Definitions and Ideologies of Slavery and Trafficking

Slavery is, according to many strictly legal definitions, any system in which principles of property law are applied to people, allowing individuals to own, buy and sell other individuals, as a de jure form of property. Related but also qualitatively distinct, human trafficking is conventionally viewed as the trade of humans, commonly for the purpose of forced labor, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation by the trafficker or other interested parties. Slavery and trafficking in persons have existed in various culturally specific iterations across time and space from the dawn of human settlement to the present day and definitions have expanded and narrowed dramatically. At different periods in time various ideological arguments have been espoused in support or in opposition to human bondage, from natural law to criminal punishment to nationally, ethnically, or racially-based enslavement. This chapter explores definitions and ideologies of slavery and trafficking preponderant at different moments in time and in diverse geographical locales.