ORIGINS OF AFRICAN SLAVERY Objective: 1 ORIGINS OF AFRICAN SLAVERY Objective: 1. Explain the nature of Traditional African Slavery 2. Identify the circumstances under which an African would become a slave in his own society. Slavery was never a new concept in Africa. The local society maintained acceptable forms of slavery that indeed served a purpose; whether social, economic or political; and keep order in community that by some was deemed primitive. In cases where parents were unable to take care of themselves and or children, persons would sell themselves into slavery, typically this case applied if there were a famine.

Owning a debt that could not be reasonably paid of often resulted in slavery. A person would be contracted in slavery for a period time that would be equal to the debt. Criminals could be sentenced to slavery for committing serious offenses or as so sentenced by a ruler or judge. Lastly, the element of war was a continued cause for enslavement. African societies were typically feudal and an attack on a kingdom or tribe often resulted in prisoners of war, in this case then became slave of the attacking villages.

It was through this last method that created opportunities for the European to encourage Africans to convert such a reasonable and traditional method of justice and reason into the economic program that led to the largest Diaspora of any group of people. Please check the following link for more insight into the African Diaspora: http://moadsf.org/salon/exhibits/slave_narrative s/flash.php