ABSTRACT

Most historically recorded civilizations seem to have believed that slavery was no t morally wro ng. T here is controversy about whether, and if so the exten t to which, the ancient Egyptians needed slaves to build pyra mids, but the practice was certainly regarded as normal by the Greeks and Romans. More recen tly, European nations, particularly those adjacent to the western seaboard, regarded it as natural and highly profitable to trade with Africans, who the mselves were prepared to sell their own compatriots in orde r to survive, dominate, punish or grow rich . The campaign to abolish the triang ular trade between Europe, West Africa and the West Indies was waged for decades in the late eighteenth and early nineteent h centuries but, despite aboli tion bot h of th e institution itself and slave trad ing, slavery is still practised today with painful consequences in Europe and the wider world.