Slavery is the ownership of a person as property , especially in regards to their labour. Many historical cases of enslavement occurred as a result of breaking the law, becoming indebted, suffering a military defeat, or exploitation for cheaper labor; other forms of slavery were instituted along demographic lines such as race or sex.
Slaves may be kept in bondage for life, or for a fixed period of time after which they would be granted freedom. In the course of human history , slavery was a typical feature of civilization , [ 3 ] and was legal in most societies, but it is now outlawed in most countries of the world, except as a punishment for a crime.
In chattel slavery , the slave is legally rendered the personal property chattel of the slave owner. In economics, the term de facto slavery describes the conditions of unfree labour and forced labour that most slaves endure. The Islamic Republic of Mauritania was the last country in the world to officially ban slavery, in , [ 7 ] with legal prosecution of slaveholders established in There is a dispute among historians about whether terms such as " unfree labourer " or "enslaved person", rather than "slave", should be used when describing the victims of slavery.
According to those proposing a change in terminology, slave perpetuates the crime of slavery in language by reducing its victims to a nonhuman noun instead of "carry[ing] them forward as people, not the property that they were" see also People-first language. Other historians prefer slave because the term is familiar and shorter, or because it accurately reflects the inhumanity of slavery, with person implying a degree of autonomy that slavery does not allow.
As a social institution, chattel slavery classes slaves as chattels personal property owned by the enslaver; like livestock, they can be bought and sold at will. Beginning in the 18th century, a series of abolitionist movements saw slavery as a violation of the slaves' rights as people " all men are created equal " , and sought to abolish it. Abolitionism encountered extreme resistance but was eventually successful.
