ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a general discussion of the institution of slavery and its origins. It discusses the various forms of slavery from the ancient times to its abolition in the nineteenth century. It compares and contrasts the Atlantic slave trade with the Indian Ocean slave trade and how they differed. The transportation of slaves from the east coast of Africa to Asia and the Mediterranean predates the Atlantic slave trade by more than 1,000 years. While the African slaves in the New World were primarily viewed in economic terms as chattels, the slaves in India and the Indian Ocean region were mainly valued for their prestige as ‘status symbols’. The chapter goes on to describe the profitable Indian Ocean slave trade in the nineteenth century and draws attention to the role and active participation of the Indian merchants in this trade both as financiers and as owners of slaves.
