From the beginning of the earliest civilizations, 10,000 years ago, in the lands of the Middle East, slavery existed.
8000B.C- 3000B.C– the earliest settlements were founded in a rich plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. Mesopotamia (Greek for “between two rivers”), was located in what is now modern day Iraq. There, archeologists found clay tablets with private and public records, law codes, wills, contracts, poems, letters, myths, pots and agriculture. This was where “civilization” supposedly began.
3000B.C– the Sumerians settled on the south half of the Mesopotamian plain. Its agriculture relied on a complex irrigation system which needed a large labor force for its upkeep and construction. In the area that the Sumerians were located, violent and unpredictable weather changes occurred (very cold winters and very dry summers). But despite of these hardships, the Sumerians produced a surplus of food to feed their population and to trade for needed timber, stone and metal from abroad. The main food of the population was flour, dates, fish fruits and vegetables, cattle and sheep. By 2500B.C, Sumer had at least 13 cities. One city, Legash, had a population of approx. 35000.
Two classes in society developed: the Freemen and the Slaves.
-The freemen were the princes, priests, and the soldiers. Next came the scribes, artisans, tradesmen, and professionals. Finally, at the bottom of society, were the slaves. They were the peasants and those taken in battle. They worked the fields and created the surplus food, which the freemen lived off.
-The prisoners of wars were made to work for their conquerors, and although the slaves were of the same stock as their captors, they were made slaves because of the fortunes of war. They lost. The master and slave knew very well that for but fortune, their positions could have easily been reversed.
From these earliest times, men were bought and sold. Some sold themselves to get out of debt, or they may have sold some of their offspring. A father’s offspring was his property to do whatever he wants, and in Ancient times, it was not looked down upon to sell one or two of your children to relieve some debt off the rest of the family. (Hopefully, dad would eventually return and buy you back.)
2000B.C– The Sumerians were driven out and/or enslaved by another people, the western Semites, called the Amorites. They came into Mesopotamia from Syria and the western desert. Then a couple of hundred years later, the Babylonians wrested control of this area from the Amorites. By
1800B.C– The Babylonians had control of all of the Mesopotamia area and built the empire of Babylon. Hammurabi, the great Babylonian king, defeated all surrounding kingdoms and united them under Babylon. He created a Code of Law, which was placed in the temples to show his people that he had given them a justice code by the will of the gods. This Code of Law spelled out that the rights of the individual were secondary to the power of the state. It also stated that a master’s ownership of a slave was not absolute. The Law encouraged slavery but it recognized that slaves were valuable to the state, and if an owner injured a slave, he must pay the state ½ the slave’s worth. The owner could not kill the slave or any valuable property, or the state could execute the owner, or at least make him pay dearly out of his pocket. Also, the Law stated that if anyone harbored a slave of the state, the punishment was death. In other words, to the Babylonians, the slave was valuable property so they made written laws to protect him.
700B.C– The Assyrians, another Semitic tribe, rose into power in Mesopotamia and dominated for over 200 years.
500B.C- The Babylonians, which became a vassal state of Assyria (Modern Iraq), rose back into power and a continuous war between them produced a steady flow of slaves. The wars between them began as battles to protect their respective lands, but these wars “regressed” into predatory battles. Victory in these battles meant loot and slaves.
-The Assyrians used to sweep down every spring attacking the villages and towns under their power to rape, pillage and plunder. The non-resisters became slaves, and those who resisted were promptly massacred.
-The Babylonians, after finally destroying the Assyrians in the war, began focusing on their vassal states so to control them more efficiently. Nebuchadrezzer II (605- 562B.C) in 597B.C sacked Jerusalem because the Jews refused to be subjugated. He sent most of them into slavery in Mesopotamia. This period was known in Jewish history as “The Great Captivity”. It lasted 50 years until the Persians (Iran) conquered the Babylonians in 538B.C. and allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. (In the Old Testament, Jeremiah 39:5- 9 tells how king Nebuchadnezzar II treated the conquered the Hebrews in 586B.C in the second revolt).
War became a national industry with the Assyrians and Babylonians. Slaves, along with loot and material wealth, were the prizes. Slaves were put into the armies for spring expeditions, and at other times, they worked the fields or at the whim of the master of the house. Slaves were branded as the animals were in Mesopotamia. The more slaves a man had, the greater his wealth. Also, in order to add to his wealth, the master usually urged their slaves to marry and multiply.
Under the Assyrians and Babylonians, slaves had an extraordinary amount of independence despite of all the above-mentioned information. They were allowed to own livestock, real estate and other property (including other slaves), and do banking and trading. Some managed to attain high administration positions.
-“In-between status” was the status of being a slave, and yet not really being treated as a slave. For “slaves” with specialized skills that could make the master money, there was the hope of freedom eventually. The slave could save whatever money the master would allow him to earn for himself, and eventually buy his freedom.
-If a woman and child were committed to slavery to pay off a debt, after four years they had to be set free. Children born from a union of a free woman and a slave were declared free.
The bottom line was that Babylonian and Assyrian Empires were built on slave labor, and it was much more likely that a free man would be forced into slavery than a slave finding a loophole to his freedom.
Outline Source: SLAVERY: A World History, by Milton Meltzer; Da Capo Press 1993
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