Slave raiding

Raid upon a Congolese village by Arab slavers in the 1870s

Slave raiding is a military raid for the purpose of capturing people and bringing them from the raid area to serve as slaves. Once seen as a normal part of warfare, it is nowadays widely considered a war crime.[citation needed] Slave raiding has occurred since antiquity. Some of the earliest surviving written records of slave raiding come from Sumer (in present-day Iraq). Kidnapping and prisoners of war were the most common sources of African slaves, although indentured servitude or punishment also resulted in slavery.[1][2]

The many alternative methods of obtaining human beings to work in indentured or other involuntary conditions, as well as technological and cultural changes, have made slave raiding rarer.[citation needed]

  1. ^ "West Africa". National Museums Liverpool. Retrieved 2022-04-25.
  2. ^ "Capture and Captives | Slavery and Remembrance". slaveryandremembrance.org. Retrieved 2022-04-25.