Slavery is a social-economic system under which people are enslaved: deprived of personal freedom and forced to perform labor or services without compensation. These people are referred to as slaves, or as enslaved people.
The following is a list of notable historical people who were enslaved at some point during their lives, in alphabetical order by first name.
A Abraham, an enslaved black man who carried messages between the frontier and Charles Town during wars with the Cherokee, for which he was freed.Christina Snyder, Slavery in Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America, p. 141, Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori (1762–1829), Fula prince enslaved in the United States for 40 years until President John Quincy Adams freed him.
Abram Petrovich Gannibal ( 1696–1781), African slave in the Ottoman Empire, later adopted by Russian czar Peter the Great, governor of Tallinn (Reval) (1742–1752), general-en-chef (1759–1762) for building of sea forts and canals in Russia; great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin. Absalom Jones (1746–1818), formerly-enslaved African-American man who purchased his freedom, abolitionist and clergyman first ordained black priest of the Episcopal Church. Abu Lu'lu'a Firuz (died 644), Persian craftsman and captive who killed the second Islamic caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (). Addas (7th century) an enslaved Christian boy who lived in Taif during the time of Muhammad, who was supposedly the first person from the western province of Taif to convert to Islam.An unpleasant welcome in Taa'if Adriaan de Bruin ( 1700–1766), earlier called Tabo Jansz, was an enslaved servant in the Dutch Republic who ended up a free man in Hoorn, North Holland. He was portrayed by Nicolaas Verkolje. Adam Brzeziński (1768 – after 1797), Polish serf and Royal Ballet Dancer, donated to the king of Poland by will and testament.Bernacki: Teatr; Mamontowicz-Łojek: Szkoła Tyzenhauza s. 53, 54, 70, 86-89, 92; Wierzbicka: Sześć studiów; Muzyka 1969 nr 2 (J. Prosnak).
Aesop ( 620–564 BCE), Greek poet and author or transcriber of Aesop's Fables. Afanasy Grigoriev (1782–1868), Russian serf and Neoclassical architect. Afrosinya (1699/1700–1748), Russian serf, possibly a Finnish captive, enslaved mistress of Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia. Agathoclia (died 230), a martyr and patron saint of the town of Mequinenza in Spain."St. Agathoclia", Catholic Saints Alam al-Malika (died 1130), enslaved singer who was promoted to become the de facto prime minister, adviser and ruler of the principality of Zubayd, in what is now Yemen. Alexina Morrison (born 1842), a fugitive from slavery in Louisiana who claimed to be a kidnapped white girl and sued her master for her freedom on that ground, arousing such popular feeling against him that a mob threatened to lynch him.Gross (2008), What Blood Won't Tell, p. 1 Alfred "Teen" Blackburn (1842–1951), one of the last living survivors of slavery in the United States who had a clear recollection of it. Alfred Jackson ( 1812–1901), formerly enslaved wagoner of Seventh U.S. President Andrew Jackson who became an early tour guide at Jackson's former plantation, The Hermitage. Alfred Francis Russell (1817–1884), 10th President of Liberia."A Durable Memento:" Portraits by Augustus Washington, African American Daguerreotypist, exhibit, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Alice Clifton ( 1772–unknown), as an enslaved teenager, she was a defendant in an infanticide trial in 1787.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca ( 1490– 1558), a Spanish explorer who was enslaved by Native Americans on the Gulf Coast of what is now the United States after surviving the collapse of the Narváez expedition in 1527.Snyder, Slavery in Indian Country, p. 39 Al-Khayzuran bint Atta (died 789), an enslaved Yemenite girl who became the wife of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mahdi and mother of both Caliphs Al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid, the most famous of the Abbasids. Alp-Tegin (died 963), a member of the nomadic Turks of Central Asian steppes who was brought as slave when in childhood into the Samanid court at their capital Bukhara and who rose to become a commander of the army of the Samanid Empire in Khorasan. He later became the governor of Ghazna which then fell under the Samanid Empire. Later his son-in-law Sabuktigin would found the Ghaznavid Empire. Amanda America Dickson (1849–1893), the daughter of white Georgian planter David Dickson and Julia Frances Lewis, who was enslaved by Dickson's mother. Although legally enslaved until her emancipation after the American Civil War, Amanda Dickson was raised as her father's favorite and inherited his $500,000 estate after his 1885 death.Snyder, Slavery in Indian Country, pp. 201–202 Ammar bin Yasir (570–657), one of the most famous sahaba (companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad) freed by Abu Bakr. Amos Fortune (1710–1801), an African prince who was enslaved in the United States for most of his life. A children's book about him, Amos Fortune, Free Man won the Newbery Medal in 1951. Anarcha Westcott ( 1828–unknown), a black woman enslaved in the United States who was one of the several enslaved women experimented on by J. Marion Sims.
Andrey Voronikhin (1759–1814), Russian serf, architect and painter. Andrea Aguyar (died 1849), a formerly-enslaved freed black man from Uruguay who joined Giuseppe Garibaldi during Italian revolutionary involvement in the Uruguayan Civil War of the 1840s and was killed fighting in defense of the Roman Republic of 1849. Andrew Jackson Beard (1849–1921), inventor, emancipated at age 15 by the Emancipation Proclamation. Anna J. Cooper (1858–1964), author, educator, speaker and prominent African-American scholar. Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley (1793–1870), enslaved woman and then a planter and slave owner herself. Anna Williams, an enslaved woman in Washington, D.C. who successfully sued the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit for her freedom. Annice (died 1828), executed for the murders of five children. Annika Svahn ( 1714), Finnish woman abducted by the Russians during the Great Northern War. The daughter of a vicar in Joutseno, she became perhaps the best-known victim of the abuse suffered by the civilian population in Finland during the Russian occupation Greater Wrath. Antarah ibn Shaddad (525–608), pre-Islamic Arab born to an enslaved woman, freed by his father on the eve of battle, also a poet. Anthony Burns (1834–1862), a Baptist preacher who escaped slavery to Boston only to be recaptured due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, then had his freedom bought by those who opposed his recapture in Boston. Antonia Bonnelli (1786–1870), captured and enslaved by the Mikasuki tribe in Florida in 1802. António Corea, European name given to a Korean. He was taken to Italy, which made him possibly the first Korean person to set foot in Europe. Antón Guanche (15th century), a Guanche from Tenerife, captured, enslaved, and returned to the island. Aqualtune Ezgondidu Mahamud da Silva Santos (died 1677), princess of Kongo, mother of Ganga Zumba and grandmother of Zumbi dos Palmares. She led 10,000 men during the Battle of Mbwila between Kingdom of Kongo and Kingdom of Portugal. She was captured by Portuguese forces, was brought to Brazil and sold as slave. She created the slave settlement of Quilombo dos Palmares with her son Ganga Zumba."Who was Aqualtune?Maria Aparecida Schumaher, Erico teixeira Vital Brazil, Dicionário Mulheres do Brasil: de 1500 até a atualidade, Archer Alexander (1810–1879), the model for the slave in the 1876 Emancipation Memorial sculpture. Archibald Grimké (1849–1930), born into slavery, the son of a white father, became an American lawyer, intellectual, journalist, diplomat and community leader. Arthur Crumpler ( 1835–1910), escaped slavery in Virginia, second husband of Dr. Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler. Aster Ganno ( 1872–1964), a young Ethiopian woman was rescued by the Italian Navy from a slave ship crossing to Yemen. She went on to translate the Bible into the Oromo language. Also she prepared literacy materials and went on to spend the rest of her life as a school teacher. Augustine Tolton (1854–1897), the first black priest in the United States.""Augustine Tolton: From slavery to being the first black priest", Catholic Church Aurelia Philematium, a freedwoman whose tombstone glorifies her marriage with her fellow freedman, Lucius Aurelius Hermia.Fantham, et al.,Women in the Classical World pp. 319–20
Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (1701–1773), also known as Job ben Solomon, a Muslim of the Bundu state in West Africa who was enslaved for two years in Maryland, freed in 1734, and later wrote memoirs that were published as one of the earliest slave narratives.
B
Baibars (1223–1277), also known as Abu al-Futuh, a Kipchak Turk who became a Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria. Balthild ( 626–680), an Anglo-Saxon woman of elite birth who was sold into slavery as a young girl and served in the household of Erchinoald, mayor of the palace of Neustria. Later she became queen consort by marriage to Clovis II, and then regent during the minority of her son Clotaire. She abolished the practice of trading Christian slaves and sought the freedom of children sold into slavery. She was canonized by Pope Nicholas I about 200 years after her death. Bass Reeves (1838–1910), one of the first black Deputy U.S. Marshals west of the Mississippi River, credited with arresting over 3,000 felons as well as shooting and killing fourteen outlaws in self-defense.
Belinda Sutton (1713–179?), born in Ghana, petitioned for support from her enslaver's estate, considered an early reparations case and inspired future activism. Bell (Belinda) ( 1750– 1772), born in Bengal, she was brought to Scotland in the service of an East India Company nabob. Accused of infanticide, she petitioned to be banished and was indentured as a "slave for life" and transported to Virginia in 1772. She was the last person to be deemed a slave in a British court. Benjamin S. Turner (1825–1894), former slave and politician who represented Alabama's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives becoming the first African American to represent the state in Congress. Benkos Biohó, born into the royal family of the Bissagos Islands, who was abducted and enslaved. After transportation to Spanish New Granada in South America he managed to escape, help many other slaves to escape and established the maroon community of San Basilio de Palenque. He was betrayed and hanged by Governor Diego Pacheco Téllez-Girón Gómez de Sandoval of Cartagena in 1621, but the community he founded survived in freedom and exists up to the present. Betty Hemings ( 1735–1807), an enslaved mixed-race woman in colonial Virginia whom in 1761 became the sex slave of her master, planter John Wayles, and had six mixed-race children with him over a 12-year period, including Sally Hemings and James Hemings. Big Eyes ( 1540), Wichita woman enslaved by Tejas people before being captured and enslaved by conquistador Juan de Zaldívar. Bilichild (died 610), was a queen of Austrasia by marriage to Theudebert II. Bilal ibn Ribah (580–640), freed in the 6th century. He converted to Islam and was Muhammad's muezzin. Bill Richmond (1763–1829), born in America, was freed and became one of England's best-known boxers. Billy (born 1754), a man who escaped John Tayloe II's plantation and was charged with treason against Virginia during the American Revolutionary War. He was pardoned after arguing that, as a slave, he was not a citizen and thus could not commit treason against a government to which he owed no allegiance. Bissula ( 368) enslaved Alemannic woman, and muse of the Roman poet Ausonius. Blanche Bruce (1841–1898) first and only former slave to have served in the United States Senate. Blandina ( 162–177), a slave and Christian martyr in Roman Gaul.