Slave raiding

Slave raiding is a crime sometimes seen as a normal part of warfare. It is possibly as old as human civilization itself, as it is attested to in some of the earliest surviving written records, from Sumer in Iraq and Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan.

Overview

The act of slave raiding involves an organized and concerted attack on a settlement or region, with the purpose being the taking of the areas' people. The people collected are enslaved. Once turned into slaves, they are often kept in some form of slave pen. From the pen, the slave takers will then move the slaves to some form of transportation such as a ship or camel caravan.

Slave raiding was a violent form of economic development where a resource shortage was addressed with the acquisition by force of the desired resource, in this case human labor. Other than the element of slavery being present, such violent seizure of a resource does not differ from similar raids to gain territory, oil, food, water or any other desired commodity.

Slave raiding was a large and lucrative trade on the coasts of Africa, in ancient Europe, Mesoamerica and in medieval Asia. American slavery, the Caribbean, Central America and South America was predicated on a series of European countries endorsing and supporting slave raiding between African tribes to supply the mass quantities of Africans, who later became the "living machines" of agricultural plantations in the Americas.

The many alternative methods of obtaining human beings to work in indentured or other involuntary conditions, as well as cultural changes have reduced the need for slave raiding and it is no longer widely practiced. An exception to this takes place on the governmental level, such as in some South American countries where state-sanctioned captivity of indentured workers still occurs [ Erickson on Guatemala, 2004 ] .

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