Slavery has been a global practice throughout the ages to a great extent. Slavery is defined as a practice of coercing people to do some work they are reluctant to do, like hard labor and prostitution. In common, the trait of slavery is that the enslaved person was classed as the properties of their owners——they could be bought and sold through bargains and they work without payment. The forms of slaves include sex slaves, coolies, gladiators, etc. Different countries had formulated their own institution of slavery or their own manner of slave trading. This study will use the slavery systems in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Ancient Babylon, medieval Russia to demonstrate the nature of slavery as a worldwide and age old phenomenon. Despite the characteristics of slavery differing, this essay will illustrate common features throughout the world when practicing slavery.
In Ancient Babylon, slavery was first put into practice. There, slavery shared common feature——which was the oppression and discrimination of slaves——with the subsequent slavery system of other countries. According to the Code of Hammurabi, surgeons operating on free man get rewards but reversely, they get penalty if they operate on slaves; Moreover, anyone who helped slaves escaped would get death penalty. However, exceptional that Babylonian slaves were allowed to have their personal asset. The slavery in Ancient Babylon showed that this system has existed through scores of years. Slavery was also approved and applied to a large extent in that empire, for King Hammurabi had fixed laws about slavery in his code.
Slavery can also be seen in Ancient Greece during the 7th century BC. The amount of slaves was big enough to enable the most citizens to have at least one slave, and unusually, slaves were permitted of participation in social activities except politic ones. This permission can be seen as the reflection of free