Slavery in Egypt - Essay Example

Slavery in Egypt Slavery is primarily an act whereby a person is owned and viewed as property by someone else. As such, he/ she is under the owner’s control. Thus, it is the subjection of an individual to another person especially in being forced to work. Egypt is one country in the world, which was synonymous with slavery. In the old kingdom of Egypt, the ruling class was made up of queens, nobles, and officials. Also, the Egyptian society was divided into three groups, the nobility, the people, and the priesthood, until the second century AD. The population of Egypt was already comprised of foreign prisoners of war by the time of the old kingdom. Military expeditions to Nubia to kidnap workers to work in the state economy were undertaken by the Egyptian army. Prisoners captured during wartime and raids on occupied territories, initially in Nubia and later in Asia and Libya, formed the largest group to whom the term slave was applied. The local princes and monarchs conducted these wars and raids on their borders. Foreign prisoners of war were captured and forced into military or domestic work. Forced servitudes represented by state officials began illegally recruiting girls from among the ordinary people. The contemporary appearance of a term that Egyptians commonly translated as slave signified a decision of social change. Subjection was a general feature of labor carried out by the mass of the agricultural population, in contrast to the world of the palace. The emergence of a new social structure towards the end of the period encouraged the birth of slavery as the most extreme form of forced labor. The slaves were assigned the custody of a master who could give them away, leave them to his children, or sell them. Parents could leave written instructions to his family about who should take which slave or which wife should be given which laborer (Bellagamba et al 52). Unlike the royal servants, a worker who was found guilty of disservice was sent away from home but not sold. Their masters sometimes harassed women who normally dealt with domestic works and even sexually abused them. This was used by some of them as a mechanism to evade harsh punishment due to disservice. This simply means the state of slavery was inherited. An attempt to flee by a worker resulted in a punishment of forced labor while a royal servant was punished by execution. The slaves in Egypt worked as field workers, house servants, and cobblers while slave women were assigned duties like hairdressing, gardeners, and weavers. In the old kingdom captives were mainly used as agricultural workers and served in newly founded domains that spread across, Egypt during a period of rapid reclamation. These sites eventually produced the crop surpluses needed to feed the workers on the vast pyramid-building project. In the middle kingdom, Egypt experienced increased in foreign activities that yielded numerous slaves for the Egyptian economy. Egypt experienced a period of military and economic expansion. Therefore, male slaves were used as soldiers to fight for the country while female slaves carried out domestic works. Female slaves were closely integrated into the master’s family. They became the owner’s personal property and could be claimed if they are stolen or ran away. Captives from military campaigns were often distributed to the temples where they labored in agricultural production of the large temple landholding. Almost 80% of the slaves were peasants. They had no means of obtaining their daily income hence some resorted to selling themselves as slaves and be under the master’s care. The son of a slave was also a slave, and, therefore, the master owned both of them. This period saw a rise of a new free middle class accompanied by increased rigidity in the power structure, causing numerous cases of emigration and flight from the country. Rodriguez (27) mentions both Egyptians and Asians when describing what appears to be a forced labor camp where families of the runaway slaves were imprisoned. When caught the escaped slave faced a death sentence. In the new kingdom, a slave could acquire citizenship by marriage. Slaves therefore had the same position as freedman in Romans time. Legal opportunities became available for slaves to reflecting their emergence as an essential element in Egyptian society leading to the gradual disappearance of the autonomous class of dependents. The slaves could defend their rights just like the free man. They received equality before the law. The royal servants were now replaced with foreign labor due to the need to deal with the growing expense of an impressive military apparatus. Slavery became common in Egyptian society that it even meant no difference with the other Egyptians. People who were relatively humble could rent slaves for a period, and the motive for hiring a female slave could be as mundane as the need for new clothes, even though, the actual price appears too high. Slavery was essentially restricted to imperial prisoners of war or the Asiatic bought in the slave market. The king maintained legal property rights over foreign prisoners and decided whether they were to be given to individuals. Slaves were treated the same way as free men by the law. For example, a female slave found to be guilty of theft was required to compensate twice the item she had stolen. Nonetheless, a slave could become free by being adopted by their master. In the new kingdom, slavery was a sign of evolution of social structure towards democracy. In the late period, during the first millennium B.C, corporatization became an even more typical feature of the Egyptian society. As imperial power decreased, and Egypt lost influence in Asia during the Iron Age, the number of slaves in the Nile valley decreased considerably. Foreigners in Egypt were now organized autonomously. In a society whose political horizons had been reduced, and that had once centered in the Nile, there was no more room for slavery. The economy expanded, and forms of clientship replaced slavery. The economy rate of growth could not withstand slaves as laborers due to high need of expertise in various areas. Slaves were mere peasants and most of them had never been given a chance to specialize in anything suitable to the corporate world. The most significant source of slavery in Egypt was the military campaigns whereby foreigners were taken as prisoners of war and subsequently enslaved (Patterson 35). The Egyptian power extended into Nubia as far South of Napata. Prisoners of war either became slaves or were forced into military service. They were also acquired through violent expeditions and others through the slave trade where they sold and bought through the slave market. The most famous markets were those along the caravan routes, the trans-Saharan route. Raiding and Kidnapping was also another common practice used to acquire slaves. Some people also chose to sell themselves as slaves due to poverty. They preferred being slaves and lived a better life than be free and poor. Domestic slaves were Egyptians who were generally treated better and could be freed by their owners. They were generally people who fell on hard times or their parents were slaves since slavery was hereditary. Slavery in Egypt led to many effects. It resulted in loss of lives due to military raids, long march in the slave trade and harsh working conditions. Many people lost their lives during the slavery period. Many family units were broken due to separation. For instance, most men were kidnaped in order to provide military services leaving behind their wives and children. Villages, towns, and homes remained less populated as millions of people were forcibly removed from their homes. Increased political instability due to the military actions was also a main consequence. Ethical and social fragmentation and weakening of states were also an effect. It led to a rise of hostility between villages, which weakened their ties preventing the formation of larger communities and broader ethnic identities. There was increased insecurity hence people had always to carry a protection instrument like knives, spears swords, and firearms in order to survive in the hostile and uncertain environment. Increased political instability and the collapse of existing forms of government. Slavery also disorganized the whole continent leaving it vulnerable to the next phase of colonialism. The end of slavery in Egypt came because of worldwide intervention. Britain was the biggest player in ending slavery in Egypt (Donadoni 46). The slave trade was suppressed by the appointment of the British commissioner as governor of Sudan and commander of special missions. There were also two Anglo-Egyptian conventions of 1877 and 1895 to suppress the slavery. The Anglo-Egyptian convention 2877 focused on Sudan, which was seen by Egyptian officials as part of Egypt. Later in 1895, a second convention was achieved which saw some improvement in this effort to abolish slavery. The British’s concern about the protection of the Suez Canal pushed for the stop of the slave trade. The British facilitated the establishment of offices and special service to oversee the fight against slavery. 1880s and 90s saw slavery gradually disappear in Egypt; a fact that was aided by the development of a free labor market in Egypt and collapse of the guild system. Anti-slavery, Christian movement also echoed this effort to end slavery in Egypt. Cultural contact and interaction between the Europeans and Egyptian helped change the attitude of some Africans towards slavery, hence favored the anti-slavery movement. In conclusion, analyzing the figure of the slave in ancient Egypt has threefold historical function. It also clarifies the significance and structure of some important social changes that took place in Egypt during the three thousand years of its documented history. Slavery in Egypt represents the general view of slavery and slave trade in the African continent, its evolution, effects, and abolition. It allows us to outline a social history of the Egyptian culture. It gives us a glimpse of modernity and helps us realize how westernization of Egypt put an end to slavery. Work Cited Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bellagamba, Alice, Sandrssa E. Greene, and Martin A. Klein. African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print. Donadoni, Sergio. The Egyptians. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Print. Patterson, Orlando. Slavery & Social Death: A Comparative Study. S.l.: Harvard Univ Press, 1985. Print. Rodriguez, Junius P. The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-Clio, 1997. Print. Bottom of Form Read More