Why did slavery develop in Africa?
1 Answer
The evolving ability to produce food and other goods above subsistence levels, resulting in there being a net material advantage of maintaining slaves.
Explanation:
Africa was probably no different than anywhere else in the world in this respect (although it was the locale of many of the earliest civilizations).
Hunter-gather societies and farming at a bare subsistence level provided no incentive for maintaining slaves.
With improved farming technologies and the formation of career specializations, individuals (or individual groups) were able to produce more than necessary for survival.
Looking about themselves, people could begin to see themselves as different from others, particularly in terms of the quantity of excess they possessed. One obvious way to increase this amount of excess compared to others was to force others to live at subsistence levels and take the excess of the labor of these others for oneself.
