Slavery is a very ancient institution which is even sanctioned in the Bible: “Let your bondmen, and your bondwomen, be of the nations that are round about you” [Leviticus 25:44]. While most of the Western world has abolished this practice, there are still some nations that turn a blind eye to a very active slave trade. This is a list of the most famous slaves in history. It is very difficult to write such a subjective list in light of the enormous number of slaves that are known in history, nevertheless I have endeavored to do so.
10. Margaret Garner
Margaret Garner was a slave in pre-Civil War America notorious for killing her two year oldbutcher knife,
rather than see the child returned to slavery. Margaret was not tried
for murder, but was forced to return to a slave state along with her
youngest child, and a daughter aged about nine months. The Liberator
reported on March 11, 1856 that the steamboat Lewis, on which the
Garners were traveling, began to sink and thatMargaret and her baby
daughter were thrown overboard when another boat coming to their rescue
hit the Lewis. Sadly, the baby was drowned. It was reported thatMargaret
was happy that her baby had died and that she would try to drown
herself. daughter with a
9. Abram Petrovich Gannibal
Major-General
Abram Petrovich Gannibal, also Hannibal or Ganibal, (1696 – 20 April
1781) was an African slave who was brought to Russia by Peter the Great
and became major-general, military engineer and governor of Reval. He is
perhaps best known today as the great-grandfather of Aleksandr Pushkin,
who wrote an unfinished novel about him, The Moor of Peter the Great.
8. Ammar ibn Yasir
Ammar
bin Yasir is one of the most famous companions of Muhammad, and was
among the slaves freed by Abu Bakr. He is venerated by Shi’a Muslims as
one of the Four Companions, early Muslims who were followers of Ali ibn
Abi Talib. Ammar was born in the Year of the Elephant (570). Therefore
he is as old as Muhammad. Ammar was a friend of Muhammad even before
Islam. He was one of the intermediaries in his marriage to Khadijat
Al-Kubra. He was a slave of Banu Adi. He was killed by a group loyal to
Mu’Awiyah in the battle of Siffin (657). His killer was ibn Hawwa
esaksaki and Abu Al’Adiyah.
7. Nat Turner
Nat
Turner was a black preacher who led an 1831 uprising in Southampton
County, Virginia in which at least 55 whites were killed by a group of
about 50slaves . Turner was a deeply religious man who claimed to have
visions and directives from God. On the night of 21 August 1831 he led
four otherslaves (Henry, Hark, Nelson and Sam) on a murderous spree near
the town of Jerusalem, killing men, women and children in their beds.
By the next day his mob had grown to at least 40 or 50, but the local
militia confronted and captured most of them. Turner escaped, but was
eventually captured in October and tried. He was hanged and skinned 11
November 1831. Before he was executed, he described his actions to
Thomas R. Gray, and “The Confessions of Nat Turner” was later widely
published in newspapers. Turner’s failed rebellion led to hundreds of
blacks being murdered by white vigilante mobs, and spurred a new set of
strict codes that limited the activities ofslaves.
6. James Somersett
James
Somerset or Somersett was a young African slave who was purchased by
Charles Stuart in Virginia in 1749. Stuart was involved in English
government service and traveled as part of his duties accompanied by
Somerset, who at the time did not have a first name. In 1769, Stuart
along with Somersett traveled to England. While in England, Somersett
met and became involved with people associated with the anti-slavery
movement in England including the well known activist Granville Sharp.
During this period, Somersett was christened with the name James in a
church ceremony. Somersett was recaptured after escaping, and his trial
ultimately spelt the end ofslavery in England (though not English
participation in slavery in its other nations).
5. Enrique of Malacca
Enrique
of Malacca was a native of the Malay Archipelago. Also known as Henry
the Black, he was Ferdinand Magellan’s personal servant and interpreter.
He had been reportedly captured by Sumatran slavers from his home
islands. In 1511 he was purchased by Ferdinand Magellan in a Malaccan
slave market and baptized as Henrique (spanish Enrique), (his original
name is not recorded). Thereafter he worked as a personal slave and
interpreter, accompanying Magellan back to Europe, and onwards on
Magellan’s famous search for a westward passage to the Pacific Ocean. He
is simply called Enrique on the ship’s muster roll, and Henrich in
Pigafetta’s account of the expedition. If a loose definition of
circumnavigation (ie, not returning to the exact same spot), then
Enrique has an undisputed claim to being the first circumnavigator. He
made the first known cultural circumnavigation, travelling around the world
until he reached people who spoke his language. He (and Magellan) may
also have crossed every meridian — that is he crossed every line of
longitude, or circumnavigated the poles.
4. Frederick Douglass
Born
in bondage on the eastern shore of Maryland, Douglass worked for
several different slaveholders in both eastern Maryland and Baltimore
between 1818 and 1838. During his youth, Douglass became proficiently
literate by readingthe Bible and classic orations and listening to the
sermons of antislavery black preachers and Quakers. These experiences
later contributed to his unyielding abolitionism and fierce
egalitarianism. In 1838, while a ship caulker’s apprentice, Douglass
acquired free seaman papers and escaped to New York City. He then moved
to Massachusetts and became involved in antislavery activism, under the
tutelage of William Lloyd Garrison. Eventually rejecting the apolitical
nature of Garrisonian abolitionism, Douglass moved to Rochester, New
York, and founded his own abolition journal, The North Star.
3. Saint Patrick
St.
Patrick is revered by Christians for establishing the church in Ireland
during the fifth century AD. The precise dates and details of his life
are unclear, but some points are generally agreed: as a teen he was
captured and sold intoslavery in Ireland, and six years later he escaped
to Gaul (now France) where he later became a monk. Around 432 he
returned to Ireland as a missionary and succeeded in converting many of
the island’s tribes to Christianity. Late in life he wrote a brief text,
Confessio, detailing his life and ministry. His feast day, March 17, is
celebrated as a day of Irish pride in many parts of the world.
2. Aesop
Aesop,
famous for his Fables, is supposed to have lived from about 620 to 560
BC. The place of his birth is uncertain — Thrace, Phrygia, Aethiopia,
Samos, Athens and Sardis all claiming the honor. We possess little
trustworthy information concerning his life, except that he was the
slave of Iadmon of Samos and met with a violent death at the hands of
the inhabitants of Delphi. Aesop must have received his freedom from
Iadmon, or he could not have conducted the public defense of a certain
Samian demagogue (Aristotle, Rhetoric, II 20). According to the story,
he subsequently lived at the court of Croesus, where he met Solon, and
dined in the company of the Seven Sages of Greece with Periander at
Corinth. It is probable that Aesop did not commit his fables to writing;
Aristophanes represents Philocleon as having learned the “absurdities”
of Aesop from conversation at banquets, and Socrates whiles away his
time in prison by turning some of Aesop’s fables “which he knew” into
verse.
1. Spartacus
Spartacus,
a Thracian, served in the Roman army. He became a bandit and was sold
as a slave when caught. He escaped a gladiatorial school, where he had
plotted a revolt with other gladiators, and set up camp on Mount
Vesuvius, where he was joined by other runawayslaves and some peasants.
With a force of 90,000, he overran most of southern Italy, defeating two
consuls. He led his army north to the Cisalpine Gaul, where he hoped to
release them to find freedom, but they refused to leave, preferring to
continue the struggle. Returning south, he attempted to invade Sicily
but could not arrange the passage. The legions of Marcus Licinius
Crassus caught the slave army in Lucania and defeated it; Spartacus fell
in pitched battle. Pompey’s army intercepted and killed many of those
escaping north, and Crassus crucified 6,000 prisoners along the Appian
Way.
Source: http://listverse.com/2007/09/17/top-10-famous-slaves/
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