Slavery and religion

{{short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see WP:SDNONE --> {{slavery}} Historically, slavery has been regulated, supported, or opposed on religious grounds.

In Judaism, Hebrew slaves were given a range of treatments and protections. They were to be treated as an extended family with certain protections, and they could be freed. They were property but could also own material goods.

Early Christian authors (except for Assyrian Christians who did not believe in slavery){{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}{{clarification needed|date=June 2025}} maintained the spiritual equality of slaves and free persons while accepting slavery as an institution. Early modern papal decrees allowed the enslavement of the unbelievers, though popes denounced slavery from the fifteenth century onward.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Anglican Diocese of Barbados|url=http://anglican.bb/Content/Menu/FOV1-0001822B/S000A21D3?FormID=96&listview}}</ref> This denouncement of slavery did not discourage (for example) the diocese of the Anglican church from having an indirect involvement with the religious conversion of black slaves in Barbados, in which one of the main principles was the divine right of the master over the slave. In the eighteenth century, the abolition movement took shape among Christians across the globe, but various denominations did not prohibit slavery among their members into the nineteenth century. Enslaved non-believers were sometimes converted to Christianity, but elements of their traditional beliefs merged with their Christian beliefs.

Early Islamic texts encourage kindness towards slaves and manumission (legally freeing individual slaves), while recognizing slavery as an institution and permitting enslavement of non-Muslims imprisoned or bought beyond the borders of Islamic rule. Children born to slaves were also considered legally as slaves.

== Slavery in the Bible == {{main|The Bible and slavery}}

The Genesis narrative about the Curse of Ham has often been held to be an aetiological story, giving a reason for the enslavement of the Canaanites. The word ''ham'' is very similar to the Hebrew word for ''hot'', which is cognate with an Egyptian word (''kem'', which means ''black'') and is used to refer to Egypt itself, in reference to the fertile black soil along the Nile valley. Although many scholars therefore view ''Ham'' as an eponym which is used to represent Egypt in the Table of Nations,<ref>''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1901), article on ''Ham''</ref> a number of Christians throughout history, including Origen<ref>Origen, ''Homilies'', on Genesis 16:1</ref> and the Cave of Treasures,<ref>(edited by Ciala Kourcikidzé), ''The cave of treasures: Georgian version'', translated by Jean-Pierre Mahé in ''The written corpus of eastern Christianity'' 526-27, part of ''Scriptores Iberici'' 23-24 (Louvain, 1992-93), 21:38-39</ref> have argued for the alternate proposition that ''Ham'' represents all black people, his name symbolising their dark skin colour;<ref>Goldenberg, D. M. (2003). The Curse of Ham. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, page 141.</ref> pro-slavery advocates, from Eutychius of Alexandria<ref>(edited by J.P. Migne), ''Complete course in Patrology…Greek series'', (Paris, 1857-66), on ''Annals'' 111:917B:41-43</ref> and John Philoponus,<ref>A. Sanda, ''Opposcula Monophysitica Johannes Philoponi'' (Beirut, 1930), page 96</ref> to American pro-slavery apologists,<ref>Haynes, Stephen R. (2002). ''Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery''. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 71.</ref><ref>Stewart, Matthew (2024). ''An Emancipation of the Mind: Radical Philosophy, the War over Slavery, and the Refounding of America''. W. W. Norton & Company. Review by Harold Holzer, [https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/an-emancipation-of-the-mind-review-religious-retreat-b0b1510b#comments_sector "Religious Retreat", ''The Wall Street Journal'', March 31, 2024]</ref> have therefore occasionally interpreted the narrative as a condemnation of all black people to slavery.<ref>Felder, C. H. (2002). Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Fortress, page 8.</ref> A few Christians, like Jerome, even took up the racist notion that black people inherently had ''a soul as black as [their] body''.<ref>Jerome, ''Homilies'', 1:3:28</ref>

Slavery was customary in antiquity, and it is condoned by the Torah.<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|22:2-3|}}</ref> The Bible uses the Hebrew term {{Transliteration|he|eved}} ({{Lang|he|עֶבֶד}}) to refer to slavery; however, {{Transliteration|he|eved}} has a much wider meaning than the English term ''slavery'', and in several circumstances it is more accurately translated into English as ''servant''.<ref>''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1901), article on ''Slaves and Slavery''</ref> It was seen as legitimate to enslave captives obtained through warfare,<ref>{{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|20:10-16|}}</ref> but not through kidnapping.<ref>{{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|24:7|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|20:10-16|}}</ref> Children could also be sold into debt bondage,<ref>{{bibleverse||Leviticus|25:44|}}</ref> which was sometimes ordered by a court of law.<ref>{{bibleverse||Isaiah|22:2-3|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|2|Kings|4:1-7|}}</ref><ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia 1901">''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1901), article on ''Slaves and Slavery''</ref>

As with the Hittite Laws and the Code of Hammurabi,<ref>''Peake's commentary on the Bible'' (1962), on Exodus 21:18-27</ref> the Bible does set minimum rules for the conditions under which slaves were to be kept. These are written as condition statements reflective of bronze age law. A set of if/then parameters to account for specific transgressions. Slaves were to be treated as part of an extended family;<ref name="bibleverse||Deuteronomy|16:14">{{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|16:14|}}</ref> they were allowed to celebrate the Sukkot festival,<ref name="bibleverse||Deuteronomy|16:14"/> and expected to honour Shabbat.<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|20:10|}}</ref> Israelite slaves could not be compelled to work ''with rigour'',<ref>{{bibleverse||Leviticus|25:43|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Leviticus|25:53|}}</ref> and debtors who sold themselves as slaves to their creditors had to be treated the same as a hired servant.<ref>{{bibleverse||Leviticus|25:39|}}</ref> If a master harmed a slave in one of the ways covered by the lex talionis, the slave was to be compensated by manumission;<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|21:26-27|}}</ref> if the slave died within 24 to 48 hours, he or she was to be ''avenged''<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|21:20-21|}}</ref> (whether this refers to the death penalty<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/><ref name="Maimonides, Mishneh Torah">Maimonides, ''Mishneh Torah''</ref> or not<ref>''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1901), article on ''Avenger of Blood''</ref> is uncertain).

Israelite slaves were automatically manumitted after six years of work, and/or at the next Jubilee (occurring either every 49 or every 50 years, depending on interpretation), although the latter would not apply if the slave was owned by an Israelite and was not in debt bondage.<ref>{{bibleverse||Leviticus|25:47-55|}}</ref> Slaves released automatically in their 7th year of service, which did not include female slaves,<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|21:7|}}</ref> or<ref>''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1901), article on ''Law, Codification of''</ref><ref>''Peake's commentary on the Bible'' (1962), on Exodus 21:2-11</ref> did,<ref>{{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|15:12|}}</ref> were to be given livestock, grain, and wine, as a parting gift<ref>{{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|15:13-14|}}</ref> (possibly hung round their necks<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/>). This 7th-year manumission could be voluntarily renounced, which would be signified, as in other Ancient Near Eastern nations,<ref>Thomas Kelly Cheyne and John Sutherland Black, ''Encyclopaedia Biblica'' (1903), article on ''Slavery''</ref> by the slave gaining a ritual ear piercing;<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|21:5-6|}}</ref> after such renunciation, the individual was enslaved ''forever'' (and not released at the Jubilee<ref>Thomas Kelly Cheyne and John Sutherland Black, ''Encyclopaedia Biblica'' (1903), article on ''Slavery''</ref>). Non-Israelite slaves were always to be enslaved ''forever'', and treated as inheritable property.<ref>{{bibleverse||Leviticus|25:44-46|}}</ref>

In New Testament books, including the First Epistle of Peter, slaves are admonished to obey their masters, ''as to the Lord, and not to men'';<ref>{{bibleverse||Ephesians|6:5-8|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Colossians|3:22-25|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|1|Timothy|6:1|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Titus|2:9-10|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|1|Peter|2:18}}</ref> and the Epistle to Philemon was used by both pro-slavery advocates as well as by abolitionists;<ref>Religion and the Antebellum Debate Over Slavery, by John R. McKivigan, Mitchell Snay</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://medicolegal.tripod.com/cheevergvs.htm#p140|title=God Against Slavery, p. 140, by Rev. George B. Cheever, D.D|author=Rev. George B. Cheever, D.D., in 1857|access-date=23 October 2014}}</ref> in the epistle, Paul returns Onesimus, a fugitive slave, back to his master.

==Judaism== {{main|Jewish views on slavery}} More mainstream forms of first-century Judaism did not exhibit such qualms about slavery, and ever since the second-century expulsion of Jews from Judea, wealthy Jews have owned non-Jewish slaves, wherever it was legal to do so;<ref name=" Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/> nevertheless, manumissions were approved by Jewish religious officials on the slightest of pretexts, and court cases concerning manumission were nearly always decided in favor of freedom, whenever there was uncertainty towards the facts.<ref name="Maimonides, Mishneh Torah"/><ref>''The Minor Tractates'', ''Abadim'' 9:6</ref>

The Talmud, a document of great importance in Judaism, made many rulings that made manumission easier and more likely: *The costly and compulsory giving of gifts was restricted to the 7th-year manumission only.<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/> *The price of freedom was reduced to a proportion of the original purchase price rather than the total fee of a hired servant and could be reduced further if the slave had become weak or sickly (and therefore less saleable).<ref name=" Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/><ref name="Maimonides, Mishneh Torah"/> *Voluntary manumission became officially possible, with the introduction of the manumission deed (the {{transliteration|he|shetar shihrur}}), which was counted as prima facie proof of manumission. *Verbal declarations of manumission could no longer be revoked.<ref>''Gittin'' 1:6</ref> *Putting phylacteries on the slave, or making him publicly read three or more verses from the Torah, was counted as a declaration of the slave's manumission.<ref name="Maimonides, Mishneh Torah"/> *Extremely long term sickness, for up to four years in total, could not count against the slave's right to manumission after six years of enslavement.<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/><ref name="Maimonides, Mishneh Torah"/>

Jewish participation in the slave trade itself was also regulated by the Talmud. Fear of apostasy lead to the Talmudic discouragement of the sale of Jewish slaves to non-Jews,<ref>''Gittin'', 4:6</ref> although loans were allowed;<ref>''Gittin'', 46b</ref> similarly slave trade with Tyre was only to be for the purpose of removing slaves from non-Jewish religion.<ref>''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1901), article on ''Fairs''</ref> Other types of trade were also discouraged: men selling themselves to women, and post-pubescent daughters being sold into slavery by their fathers.<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/><ref name="Maimonides, Mishneh Torah"/> Pre-pubescent slave girls sold by their fathers had to be freed-then-married by their new owner, or his son, when she ''started'' puberty;<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/> slaves could not be allowed to marry free Jews,<ref>''Gittin'' 4:5</ref> although masters were often granted access to the ''services'' of the wives of any of their slaves.<ref>''Kiddushin'' 22a</ref>

According to the Talmudic law, killing a slave is punishable in the same way as killing a freeman, even if it was committed by the owner. While slaves are considered the owner's property, they may not work on Sabbath and holidays; they may acquire and hold property of the owner.<ref>''Encyclopedia Judaica, 2007, vol. 18,'' p. 668</ref>

Several prominent Jewish writers of the Middle Ages took offense at the idea that Jews might be enslaved; Joseph Caro and Maimonides both argue that calling a Jew ''slave'' was so offensive that it should be punished by ex-communication.<ref>Maimonides, ''Mishneh Torah'', 6:14</ref><ref>Joseph Caro, ''Shulkhan Arukh'', ''Yoreah De'ah'' 334</ref> However, they did not condemn enslavement of non-Jews. Indeed, they argued that the biblical rule, that slaves should be freed for certain injuries, should actually only apply to slaves who had converted to Judaism;<ref name=" Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/> additionally, Maimonides argued that this manumission was real punishment of the owner, and therefore it could only be imposed by a court, and required evidence from witnesses.<ref name=" Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/> Unlike the biblical law protecting fugitive slaves, Maimonides argued that such slaves should be compelled to buy their freedom.<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia 1901"/><ref name="Maimonides, Mishneh Torah"/>

At the same time, Maimonides and other halachic authorities forbade or strongly discouraged any unethical treatment of slaves. According to the traditional Jewish law, a slave is more like an indentured servant, who has rights and should be treated almost like a member of the owner's family. Maimonides wrote that, regardless of whether a slave is Jewish or not, "The way of the pious and the wise is to be compassionate and to pursue justice, not to overburden or oppress a slave, and to provide them from every dish and every drink. The early sages would give their slaves from every dish on their table. They would feed their servants before sitting to their own meals... Slaves may not be maltreated of offended—the law destined them for service, not for humiliation. Do not shout at them or be angry with them, but hear them out." In another context, Maimonides wrote that all the laws of slavery are "mercy, compassion and forbearance".<ref>Encyclopedia Judaica, 2007, vol. 18, p. 670</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Torah, Slavery and the Jews|url=https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/305549/jewish/Torah-Slavery-and-the-Jews.htm|website=www.chabad.org|language=en|access-date=2020-05-24}}</ref>

==Christianity==

{{main|Christian views on slavery|Catholic Church and slavery|Slavery in the Byzantine Empire}} {{See also|Atlantic slave trade|Black Sea slave trade|European colonization of the Americas}}

Different forms of slavery existed for over 18 centuries within Christianity. Although in the early years of Christianity, freeing slaves was regarded as an act of charity,<ref name="Slavery in the Middle Ages">{{cite web|url=http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa012698.htm|title=Slavery in the Middle Ages|author=Melissa Snell|work=About|access-date=23 October 2014}}</ref> and the Christian view that all people were equal including slaves was a novel idea within the Roman Empire,<ref name="Catholic">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Allard |first=Paul |title=Slavery and Christianity |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |volume=XIV |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York |year=1912 |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14036a.htm |access-date=15 October 2009}}</ref> the institution of slavery was rarely criticised. David Brion Davis writes that the "variations in early Christian opinion on servitude fit comfortably within a framework of thought that would exclude any attempt to abolish slavery as an institution".<ref>{{cite book|author=David Brion Davis|title=The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1988|page=93}}</ref> Indeed, in 340, the local Synod of Gangra condemned the Manicheans for urging that slaves should liberate themselves; with one of the 20 canons of the Synod declaring:

3) ''If anyone shall teach a slave, under the pretext of piety, to despise his master and to run away from his service, and not to serve his own master with good-will and all honor, let him be anathema.''<ref>{{Cite web|title=CHURCH FATHERS: Synod of Gangra (4th Century)|url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3804.htm|access-date=2020-11-08|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>

A variation of the Canon would be adopted as Orthodox Catholic Law, during the 451 AD, Council of Chalcedon, as:

''4) ... Every monk must be subject to his bishop, and must not leave his house except at his suggestion. A slave, however, can not enter the monastic life without the consent of his master.''

Augustine of Hippo, who renounced his former Manicheanism, argued that slavery was part of the mechanism to preserve the natural order of things;<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''City of God''</ref><ref>Elaine Pagels, ''Adam, Eve, and the Serpent'' (1988), page 114</ref> John Chrysostom, who is regarded as a saint by Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, argued that slaves should be resigned to their fate, because by "obeying his master he is obeying God".<ref>Henri Daniel-Rops, ''Cathedral and Crusade'' (1957), page 263</ref> but he also stated that "Slavery is the fruit of covetousness, of extravagance, of insatiable greediness" in his Epist. ad Ephes.<ref>[http://medicolegal.tripod.com/catholicsvslavery.htm Leroy J. Platten, Roman Catholic Church Opposition to Slavery (2005)]</ref> As the Apostle Paul admonished the early Christians; "There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus". And in fact, even some of the first popes were once slaves themselves.<ref name="Catholic" /> Pope Gelasius I, in 492 AD, sanctioned heathens in Gaul could be enslaved, imported and sold by Jews, in Rome.<ref>{{Cite web|title=SLAVE-TRADE - JewishEncyclopedia.com|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13798-slave-trade|access-date=2020-11-08|website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref> Though in the following centuries Roman popes would ban the ownership of Christian slaves by Jews, Muslims, heathens, and other Christians, while the Catholic Council of London in 1102, issued a local blanket decree, though not a Church canon: "''Let no one dare hereafter to engage in the infamous business, prevalent in England, of selling men like animals.''"<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pijper|first1=Frederik|year=1909|title=The Christian Church and Slavery in the Middle Ages|journal=The American Historical Review|publisher=American Historical Association|volume=14|issue=4|pages=681|doi=10.1086/ahr/14.4.675|jstor=1837055}}</ref>

In 1452 Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which granted Afonso V of Portugal the right to reduce any "Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers" to hereditary slavery. The approval of slavery under these conditions was reaffirmed and extended in his Romanus Pontifex bull of 1455. (This papal bull was issued in response to the wars which were triggered by the Fall of Constantinople in 1453) In 1488 Pope Innocent VIII accepted the gift of 100 slaves from Ferdinand II of Aragon and distributed those slaves to his cardinals and the Roman nobility. Also, in 1639 Pope Urban VIII purchased slaves for himself from the Knights of Malta.<ref>{{cite book | last = Bermejo, S.J. | first = Luis M. | title = Infallibity on Trial | publisher = Christian Classics, Inc. | location = London | year = 1992 | pages = 315–316 | isbn = 0-87061-190-9}}</ref>

In the 15th and 16th centuries other popes denounced slavery as a ''great crime'', including Pius II,<ref name=Catholic /> Paul III,<ref>Alessandro Farnese, ''Sublimus Dei'' (1537) - [http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Paul03/p3subli.htm online copy]</ref> and Eugene IV.<ref>Gabriele Condulmer, ''Sicut Dudum'' (1435) - [http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Eugene04/eugene04sicut.htm online copy]</ref> In 1639, Pope Urban VIII forbade slavery, as did Benedict XIV in 1741. In 1815, pope Pius VII demanded that the Congress of Vienna suppress the slave trade, and Gregory XVI condemned it again in 1839.<ref name=Catholic />

In addition, the Dominican friars who arrived in the Spanish settlement of Santo Domingo in 1510 strongly denounced the enslavement of the local Indians. Along with other priests, they opposed the mistreatment of the Indians and denounced it as unjust and illegal in an audience with the Spanish king as well as in the subsequent royal commission.<ref>{{cite book | last = Thomas | first = Hugh | title = Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire | publisher = Weidenfeld & Nicolson | location = London | year = 2003| pages = 258–262 | isbn = 0-297-64563-3}}</ref> As a response to this position, the Spanish monarchy's subsequent ''Requerimiento'' provided a religious justification for the enslavement of the local populations, on the pretext that they refused to convert to Roman Catholicism and therefore denied the authority of the pope.<ref>{{cite book | last = Thomas | first = Hugh | title = Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire | publisher = Weidenfeld & Nicolson | location = London | year = 2003| page = 266 | isbn = 0-297-64563-3}}</ref>

Various interpretations of Christianity were also used to justify slavery.<ref name="worldcat1">{{Cite book|last=Rae, Noel (Noel Martin Douglas)|title=The Great Stain: Witnessing American Slavery|date=20 February 2018|publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=978-1-4683-1513-4|oclc=975365825}}</ref> For example, some people believed that slavery was a punishment that was reserved for sinners.<ref name="worldcat1"/> Some other Christian organizations were slaveholders. The eighteenth-century high-church Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts owned the Codrington Plantation, in Barbados, which contained several hundred slaves, who were branded on their chests with the word ''Society''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4694896.stm|title=BBC News story about a belated official apology for the Society's crimes|access-date=23 October 2014}}</ref><ref>Adam Hochschild, ''Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery'' (2005), page 61</ref> George Whitefield, who is famed for his sparking of the so-called ''Great Awakening'' of American evangelicalism, overturned a province-wide ban against slavery,<ref>Arnold Dallimore, ''George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth Century'' (1980), Vol. 2</ref> and went on to own several hundred slaves himself.<ref>Edward J. Cashin, ''Beloved Bethesda: A History of George Whitefield's Home for Boys'' (2001)</ref> Yet Whitefield is remembered as one of the first evangelists who preached to the enslaved.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2015-01/george-whitefield-s-troubled-relationship-race-and-slavery|title=George Whitefield's troubled relationship to race and slavery|website=The Christian Century}}</ref>

At other times, Christian groups worked against slavery. The seventh-century Saint Eloi used his vast wealth to purchase British and Saxon slaves in groups of 50 to 100 in order to set them free.<ref>Marjorie Rowling, ''Life in Medieval Times'', The Berkeley Publishing Group, 1973.</ref> The Quakers in particular were early leaders of abolitionism, and in keeping with this tradition they denounced slavery at least as early as 1688. In 1787 the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed, and 9 of its 12 founding members were Quakers; William Wilberforce, an early supporter of the society, went on to push through the 1807 Slave Trade Act, striking a major blow against the Atlantic slave trade. Leaders of Methodism and Presbyterianism also vehemently denounced human bondage,<ref>Thoughts Upon Slavery, John Wesley, Published in the year 1774, John Wesley: Holiness of Heart and Life, 1996 Ruth A. Daugherty</ref><ref>Charles G. Finney, Memoirs (New York: A.S. Barnes, 1876), 324</ref><ref>Wylie, Samuel Brown, D.D., Memoir of Alexander McLeod, D.D., New York (New York: Charles Scribner, 145 Nassau Street, 1855), 51</ref> convincing their congregations to do likewise; Methodists<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ket.org/underground/history/westexpansion.htm|title=KET's Underground Railroad - Westward Expansion and the Development of Abolitionist Thought|author=M Ginter|work=ket.org|access-date=8 November 2015}}</ref> and Presbyterians<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pcahistory.org/findingaids/rpcgs/mcleod.html|title=Alexander McLeod's stand against slavery|author=PCA Historical Center Archivist|work=pcahistory.org|access-date=1 July 2018}}</ref> subsequently made the repudiation of slavery a condition of membership.

In the Southern United States, however, support for slavery was strong; anti-slavery literature was prevented from passing through the postal system, and even the transcripts of sermons, by the famed English preacher Charles Spurgeon, were burned due to their censure of slavery.<ref>The Christian Cabinet, Dec. 14 1859</ref> When the American Civil War broke out, slavery became one of the issues which would be decided by its outcome; the southern defeat led to a constitutional ban on slavery. Despite the general emancipation of slaves, members of fringe white groups like the Christian Identity movement, and the Ku Klux Klan (a white supremacist group) see the enslavement of Africans as a positive aspect of American history.

===America===

In the United States, Christianity not only held views about slavery but also on how slaves practiced their own form of Christianity. Prior to the work of Melville Herskovits in 1941, it was widely believed that all elements of African culture were destroyed by the enslavement experience. Since his work, scholarship has found that "Slave Christianity" existed as a patchwork of African and Christian religious traditions.<ref>Charles H. Lippy, "Slave Christianity" in ''Modern Christianity to 1900: A People's History of Christianity'', ed. Amanda Porterfield (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 291-292.</ref> The slaves brought a wide variety of religious traditions with them including African traditional religions and Islam.

During the early eighteenth century, Anglican missionaries who attempted to bring Christianity to slaves in the Southern Colonies often found themselves butting up against uncooperative masters and resistant slaves. An unquestionable obstacle to the acceptance of Christianity among slaves was their desire to continue to adhere to the religious beliefs and rituals of their African ancestors as much as possible. Missionaries who worked in the South were especially displeased with the slaves' retention of African practices such as polygamy and what they called idolatrous dancing. In fact, even black people who embraced Christianity in America did not completely abandon the religions of Africa. Instead, they engaged in syncretism, blending Christian influences with traditional African rites and beliefs. Symbols and objects, such as crosses, were conflated with charms which were carried by Africans in order to ward off evil spirits. Christ was interpreted as a healer, similar to the priests of Africa. In the New World, fusions of African spirituality and Christianity led to distinctly new practices within slave populations, including Louisiana Voodoo or Vodun in Haiti. Although African religious influences were also important among Northern blacks, the exposure to African religions was more intense in the South, where the percentage of the black population was higher.

There were, however, some commonalities across the majority of tribal traditions. Perhaps the primary understanding of tribal traditions was the commonly held belief that there was no separation of the sacred and the secular.<ref name="Charles H. Lippy 2007">Charles H. Lippy, "Slave Christianity" in ''Modern Christianity to 1900: A People's History of Christianity'', ed. Amanda Porterfield (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 295.</ref> All life was sacred and the supernatural was present in every facet and focus of life. Most tribal traditions highlighted this experience of the supernatural in ecstatic experiences of the supernatural which were brought on by ritual song and dance. Repetitious music and dancing were often used to bring on these experiences through the use of drums and chanting. These experiences were realized in the "possession" of a worshipper in which one is not only taken over by the divine but actually becomes one with the divine.<ref name="Charles H. Lippy 2007"/>

Echoes of African tribal traditions can be seen in the Christianity that was practiced by slaves in the Americas. The songs, dances, and ecstatic experiences of traditional tribal religions were Christianized and practiced by slaves in what is called the "Ring Shout."<ref>Charles H. Lippy, "Slave Christianity" in ''Modern Christianity to 1900: A People's History of Christianity'', ed. Amanda Porterfield (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 299-300.</ref> This practice was a major mark of African American Christianity during the slavery period.

Christianity came to the slaves of North America more slowly. Many colonial slaveholders feared that baptizing slaves would lead to emancipation because of vague laws that concerned the slave status of Christians under British colonial rule. Even after 1706, by which time many states had passed laws that stated that baptism would not alter a slave's status, slaveholders continued to believe that the catechization of slaves would not be a wise economic choice. Slaves usually had one day off each week, usually Sunday. They used that time to grow their own crops, dance and sing (doing such things on the Sabbath was frowned upon by most preachers), so there was little time for slaves to receive religious instruction.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Slave Religion : The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South.|url=https://archive.org/details/slavereligioninv00rabo_275|url-access=limited|last=Raboteau|first=Albert J.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|isbn=0-19-517412-7|location=USA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/slavereligioninv00rabo_275/page/n55 39]–75}}</ref>

During the antebellum period, slave preachers—enslaved or formerly enslaved evangelists—became instrumental in shaping slave Christianity. They preached a gospel that was radically different from the gospel that was preached by white preachers, who often used Christianity in an attempt to make slaves more complacent with their enslaved status. Instead of focusing on obedience, slave preachers placed a greater emphasis on the Old Testament, especially on the Book of Exodus. They likened the plight of the American slaves to the plight of the enslaved Hebrews of the Bible, instilling hope into the hearts of those who were enslaved. Slave preachers were instrumental in shaping the religious landscape of African Americans for decades to come.<ref>Dennard, David Charles, [https://www.proquest.com/openview/a7f7a555be6f749986b83b516272044e/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y "Religion in the Quarters: A Study of Slave Preachers in the Antebellum South, 1800-1860" (1983)]</ref>

==Islam== {{main|Islamic views on slavery|History of slavery in the Muslim world|Slavery in the Ottoman Empire|Slavery in 21st-century jihadism}} {{See also|Trans-Saharan slave trade|Red Sea slave trade|Crimean slave trade|Barbary slave trade|Indian Ocean slave trade}} According to Bernard Lewis, slavery has been a part of Islam's history from its beginning. The Quran like the Old and the New Testaments, states Lewis, "assumes the existence of slavery".<ref name="Lewis1992p5"/> It attempts to regulate slavery and thereby implicitly accepts it.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bernard Lewis|title=Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry|url=https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi|url-access=registration|year= 1992|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-505326-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi/page/5 5]|quote= The Qur'an, like the Old and the New Testaments, assumes the existence of slavery. It regulates the practice of the institution and thus implicitly accepts it. The Prophet Muhammad and those of his Companions who could afford it themselves owned slaves; some of them acquired more by conquest.}}</ref> Muhammad and his Companions owned slaves, and some of them acquired slaves through conquests.<ref name="Lewis1992p5">{{cite book|author=Bernard Lewis|title=Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry|url=https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi|url-access=registration|year= 1992|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-505326-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi/page/5 5]–6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=John Ralph Willis|title= Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa: The servile estate|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sasFc2yN7AcC |year= 1985|publisher= Routledge |isbn=978-0-7146-3201-8|pages=viii–ix}}</ref> However, some argure that Muhammad never owned slaves himself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nizami.co.uk/muhammad-didnt-have-slaves/|title=Muhammad didn't have 'slaves' – Mohammed Nizami|website=nizami.co.uk | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250315001345/https://nizami.co.uk/muhammad-didnt-have-slaves/ | archive-date=2025-03-15}}</ref> He also advised people to free slaves.<ref>{{Cite web | title=An-Nawawi on the virtue of freeing slaves {{!}} Faith in Allah الإيمان بالله | date=8 May 2013 | url=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/an-nawawi-on-the-virtue-of-freeing-slaves/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160319173251/http://abuaminaelias.com/an-nawawi-on-the-virtue-of-freeing-slaves/ | access-date=2025-08-28 | archive-date=2016-03-19}}</ref><ref>Musnad Ahmad 3257</ref> An example of this is Zayd ibn Haritha, who was a slave Muhammad freed and adopted as a son.<ref>Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari. Tarikh al-Rusul wa'l-Muluk. Translated by Landau-Tasseron, E. Volume 39: The Biographies of the Companions and Their Successors. Albany: State University of New York Press.</ref>

During the beginnings of Islam, Classic slavery was not forbidden, but the latter (Islam) encourages the emancipation of slaves. In various verses, Quran refers to slaves as "necks" (''raqabah'') or "those whom your right hand possesses" (''Ma malakat aymanukum'').<ref name="Smith2006p22">{{cite book|author=W. G. Clarence-Smith|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar |url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-522151-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar/page/22 22]–24}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|For example, Quran 4.3:{{cite quran|4|3}} "If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice".<ref name=ali39>{{cite book | last=Ali | first=Kecia | title=Sexual ethics and Islam : feminist reflections on Qur'an, hadith, and jurisprudence | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford, England | year=2006 | isbn=978-1-85168-456-4 | pages=39–41, 168 note 7, 170 note 44}}</ref><br>Quran 16.71:{{cite quran|16|71}} "Allah has bestowed His gifts of sustenance more freely on some of you than on others: those more favoured are not going to throw back their gifts to those whom their right hands possess, so as to be equal in that respect. Will they then deny the favours of Allah?"<ref name=ali39/><br>Quran 23:5:{{cite quran|23|5}} "And who guard their modesty, Quran 23:6: Save from their wives or the (slaves) that their right hands possess, for then they are not blameworthy."<ref name=ali39/><br>Other examples: Quran 4:25, 4:28, 24:33, 24:58, 33:50, etc<ref>{{cite book | last=Ali | first=Kecia | title=Sexual ethics and Islam : feminist reflections on Qur'an, hadith, and jurisprudence | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford, England | year=2006 | isbn=978-1-85168-456-4 | pages=39–45}}</ref><ref name=allain49/>}} In addition to these terms for slaves, the Quran and early Islamic literature uses '''Abd'' (male) and ''Amah'' (female) term for an enslaved and servile possession, as well as other terms. According to Brockopp, seven separate terms for slaves appear in the Quran, in at least twenty nine Quranic verses.<ref name="Brockopp2000p128">{{cite book|author=Jonathan E. Brockopp|title=Early Mālikī Law: Ibn ʻAbd Al-Ḥakam and His Major Compendium of Jurisprudence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ciSskcBCi3EC |year=2000|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-11628-1|pages=128–130, 162–163}}</ref><ref name=allain49>{{cite book|author=Jean Allain|title=The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=62t3a5iESy8C |year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-164535-8|pages=49–52 with footnotes}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Brockopp, Jonathan E.| orig-year=1986 | title=Slaves and Slavery |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Quran | volume =5 |year= 2005|publisher=Brill |editor=Jane Dammen McAuliffe|doi=10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00393}}, Quote: "Slaves are mentioned in at least twenty-nine verses of the Qurʾān, most of these are Medinan and refer to the legal status of slaves. Seven separate terms refer to slaves, the most common of which is the phrase “that which your/their right hands own” (mā malakat aymānukum/aymānuhum/aymānuhunna/yamīnuka), found in fifteen places."</ref>

The Quran assigns the same spiritual value to a slave as to a free man,<ref name=EI2-quran>{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Brunschvig, R.| year=1986 | title=ʿAbd |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam| edition=2nd|publisher=Brill |editor=P. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs|volume=1|pages=25|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0003|quote=THE KOR'AN. [...] Spiritually, the slave has the same value as the free man [...] over and over again, from beginning to end of the Preaching, it makes the emancipation of slaves a meritorious act: a work of charity (ii, 177; xc,13), to which the legal alms may be devoted (ix,60), or a deed of expiation for certain felonies (unintentional homicide: iv, 92, where "a believing slave" is specified; perjury: v, 89; Iviii, 3);}}</ref><ref>Gordon, Murray. Slavery in the Arab World (p. 35). New Amsterdam Books. Kindle Edition. Quote: "At a spiritual level, the slave was possessed of the same value as a freeman."</ref> and a believing slave is regarded as superior to a free pagan or idolator.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bernard Lewis|title=Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry|url=https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi|url-access=registration|year= 1992|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-505326-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi/page/5 5]|quote= the believing slave is now the brother of the freeman in Islam and before God, and the superior of the free pagan or idolator (11:221).}}</ref> The manumission of slaves is regarded as a meritorious act in the Quran, and is recommended either as an act of charity or as expiation for sins.<ref name=EI2-quran/><ref>{{cite book|author=Bernard Lewis|title=Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry|url=https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi|url-access=registration|year= 1992|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-505326-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi/page/5 5]|quote=The freeing of slaves is recommended both for the expiation of sins (IV:92; V:92; LVIII:3) and as an act of simple benevolence (11:177; XXIV:33; XC:13).}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Bernard K. Freamon|chapter=Definitions and Conceptions of Slave Ownership in Islamic Law|editor=Jean Allain|title=The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=62t3a5iESy8C |year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-164535-8|page=52|quote=Several of these verses mandate the freeing of slaves as expiation for sin or crimes and they also establish the emancipation of a slave as a meritorious and pious act, entitling the emancipator to favorable treatment in the next life.}}</ref> While the spiritual value of a slave was the same as the freeman, states Forough Jahanbakhsh, in regards to earthly matters, a slave was not an equal to the freeman and relegated to an inferior status.<ref>{{cite book|author=Forough Jahanbakhsh|title=Islam, Democracy and Religious Modernism in Iran, 1953-2000: From Bāzargān to Soroush|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6Q5NumP2ccC |year=2001|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-11982-5|pages=36–37}}</ref> In the Quran and for its many commentators, states Ennaji, there is a fundamental distinction between free Muslims and slaves, a basic constituent of its social organization, an irreparable dichotomy introduced by the existence of believers and infidels.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mohammed Ennaji|title=Slavery, the State, and Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8zesirKffoEC&pg=PA54 |year=2013|publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-11962-7|page= 41}}, Quote: "The Koran addresses with this statement the community of free Muslims, according to many commentators, thereby establishing a distinction between statuses. In Muslim society, slavery was one of the manifestations and fundamental constituents of the social organization. The very existence of believers and infidels irreparably induces the dichotomy between free men and slaves, two contradictory and complementary statuses. There could be no infidels without believers, no paradise without hell, no free men without slaves".</ref>

The corpus of hadith attributed to Muhammad or his Companions contains a large store of reports enjoining kindness toward slaves.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Brunschvig, R.| year=1986 | title=ʿAbd |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam| edition=2nd|publisher=Brill |editor=P. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs|volume=1|pages=25|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0003|quote=Tradition delights in asserting that the slave's lot was among the latest preoccupations of the Prophet. It has quite a large store of sayings and anecdotes, attributed to the Prophet or to his Companions, enjoining real kindness towards this inferior social class.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Bernard Lewis|title=Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry|url=https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi|url-access=registration|year= 1992|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-505326-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi/page/6 6]|quote= This point is emphasized and elaborated in innumerable hadiths (traditions), in which the Prophet is quoted as urging considerate and sometimes even equal treatment for slaves, denouncing cruelty, harshness, or even discourtesy, recommending the liberation of slaves, and reminding the Muslims that his apostolate was to free and slave alike.}}</ref> Chouki El Hamel has argued that the Quran recommends gradual abolition of slavery,<ref>{{cite book|title=Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam|author=Chouki El Hamel|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2014|page=36|isbn=9781139620048|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwogAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36|quote=These verses recommend gradual steps to end slavery. As Muhammad Asad points out, "the institution of slavery is envisaged in the Quran as a mere historic phenomenon that must in time be abolished." Indeed, the Qur'anic prescriptions of manumission are expressed in the Qur'an as pious deeds, clearly implying that ending slavery was a crucial goal in Islam at times when slavery formed a fundamental part of human culture.}}</ref> and that some hadith are consistent with that message while others contradict it.<ref>{{cite book|title=Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam|author=Chouki El Hamel|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2014|page=39|isbn=9781139620048|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwogAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39|quote=Ironically the Hadith did not specifically advocate the abolition of slavery; instead the Hadith was used to create practical advancement in the history of slavery. I want to illustrate this by citing examples from ''as-Sahih'' of al-Bukhari that are consistent or contradictory with the message of the Qur'an.}}</ref> Muhammad forbade torturing slaves and advised their masters to treat them well.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Hadith on Slaves: Do not torture slaves, whom Allah created | date=23 April 2018 | url=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2018/04/23/slaves-servants-do-not-torture/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625085118/https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2018/04/23/slaves-servants-do-not-torture/ | access-date=2025-08-28 | archive-date=2021-06-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title=Hadith on Freedom: The Prophet encourages freeing slaves, prisoners {{!}} Daily Hadith Online الحديث اليومي | date=15 October 2012 | url=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/10/15/prophet-encourages-huriyyah/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919221937/https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/10/15/prophet-encourages-huriyyah/ | access-date=2025-08-28 | archive-date=2020-09-19}}</ref> He also forbade their masters to refer to them as "slaves" but refer to them as "my young man".<ref>{{Cite web | title=Hadith on Servants: No servant should be called a 'slave' {{!}} Daily Hadith Online الحديث اليومي | date=28 February 2012 | url=https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/02/28/no-servant-called-slave/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200123202903/https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/02/28/no-servant-called-slave/ | access-date=2025-08-28 | archive-date=2020-01-23}}</ref>

According to Dror Ze'evi, early Islamic dogma set out to improve conditions of human bondage. It forbade enslavement of free members of Islamic society, including non-Muslims (''dhimmis'') residing under Islamic rule. Islam also allowed the acquisition of lawful non-Muslim slaves who were imprisoned, slaves purchased from lands outside the Islamic state, as well as considered the boys or girls born to slaves as slaves.<ref name=OEIW>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Dror Ze’evi|title=Slavery|encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World|editor=John L. Esposito|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2009| page=79|isbn=978-0-19-506613-5| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LeYpAQAAMAAJ}}</ref> Islamic law treats a free man and a slave unequally in sentencing for an equivalent crime.<ref>{{cite book|author=Humphrey J. Fisher|title=Slavery in the History of Muslim Black Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wyDYZsacNioC |year=2001|publisher=New York University Press|isbn=978-0-8147-2716-4|pages=14–16}}</ref> For example, traditional Sunni jurisprudence, with the exception of Hanafi law, objects to putting a free man to death for killing a slave.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Brunschvig, R.| year=1986 | title=ʿAbd |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam| edition=2nd|publisher=Brill |editor=P. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs|volume=1|pages=29|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0003|quote=the schools object to putting a free man to death for killing a slave, with the noteworthy exception of the Hanafis (and also of that illustrious, albeit somewhat dissident, Hanbali, Ibn Taymiyya [...]), and even they exempt the man who kills his own slave or one belonging to his son}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=Rudolph|last=Peters| year=2006 | title=Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century|url=https://archive.org/details/crimepunishmenti00pete_738|url-access=limited|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/crimepunishmenti00pete_738/page/n59 47]|quote=The Hanafites, however, follow a different criterion with regard to retaliation for homicide. For them the permanent protection of life ('isma) is the basis of the required equivalence and not the value of the bloodprice. Thus in Hanafite law a Muslim may be executed for killing a dhimmı (but not for killing a musta'min because his protection is only temporary), and a free man for killing a slave.}}</ref> A slave who commits a crime may receive the same punishment as a free man, a punishment half as severe, or the master may be responsible for paying the damages, depending on the crime.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Brunschvig, R.| year=1986 | title=ʿAbd |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam| edition=2nd|publisher=Brill |editor=P. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs|volume=1|pages=29|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0003}}</ref> According to Ze'evi, Islam considered the master to own the slave's labor, a slave to be his master's property to be sold or bought at will, and that the master was entitled to women slave's sexual submission.<ref name=OEIW/>

The Islamic law (sharia) allows the taking of non-Muslims as slaves, during religious wars or ''jihad''.<ref>{{cite book|author=W. G. Clarence-Smith|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar |url-access=registration|year= 2006|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-522151-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar/page/25 25]–26}}</ref> In the early Islamic communities, according to Kecia Ali, "both life and law were saturated with slaves and slavery".<ref>{{cite book|author=Kecia Ali|title=Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C229nbjq8TMC |year=2010|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-05917-7|pages=6–7}}</ref> War, tribute from vassal states, purchase and children who inherited their parent's slavery were the sources of slaves in Islam.<ref name=carl1114>{{cite book|author=Carl Skutsch|title=Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=yXYKAgAAQBAJ |year=2013| publisher= Routledge| isbn=978-1-135-19388-1|pages=1114–1115}}, Quote: "Islam and Slavery. (...) Slaves were obtained through purchase, conquest, and as tribute from vassal states. Children of slaves were also slaves."</ref> In Islam, according to Paul Lovejoy, "the religious requirement that new slaves be pagans and need for continued imports to maintain slave population made Africa an important source of slaves for the Islamic world."<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul E. Lovejoy|title=Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dXVFnHqhLvcC|year=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press| isbn=978-1-139-50277-1|pages=16–17}}</ref> Slavery of non-Muslims, followed by the structured process of converting them to Islam then encouraging the freeing of the converted slave, states Lovejoy helped the growth of Islam after its conquests.<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul E. Lovejoy|title=Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dXVFnHqhLvcC|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-50277-1|pages=16–18}}; Quote: "In Islamic tradition, slavery was perceived as a means of converting non-Muslims. One task of the master was religious instruction and theoretically Muslims could not be enslaved. Conversion (of a non-Muslim to Islam) did not automatically lead to emancipation, but assimilation into Muslim society was deemed a prerequisite for emancipation (...)"</ref>

According to Mohammed Ennaji, the ownership gave the master a right "to punish one's slave".<ref>{{cite book|author=Mohammed Ennaji|title=Slavery, the State, and Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8zesirKffoEC&pg=PA54 |year=2013|publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-11962-7|page= 54}}</ref> In Islam, a child inherited slavery if he or she was born to a slave mother and slave father.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bernard Lewis|title=Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5tjQSU4Ex0C |year=2011|publisher=Open Court|isbn=978-0-8126-9757-5|page=252}}</ref> However, if the child was born to a slave mother and her owner master, then the child was free. Slaves could be given as property (dower) during marriage.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jean Allain|title=The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=62t3a5iESy8C |year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-164535-8|pages=52–55 with footnotes}}</ref> The text encourages Muslim men to take slave women as sexual partners (concubines), or marry them.<ref name=ali39/> Islam, states Lewis, did not permit ''Dhimmis'' (non-Muslims) "to own Muslim slaves; and if a slave owned by a dhimmi embraced Islam, his owner was legally obliged to free or sell him". There was also a gradation in the status on the slave, and his descendants, after the slave converted to Islam.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bernard Lewis|title=Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry|url=https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi|url-access=registration|year= 1992|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-505326-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi/page/5 5]–8, 85–86}}; Quote: "They [Dhimmis] were not permitted to own Muslim slaves; and if a slave owned by a dhimmi embraced Islam, his owner was legally obliged to free or sell him." (...) "Non-Muslims are of course excluded. But that is not all. A convert is not as good as the son of a convert; the son of a convert is not as good as the grandson of a convert. Here too the rule is limited to three generations, after which all are equal in their Islam".</ref>

Under Islamic law, in "what might be called civil matters", a slave was "a chattel with no legal powers or rights whatsoever", states Lewis. A slave could not own or inherit property or enter into a contract. However, he was better off in terms of rights than Greek or Roman slaves.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bernard Lewis|title=Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry|url= https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi |url-access=registration|year= 1992|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-505326-5|page= [https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi/page/7 7]}}; Quote: "In what might be called civil matters, the slave was a chattel with no legal powers or rights whatsoever. He could not enter into a contract, hold property or inherit. If he incurred a fine, his owner was responsible. He was, however, distinctly better off, in the matter of rights, than a Greek or Roman slave"</ref> According to Chirag Ali, the early Muslims misinterpreted the Quran as sanctioning "polygamy, arbitrary divorce, slavery, concubinage and religious wars", and he states that the Quranic injunctions are against all this.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W4OKaz5dzdYC |title=Modernist Islam, 1840-1940: A Sourcebook|editor= Charles Kurzman| author= Chirag Ali|year=2002| publisher= Oxford University Press|page= 288|isbn=9780195154689}}</ref> According to Ron Shaham and other scholars, the various jurisprudence systems on Sharia such as Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i, Hanbali and others differ in their interpretation of the Islamic law on slaves.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ron Shaham|title=The Expert Witness in Islamic Courts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MCCIsWZlabQC |year=2010|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-74935-8|pages=68–71}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=W. G. Clarence-Smith|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|url=https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar |url-access=registration|year= 2006|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-522151-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar/page/20 20]–21, 73–74}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Jean Allain|title=The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=n_KAvAjkEbsC |year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-966046-9|pages=43–45, 52–53}}</ref>

Slaves were particularly numerous in Muslim armies. Slave armies were deployed by Sultans and Caliphs at various medieval era war fronts across the Islamic Empires,<ref name=carl1114/><ref>{{cite book|author=André Wink|title=Al-Hind the Making of the Indo-Islamic World |year=1997|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-10236-1|pages=3, 90–92}}</ref> playing an important role in the expansion of Islam in Africa and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ira M. Lapidus|title=A History of Islamic Societies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZkJpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA86|year=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-99150-6|pages=86, 177–184, 323–325}}</ref> Slavery of men and women in Islamic states such as the Ottoman Empire, states Ze'evi, continued through the early twentieth century.<ref name=OEIW/>

In the seventeenth century Celebes Island, a policy that prohibiting slavery of Muslims who are not hereditary slaves was issued by the Sultan of Bone, La Maddaremmeng. According to him, all Muslims are free men. However, it did not liberate the enslaved Muslims who are hereditary slaves. Nonetheless, La Maddaremmeng mandated that these slaves be treated with the same humanity as one would treat their own family.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rusdianto |first=Eko |date=2015-10-29 |title=Seorang Raja di Sulawesi Selatan Menentang Perbudakan - Historia |url=https://historia.id/kuno/articles/seorang-raja-di-sulawesi-selatan-menentang-perbudakan-PdWRN |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231025064245/https://historia.id/amp/kuno/articles/seorang-raja-di-sulawesi-selatan-menentang-perbudakan-PdWRN |archive-date=2023-10-25 |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=historia.id |at=4th paragraph |language=id-ID |type=La Madderemeng, issued an order to no longer employ ata (slaves). According to him, all Muslims are free people. If someone employs them, they must earn a reasonable wages.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fatma |last2=Fitriana |last3=Syahrun |date=2020-12-22 |title=Perbudakan di Kerajaan Bone Pada Masa Pemerintahan Raja la Maddaremmeng: 1631-1644 |journal=Perbudakan di Kerajaan Bone Pada Masa Pemerintahan Raja la Maddaremeng: 1631-1644 |type="This (La Maddaremmeng) ordered the people of Bone to liberate all the slaves they had taken in the war, as well as all the slaves they had bought. As for the inherited slaves that have been in service for a long time, they are allowed to be used as slave, but they must be treated humanely as the treatment of one's own family." |language=id |volume=3 |issue=2 |page=52 |doi=10.33772/history.v3i2.1123 |issn=2614-4395|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Islamic Puritanism was allegedly the motivation behind La Maddaremeng's policy towards the Muslim slavery. Apart from freeing slaves, La Maddaremeng also destroyed Idols and prohibited traditional ancestral beliefs that contradicted the teaching of Islam. His puritanical activities faced opposition coming from the people, the aristocrats, the neighboring kings, and even his own mother, We Tenrisoloreng Datu Pattiro.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rusdianto |first=Eko |date=2015-10-29 |title=Seorang Raja di Sulawesi Selatan Menentang Perbudakan - Historia |url=https://historia.id/kuno/articles/seorang-raja-di-sulawesi-selatan-menentang-perbudakan-PdWRN |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231025064245/https://historia.id/amp/kuno/articles/seorang-raja-di-sulawesi-selatan-menentang-perbudakan-PdWRN |archive-date=2023-10-25 |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=historia.id |at=5th paragraph |language=id-ID |type=Apart from freeing slaves, La Madderemeng also destroyed idols and forbade ancestral beliefs that were against the Islamic law. However, this action was not really liked by the people, the aristocrats, and even his own mother, We Tenrisoloreng Datu Pattiro.}}</ref> The Invasion of Bone by The Gowa Sultanate led him into his capture and deposition.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rusdianto |first=Eko |date=2015-10-29 |title=Seorang Raja di Sulawesi Selatan Menentang Perbudakan |url=https://historia.id/kuno/articles/seorang-raja-di-sulawesi-selatan-menentang-perbudakan-PdWRN |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231025064245/https://historia.id/amp/kuno/articles/seorang-raja-di-sulawesi-selatan-menentang-perbudakan-PdWRN |archive-date=2023-10-25 |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=Historia - Majalah Sejarah Populer Pertama di Indonesia |at=8th paragraph |language=id-ID |type="Gowa, supported by Wajo, Soppeng and Sidenreng, gathered a large army and attacked Bone. In 1644, Bone was conquered. La Maddaremeng was arrested and held prisoner in Makassar. Meanwhile, his younger brother La Tenriaja, who supported all of La Madderemeng's rules, ran away. It was this defeat that was later written in the lontara' Bone, "Naripoatana Bone seppulo pitu taung ittana." (Then enslaved (Bone) for seventeen years)."}}</ref>

== Zoroastrianism == {{See also|Zoroastrianism and slavery}}

==Baháʼí Faith== {{main|Baháʼí Faith and slavery}}

Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith, commended Queen Victoria for abolishing the slave trade in a letter written to Her Majesty between 1868 and 1872.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/bhkings.htm|title="Bahá'u'lláh's Tablets to the Rulers" by Juan R.I. Cole, Department of History, University of Michigan|access-date=23 October 2014}}</ref> Bahá'u'lláh also forbids slavery in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas<ref>{{cite web|url=http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/KA/ka-3.html|title="A Description of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas" page 14 by Shoghí Effendí Rabbání|access-date=23 October 2014}}</ref> written around 1873 considered by Baháʼís to be the holiest book revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in which he states, "It is forbidden you to trade in slaves, be they men or women."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/KA/ka-5.html|title="The Kitáb-i-Aqdas" Paragraph 72 by Bahá'u'lláh|access-date=23 October 2014}}</ref>

Both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh owned slaves of African descent before the writing of the Kitab-i-Aqdas. While the Báb purchased several slaves, Bahá'u'lláh acquired his through inheritance and freed them. Bahá'u'lláh officially condemned slavery in 1874. Twenty-first century scholarship has found that the Báb credited one of the slaves of his elders as having raised him and compares him favorably with his own father.<ref>{{cite journal | author1=Nader Saiedi |author2=Translated by Omid Ghaemmaghami | title =The Ethiopian King | journal =Baháʼí Studies Review | volume =17 | pages =181–186 | date =2011 | language =en | url =http://bahaiteachings.org/a-slave-educates-a-prophet | doi =10.1386/bsr.17.181_7 | access-date = Sep 7, 2016| url-access =subscription }}</ref> Work has continued on other recent finds in archives such as a very early document of Bahá'u'lláh's explaining his emancipating his slave because as all humans are symbolically slaves of God none can be owned by another<ref>{{cite web | url =http://bahaiteachings.org/bahaullah-frees-the-slaves | title =Baha'u'llah Frees the Slaves | author=Christopher Buck | date =January 13, 2014 | website =Bahaiteachings.org | access-date =Sep 7, 2016 }}</ref> saying "How, then, can this thrall claim for himself ownership of any other human being? Nay,...."<ref>{{cite web | url =http://bahaiteachings.org/liberating-every-slave | title =Liberating Every Slave |author=Christopher Buck | date =September 24, 2014 | website =Bahaiteachings.org | access-date =Sep 7, 2016 }}</ref>

==Hinduism==

===Vedic period=== The term "dasa" (dāsa) in the Vedas is loosely translated as "slave."{{sfn|Kumar|1993|p=114}} However, the meaning of the term varied over time. R. S. Sharma, in his 1958 book, for example, states that the only word which could possibly mean slave in Rigveda is dāsa, and this sense of use is traceable to four later verses in Rigveda.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|pp=(1990:24-26)}} The term dāsa in the Rigveda, has been also been translated as a servant or enemy, and the identity of this term remains unclear and disputed among scholars.{{Sfn|West|2008|p=182}}{{refn|group=note|[a] H. H. Wilson translates dāsa in Rigvedic instances identified by R. S. Sharma, such as in verse 10.62.10, as servant rather than slave.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/rigvedasanhitc06wils#page/166/mode/2up Rigveda 10.62.10] H. H. Wilson (Translator), Trubner & Co, page 167</ref><ref name="Wash Edward Hale 1999 page 162">Wash Edward Hale (1999), Ásura- in Early Vedic Religion, Motilal Barnarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120800618}}, page 162</ref><br>[b] Michael Witzel suggests that the term ''dāsa'' in Sanskrit corresponds to North Iranian tribe; Iranian (Latin) Dahae, (Greek) Daai; and that ''dāsa'' word may be memory of Indo-Aryan migration;<ref>{{cite journal |last=Witzel |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Witzel |title=Autochthonous Aryans? |journal=Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies |volume=7 |number=3 |year=2001 |page=16 |url=http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/savifadok/volltexte/2008/118}}</ref> with George Samuel stating that ''dāsa'' may be equivalent for "aborigines, servant or slave".<ref>{{Citation |last=Samuel |first=Geoffrey |title=The Origins of Yoga and Tantra |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-521-69534-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JAvrTGrbpf4C |page=52}}</ref>}}

R. S. Sharma writes that the word ''dāsi'' is found in Rigveda and Atharvaveda, and that it represented "a small servile class of women slaves".{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|loc=pp. 22-24 (1990:24-26)}} Slavery in the Vedic period, according to him, was mostly confined to women employed as domestic workers.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=(1990:103)}} He translates ''dāsi'' in a Vedic era Upanishads as "maid-servant".{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=45 (1990:50-51)}} Male slaves are rarely mentioned in the Vedic texts.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=45 (1990:50-51)}} The word dāsa occurs in the Hindu Śruti texts Aitareya and Gopatha Brahmana, but not in the sense of a slave.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=45 (1990:50-51)}}

===Classical Hinduism=== Towards the end of the Vedic period (600 BCE), a new system of ''varnas'' had appeared, with people called shudras replacing the erstwhile ''dasas''. Some of the ''shudras'' were employed as labouring masses on farm land, much like "helots of Sparta", even though they were not treated with the same degree of coercion and contempt.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=48 (1990:53)}} The term ''dasa'' was now employed to designate such enslaved people.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=91 (1990:103)}} Slavery arose out of debt, sale by parents or oneself (due to famines), judicial decree or fear. While this could happen to a person of any ''varna'', ''shudras'' were much more likely to be reduced to slavery.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=92 (1990:104)}}{{sfn|Kumar|1993|p=114}}

The Smriti contain classifications of slaves,<ref>Upinder Singh (2008), ''A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century'', p.508</ref> and the slaves were differentiated by origin and different disabilities and rules for manumission applied.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=92 (1990:104)}}{{sfn|Kumar|1993|p=114}}

Hindu Smritis are critical of slavery.<ref>{{cite book|title=Handbook of International Humanitarian Law in South Asia|page=36|publisher=Oxford University Press|first=Venkateshwara|last=Subramaniam Mani}}</ref> Slaves could be given away as gifts along with the land, which came in for criticism from the religious texts ''Āśvalāyana'' and ''Kātyāyana Srautasūtra''.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=46 (1990:51-52)}} According to many Dharmasastras, release from slavery is an act of piety.<ref>{{cite book|title=Slavery in Kerala|author=Adoor K. K. Ramachandran Nair|page=2|publisher=Mittal Publications|year=1986}}</ref> Slavery was considered as a sign of backwardness by the Arthashastra author Kauṭilya, who provided slaves the right to property and abolished hereditary slavery, prohibited the sale and pledge of children as slaves.<ref>{{cite book|title=Economics in Arthaśāstra|page=240|author=Raj Kumar Sen, Ratan Lal Basu|publisher=Deep and Deep Publications}}</ref> The Arthashastra laid down norms for the state to resettle {{transliteration|hi|shudra}} cultivators into new villages and providing them with land, grain, cattle and money.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=147 (1990:161-163)}} It also stated that {{transliteration|hi|aryas}} could not be subject to slavery and that the selling or mortgaging of a {{transliteration|hi|shudra}} was punishable unless he was a born slave.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=163 (1990:177)}}

The Agni Purana forbids enslavement of prisoners.<ref>{{cite book|title=International Law and Practice in Ancient India|page=106|author=Harbans Singh Bhatia|publisher=Deep & Deep Publications|year=1977}}</ref> The ''Apastamba Dharmasutra'' discusses the emancipation of slaves.

Bhakti movements from the early centuries of common era, encouraged personal devotion to one divine being. They welcomed members from all backgrounds, and thus criticizing slavery by implication.<ref>[https://www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-History/Assets/Documents/Research/GEHN/GEHNConferences/conf10/Conf10-ClarenceSmith.pdf Religions and the abolition of slavery - a comparative approach] by William Gervase Clarence-Smith</ref>

===British Raj=== In the territories controlled by the East India Company, in South Asia, an adaptation of a Dharmaśāstra named Manusmriti, and specifically an interpretation of verse 8.415 of the Manusmriti,<ref>[https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201350.html Manusmriti with the Commentary of Medhatithi by Ganganatha Jha], 1920, {{ISBN|8120811550}}</ref> was used to regulate the practice in Hindu communities, via what became known as the Hindu law.<ref>John Griffith (1986), What is legal pluralism?, The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, Volume 18, Issue 24, pages 1-55</ref>

==Buddhism== Slavery existed in ancient India and, according to Scott Levi, it was likely an established institution that was "widespread by the lifetime of the Buddha and perhaps even as far back as the Vedic period."<ref name="C. Scott Levi 2002">{{cite journal|author=Scott C. Levi| year= 2002|title= Hindus Beyond the Hindu Kush: Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade|journal= Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society| volume=12| number= 3|publisher=Cambridge University Press| pages=277–288| jstor= 25188289| doi= 10.1017/S1356186302000329| s2cid= 155047611| url= https://zenodo.org/record/3960723}}, Quote: "Sources such as the Arthasastra, the Manusmriti and the Mahabharata demonstrate that institutionalized slavery was well established in India by beginning of the common era. Earlier sources suggest that it was likely to have been equally widespread by the lifetime of the Buddha (sixth century BC), and perhaps even as far back as the Vedic period. [footnote 2: (...) While it is likely that the institution of slavery existed in India during the Vedic period, the association of the Vedic 'Dasa' with 'slaves' is problematic and likely to have been a later development."</ref><ref name="LSE">{{Cite web |last=Clarence-Smith |first=William G. |title=Religions and the abolition of slavery - a comparative approach |url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-History/Assets/Documents/Research/GEHN/GEHNConferences/conf10/Conf10-ClarenceSmith.pdf |website=LSE - Global Economic History Network (GEHN) - Conferences}}</ref> The topic of slavery and mention of slaves, therefore, can be found in Buddhist history and texts. From a Buddhist perspective, according to Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, the laity and monastics of his following were advised to not partake in the slave trade: {{Blockquote| These five trades, O monks, should not be taken up by a lay follower: trading with weapons, trading in living beings, trading in meat, trading in intoxicants, trading in poison. |Anguttara Nikaya V.177|Translated by Martine Batchelor<ref>{{cite book|author=Martine Batchelor|title=The Spirit of the Buddha|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fL3mykqlOJcC&pg=PT59|year=2014|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-17500-4|page=59|access-date=29 October 2016|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055838/https://books.google.com/books?id=fL3mykqlOJcC&pg=PT59|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

In Pali language Buddhist texts, ''Amaya-dasa'' has been translated by Davids and Stede in 1925, as a "slave by birth",<ref>Thomas William Rhys Davids, William Stede (2015 Reprint, Original: 1925), Pali-English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120811447}}, page 104</ref> ''Kila-dasa'' translated as a "bought slave",<ref>Thomas William Rhys Davids, William Stede (2015 Reprint, Original: 1925), Pali-English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120811447}}, page 217</ref> and ''Amata-dasa'' as "one who sees Amata (Sanskrit: ''Amrita'', nectar of immortality) or Nibbana".<ref>Thomas William Rhys Davids, William Stede (2015 Reprint, Original: 1925), Pali-English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120811447}}, page 73</ref> However, ''dasa'' in ancient texts can also mean "servant".<ref name=schopen>Gregory Schopen (2004), Buddhist Monks and Business Matters, University of Hawaii Press, {{ISBN|978-0824827748}}, page 201</ref> Words related to ''dasa'' are found in early Buddhist texts, such as ''dāso na pabbājetabbo'', which Davids and Stede translate as "the slave cannot become a Bhikkhu".<ref name=davidsstedeped320>Thomas William Rhys Davids and William Stede (2015 Reprint, Original: 1925), Pali-English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120811447}}, page 320</ref> This restriction on who could become a Buddhist monk is found in Vinaya Pitakam i.93, Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikāya, Tibetan ''Bhiksukarmavakya'' and ''Upasampadajnapti''.<ref name=davidsstedeped320/><ref>Gregory Schopen (2010), On Some Who Are Not Allowed to Become Buddhist Monks or Nuns: An Old List of Types of Slaves or Unfree Laborers, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 130, No. 2, pages 225-234</ref> Schopen states that this translation of ''dasa'' as slave is disputed by scholars.<ref>Gregory Schopen (2010), On Some Who Are Not Allowed to Become Buddhist Monks or Nuns: An Old List of Types of Slaves or Unfree Laborers, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 130, No. 2, page 226</ref>

The term ''dāsa'' and ''dāsyu'' in Vedic and other ancient Indian literature has been interpreted by as "servant" or "slave", but others have contested such meaning.<ref name="C. Scott Levi 2002" /><ref name=as>{{citation |last=Sharma |first=Arvind |author-link=Arvind Sharma |title=Dr. BR Ambedkar on the Aryan invasion and the emergence of the caste system in India |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume=73 |pages=843–870 |number=3 |year=2005 |quote=[Paraphrasing B. R. Ambedkar]: "The fact that the word ''Dāsa'' later came to mean a slave may not by itself indicate such a status of the original people, for a form of the word "Aryan" also means a slave.|doi=10.1093/jaarel/lfi081 }}</ref> The term ''dāsa'' in the Rigveda, has been also been translated as an enemy, but overall the identity of this term remains unclear and disputed among scholars.{{sfn|West|2008|p=182}}

Early Buddhist texts in Pali, according to R. S. Sharma, mention ''dāsa'' and ''kammakaras'', and they show that those who failed to pay their debts were enslaved, and Buddhism did not allow debtors and slaves to join their monasteries.{{sfn|R. S. Sharma|1958|p=(1990:103)}}

The 3rd century BCE Edicts of Ashoka identify obligations to slaves (Greek: {{lang|el|italic=set|δούλοις}}) and hired workers (Greek: {{lang|el|italic=set|μισθωτοῖς}}),<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=McCrindle|first=John|url=https://archive.org/details/AncientIndiaAsDescribedByMegasthenesAndArrianByMccrindleJ.W/page/n49/mode/2up?view=theater|title=Ancient India As Described By Megasthenes And Arrian|year=1877|location=London|pages=40}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_BTKCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT130&dq=Ashoka The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World], p.130, SAGE publication, Mary Zeiss Stange, Carol K. Oyster, Jane E. Sloan</ref> and later prohibited the trading of slaves within the Maurya Empire.<ref name="C. Scott Levi 2002" /><ref name="LSE" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-15 |title=Ashoka's Edicts and Inscriptions - Civilsdaily |url=https://www.civilsdaily.com/ashokas-edicts-and-inscriptions/ |access-date=2023-05-03 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Medieval Buddhist states codified slavery, combining local customary practices with derivatives of the Vedic Manusmriti. The series of ''dhammathats'' (legal treatises) for states covering Burma and North West India observed the 14 kinds of slavery set out in the Wareru Dhammathat, while Slavery in Bhutan was regulated into the mid-twentieth century<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wangchuk |first1=Tashi |title=CHANGE IN THE LAND USE SYSTEM IN BHUTAN: ECOLOGY, HISTORY, CULTURE, AND POWER |url=https://www.bhutanstudies.org.bt/publicationFiles/JBS/JBS_Vol2No1/3.landusechange.pdf |access-date=5 December 2019}}</ref> by a local derivation of the Tibetan Buddhism Tsa Yig Chenmo.

==Sikhism== Guru Nanak, first Guru of Sikhs, preached against slavery. He not only advocated human equality, by rejecting class inequalities and caste hierarchy, but also practically promoted it through the institution of Pangat and Sangat. Baba Farid also protested against slavery.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jvKOM2MHm-kC&pg=PA43 | title=Human Rights Education: Modern Approaches And Strategies | publisher=Concept Publishing Company | last=Selvan | first=Selvan | year=2010 | pages=43–44 | isbn=9788180696794}}</ref>

==See also== *Catholic Church and slavery

==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}}

==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}} ; Sources * {{citation |last=Kosambi |first=Damodar Dharmanand |author-link=Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi |title=An Introduction to the Study of Indian History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fTvQiXVFB0gC&pg=PA97 |year=1956 |publication-date=1975 |publisher=Popular Prakashan |isbn=978-81-7154-038-9}} * {{citation |last=Kumar |first=Dharma |chapter=Colonialism, Bondage and Caste in British India |editor-last=Klein |editor-first=Martin A. |title=Breaking the Chains: Slavery, Bondage, and Emancipation in Modern Africa and Asia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=98Sep7MMVs0C&pg=PA112 |year=1993 |publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-13754-0 }} * {{citation |last=Sharma |first=R. S. |author-link=Ram Sharan Sharma |title=Sudras in Ancient India |publisher=Motilal Banarasi Dass |location=Delhi |year=1958 |isbn=9788120807068 |publication-date=1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gsZkAu-RHVgC |ref={{sfnref|R. S. Sharma|1958}}}} * {{cite book|first=Barbara |last= West| year=2008| title= Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania|publisher = Infobase| isbn= 978-0816071098| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC }} *Lal, K. S. (1994). Muslim slave system in medieval India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

==External links== *William Gervase Clarence-Smith (2010). [https://www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-History/Assets/Documents/Research/GEHN/GEHNConferences/conf10/Conf10-ClarenceSmith.pdf "Religions and the abolition of slavery—a comparative approach"]. LSE - Global Economic History Network (GEHN) - Conferences.

{{Religion and slavery}} {{Religion and topic}}

Category:Slavery and religion