Which was the first civilization to ban slavery?
score:8
On the 27th of January 1416, the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) banned the slave trade. At a meeting of the Grand Chamber of the Republic of Dubrovnik on the 27th of January 1416 a total of 75 councillors of 78 in the council voted to ban slavery in the Republic. The very next day the vote and the decision came into effect and slavery was banned. Dubrovnik the city state had never participated in the slave trade, but this decision went further.
The decision stated that "none of our nationals or foreigners, and everyone who considers himself or herself from Dubrovnik, can in any way or under any pretext to buy or sell slaves or female servant or be a mediator in such trade.” With this decision the Republic of Dubrovnik was among the first countries in Europe and in the world to ban the buying and selling of slaves.
For example Great Britain banned the trading of slaves 391 years later, and the USA banned the slave trade 450 years after Dubrovnik on the 18th of December 1865.
Freedom From Slavery Came Early in an Unexpected Country. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/regina-fraser-and-pat-johnson/freedom-from-slavery-croatia_b_4905880.html
More about Dubrovnik.. By the Republic of Raguso (Dubrovnik), it was the first country to recognize the young United States. The Republic of Dubrovnik ended in 1806 when Dubrovnik was surrendered to Napoleon. Today Dubrovnik is a UNESCO world heritage site, and the setting for multiple cities in the HBO series "Game of Thrones", including Kings Landing, Quarth, Battle of the Blackwater, and Dorn.
Upvote:10
It seems that the bannishment of slavery in France predates the ruling in Ragusa in the other answer by a century.
Quoting @T.E.D.'s answer in a different question :
King Louis X in 1315 declared that "France signifies freedom", and ordered all slaves and serfs setting foot on French soil to be freed. It seems to be assumed that this was in a large part a financial move (the serfs were supposed to pay the crown for their freedom), but the principle was applied to foreign slaves imported into France thereafter, to no financial benefit to the crown.
Another incentive might have been to legitimize the (then finishing and victorious) fight of the crown against the Order of Solomon's Temple, whose knights had often brought back slaves from the last crusades.
Sure, that ruling will not stop France from actively enforcing slavery oversees when it built its colonial empire(s) centuries later. However, I am not aware of the existence of any slaves on mainland France after the 14th century. Though Wikipedia points that
some limited cases of slavery continued until the 17th century in some of France's Mediterranean harbours in Provence.
Upvote:14
Seems like the other answers are late by at least a thousand years - China did it around the beginning of the common era. From Wikipedia:
In the year AD 9, the Emperor Wang Mang usurped the Chinese throne and instituted a series of sweeping reforms, including the abolition of slavery and radical land reform. Slavery was reinstated in AD 12 before his assassination in AD 23.
In that same wikipedia article, another prominent example is that during the Ming Dynasty:
The Hongwu Emperor sought to abolish all forms of slavery but in practice, slavery continued through the Ming dynasty.
So it seems that there were at least some enlightened rulers, but they were not 100% effective (much like modern times, [1]).
Another place to look is this WIkiepedia article where they speak about it happening in Greece in about 600 BC. But it seems slavery was only banned for Greeks, and they still had Barbarian slaves.
[1] I'd ask readers to note that slavery is illegal in the United States and much of the world today, yet it still exists in different forms.
More post
- 📝 Is there any evidence in history to suggest that there was a Melanchro (dark-skinned) population in Colchis as claimed by Herodotus?
- 📝 In the US Civil War, what factors contributed to the Union having such a numerical advantage over the Confederacy?
- 📝 Does Genghis Khan really have that many descendants?
- 📝 How were German soldiers chosen to be flown out of Stalingrad?
- 📝 Did anyone interweave blue and red threads in order to give the illusion of purple cloth before purple dye became cheap?
- 📝 In view of the widespread use of the term "Semitic", which groups of people are classified as being of Hamitic ethnicity?
- 📝 Did Charlemagne save Latin literature?
- 📝 Where can I find a specific hieroglyphs website?
- 📝 Origins of "Still on patrol"
- 📝 Jewish Slave Owners in the United States
- 📝 Could an enlisted soldier in German Imperial Army get rank above Gefreiter?
- 📝 How did sword cavalry charges work?
- 📝 How could it be that 80% of townspeople were farmers during the Edo period in Japan?
- 📝 After the fall of Constantinople was there a re-evaluation of the basis of Russia's religion?
- 📝 What was the average age of tank crews, in particular commanders, in WW2?
- 📝 Why did George H. W. Bush select Dan Quayle as his running mate in 1988?
- 📝 Who made these comments relating to the use of the atomic bomb?
- 📝 What was Nazi Germany's end goal?
- 📝 What is the name of the king whose brother has been raised as a girl?
- 📝 In the Film Master and Commander, why do they start towing their rowboats after they beat to quarters?
- 📝 Was there a temple dedicated to Old Age ("Geras") in ancient Athens?
- 📝 Is Yam also known as Nubia?
- 📝 Why did the Arab League re-admit Egypt in 1989?
- 📝 Who introduced Yoga to the West?
- 📝 "More Frenchmen bore arms for the Axis than for the Allies during the Second World War"?
- 📝 How many electric light companies operated in New York in 1887?
- 📝 What were Chiang Kai-shek's biggest strategic blunders during the Second Sino-Japanese war?
- 📝 How common among Abolitionists was the goal of complete civil equality for Blacks?
- 📝 Why did the Allies Invade French North Africa?
- 📝 Were hippies in the USA "refused ambulance service" for some reason?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Which was the first civilization to ban slavery?
- 📝 Which religion was the first monotheistic one?
- 📝 Which was the first war in which photography was employed?
- 📝 Which car was the first to come with a cigarette lighter receptacle?
- 📝 Why was Hiroshima selected to be the city in Japan on which the first atom bomb was dropped?
- 📝 Which country was the first to separate (Christian) Church from state?
- 📝 When was the term "Dravida" first used and what is the context with which it was presented?
- 📝 Was Christianity the first belief system which encouraged the ideal of peace among all people on Earth?
- 📝 Which year was the first leap year?
- 📝 How can we be sure what the first day of the month was 2000 years ago and how can we determine which years were leap years?
- 📝 Is it true that slavery was endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa previous to the establishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade?
- 📝 Was slavery really on the way out in the antebellum USA?
- 📝 Was slavery in the United States legally limited to blacks?
- 📝 Who, if anyone, was the first astronaut to return to earth in a different vessel?
- 📝 Which battle was the most lopsided result in terms of casualties?
- 📝 What was the first solar eclipse that was demonstrably predicted in advance?
- 📝 Who was the first female ruler to be given the suffix, "the great"?
- 📝 What was the first battle in history fought by vast-majority-% "distance-shooting" non-mechanized force?
- 📝 What / When was the first use of concentration camps in history?
- 📝 In which document was the exact course of the northern part of the German-Polish border decided?
- 📝 How common was smoking in first half of the 20th century?
- 📝 What was the first known war in history?
- 📝 What was the first successful mass tank battle of WW1?
- 📝 When was the American War of Independence first called a 'Revolution'?
- 📝 Which was the last major war in which horse mounted cavalry actually participated in active fighting?
- 📝 What was the liquor that was based on petrol which was produced in the USSR during the Second World War?
- 📝 Was there an increased interest in 'the spirit world' in the aftermath of the First World War?
- 📝 Who was the first woman ruler?
- 📝 Was there ever any doubt which side the USA would join?
- 📝 What was the first successful non violent independence movement?