Up Until 17 Years Ago You Could Legally Own Slaves ..

The last country to end slavery formally was Mauritania in 1981.

However, no criminal laws were passed to enforce the ban until 2007.

This meant that anybody could own slaves without facing any punishment until seventeen years ago!

But the first country to end slavery formally is much more obscure.

Slavery had existed long before.

For instance, in ancient Egypt or Persia.

The first public sale of African slaves transpired around 1444 in Lagos, Portugal.

Britain is often recognised to be the first to end slavery in 1807.

Yet this only applied to slave trade on British mainland.

It took until 1838 until slavery was formally abolished in the entire British empire,

with many segregation laws persisting (Apartheid in South Africa).

France ended slavery in 1794 under pressure of the Haitian revolution,

but Napoleon Bonaparte reintroduced it in 1802.

Denmark’s participation in the transatlantic slave trade ended in 1803.

The next video will be about the battle of Thermopylae,

so make sure to follow!

#history #internationalrelations #geography #geopolitics #mauritania #france #unitedkingdom #usa #us #africa #slavery #denmark #norway #haiti #napoleon