, and Chinese. In 17th century, based on earlier
scholarly works, Berber intellectual Ahmad Baba wrote that Muslims should never
be enslaved and it is illegal for Muslims to sell slaves to non-Muslims…
Ahmad Baba claimed “…the reason for slavery is
non-belief [in Islam] and the Sudanese non-believers are like other kafir
whether they are Christians, Jews, Persians, Berbers, or any others who stick
to non-belief and do not embrace Islam…. This means there is no difference
between all the kafir in this respect. Whoever is captured in a condition of
non-belief, it is legal to own him, whosoever he may be, but not if he was
converted to Islam voluntarily…”
Interesting to note that in 17th c. Islam was
considered foreign to Iranians and not part of their native identity and
culture… hence, Iranians could be enslaved by Muslims…
Although Heuman & Burnard (2011) stated that the Iranian slaves came from Makran coast... one may wonder if it was not just restricted to that area and whether given Ahmad Baba's remarks about Iranian enslavement, the Safavid rulers of 17th c. Iran began brutal conversions to Shiite Islam to reduce Iranian slavery by Muslims while keeping them away from religious sympathies with Sunni Muslim Ottoman Empire? Just a thought...
Although Heuman & Burnard (2011) stated that the Iranian slaves came from Makran coast... one may wonder if it was not just restricted to that area and whether given Ahmad Baba's remarks about Iranian enslavement, the Safavid rulers of 17th c. Iran began brutal conversions to Shiite Islam to reduce Iranian slavery by Muslims while keeping them away from religious sympathies with Sunni Muslim Ottoman Empire? Just a thought...
[pic Britannica: for educational purposes only]
