6800 B.C. - 1800 A.D. |
c. 6800 B.C. |
The world's first city grows up in Mesopotamia. With the ownership of land, and the beginnings of technology comes warfare in which enemies are captured and forced to work - slavery. |
c. 2575 B.C. |
Egyptians send expeditions down the Nile River to capture slaves. Temple art celebrates the capture of slaves in battle. |
c. 550 B.C. |
The mighty Greek city-state of Athens uses up to 30,000 slaves in the silver mines it controls. |
c. 120 |
Slaves are taken by the thousands in Roman military campaigns, some estimates put the population of Rome at more than half slave. |
c. 500 |
In England the native Britons are enslaved after invasion by Anglo-Saxons. |
c. 1000 |
Slavery is normal practice in England's rural economy. |
c. 1380 |
In the aftermath of the Black Plague, Europe's slave trade revives to deal with the labor shortage. |
c. 1550 |
Renaissance art is peopled with slaves displayed as objects of conspicuous consumption. |
1800 - 1900 |
1781 |
Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II abolishes serfdom in the Austrian Habsburg dominions. |
1789 |
On August 26th, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man, one of the fundamental charters of human liberties. The first of 17 articles states: "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights." |
1803 |
Denmark becomes the first country in Europe to ban African slave trade. A law passed in 1792 takes effect in 1803 to forbid trading in slaves by Danish subjects and to end the importation of slaves into Danish dominions. |
1804 |
After a slave revolt expels the French from the island of Saint- Domingue, the island is declared independent under its original Arawak name, "Haiti." |
1807 |
After prolonged lobbying by abolitionists in Britain, led by William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, the British Parliament makes it illegal for British ships to transport slaves and for British colonies to import them. |
1811 to 1867 |
Operating off the Atlantic coast of Africa,160,000 slaves are liberated by the British Navy's Anti-Slavery Squadron between 1811 and 1867. |
1813 |
Sweden, a nation that has never authorized slave traffic, consents to ban the African slave trade. |
1814 |
The King of the Netherlands officially terminates Dutch participation in the African slave trade. |
1814 |
During the Congress of Vienna, largely through the efforts of Britain, the assembled powers proclaim that the slave trade should be abolished as soon as possible. The Congress leaves the actual effective date of abolition to negotiation among the various nati |
1820 |
The government of Spain, pursuant to a treaty with Britain, abolishes the slave trade south of the Equator. Slave trade in Cuba continues until 1888. |
1825 |
Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Bolivia abolish legal slavery. |
1833 |
The British Parliament's Factory Act of 1833 establishes a normal working day in textile manufacture. The act bans the employment of children under the age of 9 and limits the workday of children between the ages of 13 and 18 to twelve hours. The law also provides for government inspection of working conditions. |
1834 |
In Britain the Abolition Act of 1833 abolishes slavery throughout the British Empire, including its colonies in North America. The bill emancipates the slaves in all British colonies and appropriates a sum equivalent to nearly 100 million dollars to compensate slave owners for their losses. |
1837 |
Thomas F. Buxton begins a campaign to abolish Coolie labor in India. After the abolition of slavery, this type of labor has become a preferred source of cheap labor. Buxton argues that Coolie labor amounts to slavery, with workers often kidnapped, transported to the Caribbean and forced to toil in appalling conditions. |
1840 |
The new British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society calls the first World Anti-Slavery Convention in London to mobilize reformers to monitor and assist abolition and post-emancipation efforts throughout the world. A group of abolitionists from the United States travels to London to attend the Convention, but Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, as well as several male supporters, leave the meeting in protest when women are excluded from seating on the convention floor. |
1845 |
36 British Navy ships are assigned to the Anti-Slavery Squadron, making it one of the largest fleets in the world |
1848 |
After the revolution of 1848 in France, the new government abolishes slavery in all French colonies. |
1850 |
The government of Brazil adopts the Queirós Law, which ends the country's participation in the slave trade. The law declares slave traffic to be a form of piracy, and it prohibits Brazilian citizens from taking part in the trade. |
1861 |
By decree Alexander II, Czar of Russia, emancipates all Russian serfs, who number around 50 million. The act begins the time of the Great Reform in Russia and earns Alexander II the title of "Czar Liberator." |
1863 |
In the United States, President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation takes effect, freeing all slaves in the United States, except for those in states, or parts of states, that were no longer under Confederate control. The emancipation does not apply to the border states or to areas that are already under control of the Union army. |
1863 |
The government of the Netherlands takes official action to abolish slavery in all Dutch colonies. |
1888 |
Slavery ends in South America when the legislature of Brazil frees the country's 725,000 slaves by enacting the Lei Aurea (Golden Law). |
1900 - 1950 |
1909 |
The campaign of the Congo Reform Association (CRA) to end forced labor in the Congo Free State succeeds. Set up in Great Britain in 1904 by E.D. Morel, the CRA has as its main objective the end of forced labor in the Congo Free State (later known as Zaire). King Leopold II of Belgium had undertaken personal administration of this huge territory and forced local people to produce rubber for sale in Europe, where an increasing number of cars and bicycles intensify demand for rubber tires. Workers who refused to labor for King Leopold's officials had their hands cut off and their houses burnt and pillaged. The "Red Rubber" campaign has sought to bring justice to the Congo. |
1910 |
The International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade, signed in Paris May 4, 1910, is the first of its kind. The Convention obligates parties to punish anyone who recruits a woman, below the age of majority, into prostitution, even if she consents. |
1913 |
Peoples' petition to the British Parliament shuts down the Peruvian Amazon Company. In 1909 W.E. Hardenburg, an American civil engineer, had arrived in London with accounts of the inhuman exploitation of indigenous Indians in Peru by the Peruvian Amazon Company, a British entity. In the ensuing four years the Indians have been trapped by debt and forced to work for the company, which has exploited the natives: "they flog them inhumanely until their bones are laid bare; . . . they torture them by means of fire, of water, and by tying them up, crucified head down." (The Truth, 1909). When journalists take up the story, there is a public outcry in Britain. The House of Commons mandates reports from both the company and the British Consul and establishes a Select Committee to investigate the allegations. |
1915 |
The colonial government of Malaya officially abolishes slavery. |
1918 |
The British governor of Hong Kong estimates that most households that can afford it keep a young child as a household slave. |
1919 |
The League of Nations is founded. Its existence continues until the formation of the United Nations in 1946. |
1919 |
The International Labor Organization (ILO) is founded to establish a code of international labor standards. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the ILO brings together government, labor, and management to solve problems and to make recommendations concerning pay, working conditions, trade union rights, safety, woman and child labor, and social security. The ILO will be brought into relationship with the United Nations in1946. |
1920 |
Buxton's Campaign against Coolie Labor succeeds. |
1923 |
British colonial government in Hong Kong passes a law banning the selling of little girls as domestic slaves. |
1926 |
The League of Nations approves the Slavery Convention, and more than thirty governments sign the document, which defines slavery as "status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised." The Convention charges member nations to work to suppress all forms of slavery. |
1926 |
Burma abolishes legal slavery. |
1927 |
Slavery is legally abolished in Sierra Leone, a country founded as a colony by the British in the 18th century to serve as a homeland for freed slaves. |
1929 |
To achieve the abolition of slavery Burma begins to compensate slaveholders for their "losses". |
1930 |
The Forced Labor Convention is issued due to the combined efforts of the League of Nations and the International Labor Organization. The Convention seeks to protect the rights of colonial laborers. |
1930 |
The U.S. Tariff Act of 1930, title 19, section 307, prohibits the importation of products made with "forced or indentured labor" into the U.S. In 1997 the Sanders Amendment clarified that this applies to products made with "forced or indentured child labor". |
1936 |
Pursuant to a treaty with Great Britain, Ibn Sa'ud, King of Saudi Arabia, issues a decree ending the importation of new slaves into his country, regulating the condition of existing slaves and providing for manumission under some conditions. |
1938 |
The Japanese military establishes "Comfort Stations" (brothels) for Japanese troops. Thousands of Korean and Chinese women are forced into sexual slavery during the years of World War II as "military comfort women". |
1939 - 1945 |
The German Nazi government uses slave labor throughout the war in farming and industry. Up to nine million are forced to work, when they are worn out workers are sent to concentration camps. |
1941 |
The campaign to protect children in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from "adoption" succeeds with the passage of the Adoption of Children Ordinance Law, which ensures the registration of all children who are adopted and requires regular inspections to prevent adopted children from working as slaves. |
1948 |
The United Nations produces the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 4 provides: "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." |
1949 |
The Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others prohibits any person from procuring, enticing, or leading away another person, for the purposes of prostitution, even with the other person's consent. The convention consolidates earlier laws and will form the legal basis for the international protection against traffic in people until the present day. |
1950 - present |
1952 |
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1954 |
China passes the State Regulation on Reform through Labor allowing prisoners to be used for labor in the Laogai prison camps. |
1956 |
The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery regulate practices involving the sale of wives, serfdom, debt bondage and child servitude. |
1957 |
The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society changes its name to the Anti-Slavery Society for the Protection of Human Rights, in the 1990's the name will be changed to Anti-Slavery. |
1960 |
Harry Wu is sentenced to serve 19 years in the Laogai slave labor camp system. |
1962 |
Abolition of slavery in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. |
1964 |
The sixth World Muslim Congress pledges global support for all anti-slavery movements. The oldest Muslim organization, founded in 1926, the Congress has Consultative Status with the United Nations and observer status with the Organization of Islamic Countries. |
1973 |
The UN General Assembly adopts the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. The Convention outlaws a number of inhuman acts committed for the purposes of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group over another, including exploitation of the labor of members of a racial group or groups by submitting them to forced labor. |
1974 |
Mauritania's emancipated slaves form the "El Hor" (freedom) movement to oppose slavery. Leaders of El Hor insist that emancipation is impossible without realistic means of enforcing the anti slavery laws and providing former slaves with the means of achieving economic independence. The movement demands land reform and encourages the formation of agricultural co operatives. The influence of El Hor was strongest between 1978 1982, and the organization still exists today. |
1975 |
The United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery is formed to collect information and make recommendations on slavery and slavery-like practices around the world. |
1976 |
India passes a law banning bonded labor. |
1977 |
The ILO adopts a Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, a set of recommended standards with no means of enforcement. |
1980 |
Slavery is abolished for the fourth time in the Islamic republic of Mauritania, but the situation is not fundamentally changed. Although the law decrees that "slavery" no longer exists, the ban does not address how masters are to be compensated or how slaves are to gain property. |
1983 |
The civil war in Sudan breaks out again, pitting the Muslim north of the country against the Christian and Animist southern tribes. |
1989 |
The National Islamic Front takes over the government of Sudan and begins to arm Baggara tribesmen to fight the Dinka and Nuer tribes in the south of the country. These new "militias" raid villages, capturing and enslaving the inhabitants. |
1989 |
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child seeks to promote the basic health care and education of the young, as well as their protection from abuse, exploitation or neglect, at home, at work, and in armed conflicts. |
1992 |
The Pakistan National Assembly enacts the Bonded Labor Act, which abolishes indentured servitude and the peshgi (bonded money) system. Unfortunately, the government failed to provide for the implementation and enforcement of the law's provisions. |
1993 |
Charles Jacobs, Mohamed Athie, and David Chand break the story in the American press about widespread slavery in the African countries of Mauritania and Sudan. They then found the American Anti-Slavery Group. |
1994 |
OECD Declaration and Decisions on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises is adopted. The document recommends that companies observe guidelines approved by the OECD that address investment policy and practice in non-industrialized countries. Trade unions note that these guidelines are not an alternative to obligations that all enterprises have under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises adopted by governments. |
1995 |
The United States government issues the Model Business Principles, a voluntary model business code (apparently to pacify human rights and labor activists in the U.S. who protest the renewal of China's trade status). The Principles urge all businesses to adopt and implement voluntary codes of conduct, including the avoidance of child and forced labor, as well as discrimination based on race, gender, national origin or religious beliefs. The Principles also promote respect for the right of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively. |
1995 |
Christian Solidarity International, a Swiss based charity, begins the campaign to liberate slaves by buying them back in Southern Sudan. |
1996 |
After representatives from the American Anti-Slavery Group testify before the US Congress about slavery in Mauritania, US foreign aid to that country is cut. |
1996 |
The International Organization of Employers, a subsidiary of the ILO, calls on employers and employers' organizations immediately to end slave-like, bonded and dangerous forms of child labor and simultaneously to develop formal policies with a view toward the eventual elimination of child labor in all sectors. The resolution notes, however, that "attempts to link the issue of working children with international trade and to use it to impose trade sanctions on countries where the problem of child labor exists are counter-productive and jeopardize the welfare of children." |
1996 |
Rugmark campaign established in Germany to ensure handwoven rugs were not made with illegal (slave) labor. The Rugmark seal guarantees that the entire production of the rug was made without slave or child labor. |
1996 |
World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children |
1997 |
United Nations establishes a commission of inquiry to investigate reports of widespread enslavement of people by the Burmese government. |
1997 |
A bill entitled the "International Child Labor Elimination Act" (H.R. 267) is introduced in the United States House of Representatives to prohibit U.S. assistance, except for humanitarian aid, to countries that utilize child labor. |
1997 |
Imports to the U.S. made by child-bonded labors are banned. |
1998 |
The Burmese government refuses to allow the United Nations commission of inquiry to enter Burma. |
1998 |
Global March against Child Labor established. This organization plans and coordinates demonstrations against child labor worldwide. One aim is a new Convention in the UN on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. |
1999 |
A consortium of non-governmental agencies calls for international aid and a cease-fire in Sudan to help end slavery there. |
1999 |
Despite being barred from entering the Burma the United Nations collects sufficient evidence to condemn government-sponsored slavery in Burma. The official report states that the Burmese government "treat the civilian population as an unlimited pool of unpaid forced laborers and servants at their disposal as part of a political system built on the use of force and intimidation to deny the people of Myanmar democracy and the rule of law." |
1999 |
The ILO passes the Convention against the Worst Forms of Child Labor. This convention establishes widely recognized international standards protecting children against forced or indentured labor, child prostitution/pornography, use of children in drug trafficking, and other work harmful to the health, safety, and morals of children. |
2000 |
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act is signed into law. This legislation increases penalties for traffickers, provides social services for trafficking victims and provides for victims to remain in the United States while trafficking cases are investigated. |
2003 |
Year that Pakistan has assured the United Nations that 'all bonded labor will stop' in their country |