Title Highlight: Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery

Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery

2 volumes: Illustrations, maps, tables
At the end of volume 2: Synoptic Outline of Entries, Timeline of Slavery, Bibliography, Index

Americans generally think of slavery as involving the ownership of black Africans by white Americans in the pre-Civil War south. Although this is true; slavery has a much wider history involving all races, places and times.

Interestingly enough, not all situations involving slaves involved people of different colors or even of different nationalities. In Ancient Greece and Rome other Europeans considered “barbarians” were often enslaved, but many native Greeks and Romans were also slaves. And in the Muslim parts of Africa, non-Muslims of any color were considered available for slavery.
This set covers the topic in depth, showing that no place or time has been free of the practice. The timeline of slavery illustrates that slavery was present as early as 3000 B.C. in Ancient Sumer and has been alleged in places like Burma, the Sudan, Brazil and Mauritania as recently as the 1990s. Each volume begins with maps displaying the history of slavery in various parts of the world and continues with articles on various topics including how slavery was practiced in various parts of the world, legal and political issues, and the abolition movement and its leaders. There are many illustrations and each article give references for further reading.