A Not For Sale story

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Slavery is one of the oldest institutions in human history.

It has never disappeared. It has changed shape.

A Not For Sale story

Slavery Changes Shape

From the first civilizations to the scam compounds of today: the long history of slavery, and of the fight against it.

About 7 minutes · Based on The History of Modern-Day Slavery by Mark Wexler

  1. The ancient world

    In Mesopotamia and Egypt, enslaved people worked in homes, in fields and on great building projects. In Athens they rowed galleys and worked the mines. Rome held vast numbers, from servants and artisans to gladiators.

  2. From the 7th century

    In the Islamic world, enslaved people served as soldiers, such as the Mamluks of Egypt, and as servants and laborers. A trade carried people from Africa to the Middle East and North Africa.

  3. Across Africa

    Many forms of servitude existed. Some were close to Europe’s serfdom; others enslaved prisoners of war, or people in debt.

  4. Across Asia

    In China, slavery was mostly domestic. In Southeast Asia it ranged from war captives to debt bondage.

  5. The Americas, before 1492

    The Aztecs and the Maya held slaves for labor, for sacrifice, and as “pawns” held against a debt.

  6. The Middle Ages

    Across Europe, serfdom bound people to the land, and to the will of the people who owned it.

  7. These forms of slavery were often based on status, debt, war or religion. Not on race.

    That was about to change.

From around 1500

European nations such as Portugal captured and enslaved African people and shipped them across the Atlantic.

Most were taken to Brazil and the Caribbean, to work on plantations.

Others were taken to the Spanish Americas and North America. Ships carried sugar and cotton back to Europe.

12.5 million

people were forced onto slave ships over more than three centuries. About 10.7 million survived the crossing.

Source: SlaveVoyages, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database

The trade was legal, endorsed and regulated by governments. And unlike most slavery before it, it was built on race.

1807

After years of campaigning by William Wilberforce and others, Britain’s Slave Trade Act ended its part in the trade.

1866

The transatlantic trade finally ended. Slavery did not.

  1. 1759 to 1833 · William Wilberforce

    The British politician campaigned for decades against the trade. His work helped pass the 1807 Slave Trade Act, and inspired movements in other countries.

  2. The 1800s · The United States

    The California Gold Rush and the Transcontinental Railroad drew Chinese immigrants. Many men were trafficked for labor in harsh conditions; women were coerced into prostitution by criminal syndicates known as Tongs.

  3. And so, slowly, the world began to write laws against it.

1904 and 1910

The first international agreements against trafficking. Their language reflected the prejudices of their time.

1919 to 1930

The International Labour Organization is founded. A League of Nations convention covers trafficking in women and children. Then the ILO defines forced labor: work demanded under threat of a penalty, which a person has not offered freely.

1949

The United Nations adopts its first legally binding agreement on human trafficking.

2000

The Palermo Protocol gives the world its first agreed definition of human trafficking. The United States passes the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

2011 to 2024

The EU Anti-Trafficking Directive, the UK Modern Slavery Act, and in 2024 an EU update that adds forced marriage, illegal adoption and surrogacy.

Today, an estimated 50 million people live in modern slavery. Each square here stands for 100,000 people.

About 28 million are in forced labor.

About 22 million are in forced marriage.

About these numbers

They are estimates for 2021 by the ILO, Walk Free and the IOM, published in 2022. They are not a new count for 2026.

Online

Traffickers recruit through false job adverts, grooming and threats. Contact online turns into exploitation offline.

This is how The Offer begins

Forced criminality

Some people are trafficked into compounds and made to run online scams. The person sending a scam message may be under threat themselves.

Climate change

Droughts, floods and failing harvests push people from their homes and livelihoods. Traffickers exploit their desperation.

Read The Forest Line

Slavery changes shape. So must the fight against it.

About this story

Based on our history of slavery

This story is drawn from The History of Modern-Day Slavery and Human Trafficking by Mark Wexler. The full article goes deeper into each era, with further reading, documentaries and the laws of individual countries.

Modern-day slavery and human trafficking are connected, but not the same. Slavery describes exploitation a person cannot refuse or leave. Trafficking is the recruitment, movement or harboring of people for exploitation, and it does not need to cross a border.

1500 to 1866the transatlantic slave tradeNot For Sale
12.5 millionpeople forced onto slave shipsSlaveVoyages
2000the first agreed definition of traffickingPalermo Protocol
50 millionpeople in modern slavery, 2021ILO, Walk Free, IOM

No one is for sale.
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Sources and notes

  • Text, eras, laws and the 2021 estimates: Mark Wexler, The History of Modern-Day Slavery and Human Trafficking, Not For Sale.
  • 12.5 million embarked and about 10.7 million who survived the crossing: SlaveVoyages, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. Added for this story; not in the article.
  • The routes on the map are drawn by broad region, thicker where more people were carried. They are not individual voyages.
  • Map shapes: Natural Earth. Each square in the chart stands for 100,000 people.

Concept mockup for review. Not published, and not the live site. Illustrations are drawn in code as placeholders for commissioned art.

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Mockup for review. Not the live site.