List of slaves

"Slaves" redirects here. For the 1969 drama film, see Slaves (film).

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Slavery is a social-economic system under which certain persons known as slaves are deprived of personal freedom and compelled to perform labour or services. The following is a list of known slaves in alphabetical order of first name:

A

• Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696–1781), adopted by Russian czar Peter the Great, governor of Tallinn (Reval) (1742–52), general-en-chef (1759–62) for building of sea forts and canals in Russia.
• Avacado Jones of Mujah land in Africa
• Absalom Jones, (1746 – February 13, 1818), abolitionist and clergyman.
• Aesop, Greek poet, c. 6th century BC, author or transcriber of Aesop's Fables.
• Andrea Aguyar, a freed Black slave from Uruguay who joined Garibaldi in the Italian revolutionary during the Uruguayan Civil War of the 1840s, followed him also to Italy, and was killed fighting in defence of the Roman Republic of 1849.
• Al-Khayzuran bint Atta, a Yemenite slave 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.
• Ammar bin Yasir, one of the most famous sahaba (companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), freed by Abu Bakr.
• Antarah ibn Shaddad, pre-Islamic Arab born to a slave mother, freed by his father on the eve of battle, also a poet.
• Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, also known as Job ben Solomon (1701–1773).

B

• Baibars, a Kipchack Turk who became a Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria.
• Sarah Basset (d.1730), Bermudian slave.
• Balthild, a 7th Century Anglo-Saxon woman originally of elite birth, was sold into slavery on the Continent as a young girl and served in the household of Erchinoald, mayor of the palace of Neustria. Later she married King Clovis II. As a Queen - after her husband's death holding power as regent for her son Clotaire - she abolished the practice of trading Christian slaves and even sought the freedom of children sold into slavery. Forced into a convent when her son came of age, Balthild was canonised by Pope Nicholas I about 200 years after her death.
• Benedict the Moor (1526 – April 4, 1589), Italian saint.
• Bilal ibn Ribah, 6th century, was freed. He converted to Islam and was Muhammad's muezzin.
• Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was an American educator, author and leader of the African American community.
• Brigitta Scherzenfeldt (1698–1733), Swedish memoirist and weaving teacher who was captured during the Great Northern War and lived as a slave in the kingdom of the Kalmyks in Central Asia.

C

• Pope Callixtus I (died 222) was Pope from about 217 to about 222, during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Heliogabalus and Alexander Severus. He was martyred for his Christian faith and is a canonized saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Cinque, leader of the slaves in the Amistad v. United States case in 1839
• Pope Clement I (died in 100) was the fourth Pope according to Catholic tradition. He may have been a freedman of Titus Flavius Clemens.
• Cesar Picton ca.1765–1831, enslaved in Senegal, servant in England, later a wealthy coal-merchant.
• Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha (1713–1790) an Ottoman grand vizier, Kapudan Pasha and an army commander.
• Colonel Tye/Titus Cornelius was a Black Loyalist soldier and guerrila leader during the American Revolution.

D

• Dave Drake, also known as Dave the Potter, (c. 1801–1876)
• Denmark Vesey (c. 1767–1822) was an African American slave, and later a freeman, who planned what would have been one of the largest slave rebellions in the United States had word of the plans not been leaked.
• Dincă, the half-Roma slave and illegitimate child of a Cantacuzino boyar in the 19th Century Danubian Principalities (the present Romania). Well-educated, working as a cook but not allowed to marry his French mistress and go free, which had led him to murder his lover and kill himself. The affair shocked public opinion and was one of the factors contributing to the abolition of Slavery in Romania (see [1]).
• The Roman Emperor Diocletian was, by some sources, born as the slave of Senator Anullinus. By other sources, it was Diocletian's father (whose own name in unknown) who was a slave, and he was freed previous to the birth of his son, the future emperor [2].
• Dred Scott (c. 1799–1858), attempted to sue for his freedom in Scott v. Sandford.

E

• Eliezer of Damascus, The Biblical Abraham's slave and trusted manager of the Partiarch's household.
• Enrique of Malacca, also known as Henry the Black, slave and interpreter of Ferdinand Magellan, the first man to circumnavigate the globe.
• Epictetus (55–c. 135), ancient Greek stoic philosopher
• Estevanico, also known as Esteban the Moor, one of only four survivors of the ill-fated Narváez expedition, later a guide in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Gold (ca. 1503–1539)

F

• Felicitas, Christian martyr and saint (died March 7, 203).
• Francis Bok, born 1979, Dinka slave from Sudan now in United States
• François Mackandal, Haitian maroon leader.
• Frederick Douglass (c. 1818–1895), abolitionist writer and speaker.

G

• Gabriel Prosser (1776–1800), leader of Virginia slave revolt
• Ganga Zumba or Ganazumba, escaped slave in colonial Brazil, first leader of Quilombo dos Palmares.
• George Africanus (1763–1834) an African slave from Sierra Leone who became a successful entrepreneur in Nottingham.
• George Washington Carver (1864–1943) an American scientist, botanist, educator and inventor.
• Glaumur, slave of the outlaw Grettir in early medieval Iceland (protagonist of "Grettis saga"). Glaumur is mentioned as loyally sharing his master's long exile on the lonely island of Drangey, off the northern tip of Iceland, though in the circumstances described in the saga he could have easily escaped.
• Joshua Glover, fugitive slave saved by abolitionists at Racine, Wisconsin in 1854.
• Gonzalo Guerrero (?–1536) a sailor from Palos, in Spain who shipwrecked along the Yucatan Peninsula and was taken as a slave by the local Maya.
• Guðríður Símonardóttir (1598–1682), Icelandic woman taken captive by North African slavers (Barbary Pirates).
• Gustav Badin (d. 1822), butler at the royal Swedish court.

H

• Hababah, beloved concubine of Caliph Yazid II.
• Hagar, Biblical figure, belonging to Sarah.
• Hark Olufs (1708–1754), Danish sailor, was captured by Algerian pirates. Sold to the Bey of Constantine, he became Commander in Chief of the Bey's cavalry. He was released in 1735.
• Harriet Tubman, nicknamed "Moses" because of her efforts in helping other slaves escape through the Underground Railway.
• Hercules (chef), head cook at George Washington's plantation Mount Vernon. Was highly appreciated as a cook. Escaped and gained his freedom in 1797, but his wife Alice and his three children: Richmond, Evey and Delia remained in slavery.
• Hermas, author of the text The Shepherd of Hermas and brother of Pope Pius I.
• Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813–1897), author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
• Sally Hemings, slave of Thomas Jefferson and rumored to have born him six children, four of whom survived to adulthood.
• Harddick, English courtier, spent 25 years as a slave in North Africa.

I

• İbrahim Pasha (?–1536), Suleyman the Magnificent's first appointed Grand Vizier. Greek by birth, he was sold as a slave at the age of six to the Ottoman palace for future sultans. There he befriended Suleiman who was of the same age.
• Ivan Bolotnikov (?–1608), a fugitive kholop (slave in Russia) and leader of the Bolotnikov rebellion.
• Ida B. Wells, African American activist, born a slave, who in later life campaigned against – and succeeded in abolishing – lynching
• Matt Hopper

J

• James Leander Cathcart
• James Somersett, his escape, supported by abolitionists, led to the milestone Somersett's Case, which effectively ended slavery in Britain, though not in its colonies.
• Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758–1806), leader of the Haitian Revolution and first leader of independent Haiti.
• Jean Saint Malo, leader of runaway slaves in colonial Louisiana and founder of the secret community that bears his name.
• Jean Parisot de la Valette (c. 1494–1568), Grand Master of the Order of St John, in 1541 he was captured and made a galley slave for a year by Barbary pirates under the command of Turgut Reis.
• "Jerry" – see William Henry
• John Ezzidio (c. 1810–October 1872), Nigerian slave who became a successful Sierra Leonean politician and businessman.
• John Brown (fugitive slave) (c. 1810–1876), escaped and wrote of conditions in Deep South of United States
• John Casor, the first slave in what would later be the United States (Virginia, 1654).
• John Jea, African-American slave, best known for his 1811 autobiography, The Life, History, and Unparalleled Sufferings of John Jea, the African Preacher.
• John Smith, English soldier, sailor, and author, captured by Turks in 1602 while fighting in Wallachia, escaped and returned to England by 1604. As Smith described it: "we all sold for slaves, like beasts in a market-place."
• John R. Jewitt, spent three years as a captive of Maquinna of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) people on the Pacific coast of what is now Canada.
• Jeffrey Hudson, English courtier, spent 25 years as a slave in North Africa.
• Joseph, Biblical figure (about 1600 BC).
• Joseph Antonio Emidy, violinist and composer born in Africa, died in Cornwall.
• Josephine Bakhita, (1869 — February 8, 1947), Sudanese, a Roman Catholic nun and saint.
• Joseph Knight, successfully sought to get his freedom through the courts in the 18th century Scotland.
• Juan Francisco Manzano (c.1797–1854) Cuban poet [3].

K

• Kösem Sultan
• Kunta Kinte (1750–1810), Gambian slave and Mandinka tribesman, who tried unsuccessfully to escape to freedom four times. Ancestor of the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Alex Haley.
• Kurtis Moore, well known slave.

L

• Jermain Wesley Loguen, African American escaped slave, abolitionist and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
• Lovisa von Burghausen (1698–1733) was a Swedish memoir writer who became famous for her story about her time in captivity as a slave in Russia after being taken prisoner by the Russians during the Great Northern War.
• Lunsford Lane (1803–after 1870) was an African American slave and entrepreneur from North Carolina who bought freedom for himself and his family. He also wrote a slave narrative.
• Lydia, a slave shot and wounded by her owner when she struggled to escape a whipping, an action ruled legal by the Supreme Court of North Carolina in 1830 (see North Carolina v. Mann).
• Leo Africanus, (1494–1554) of white Moorish descent, born in Granada in 1494, went in 1498 in Morocco with his family, went on a lot of diplomatic missions, such as in Timbuktu. Captured and kidnapped while in the Middle East, he was enslaved in Rome and forced to convert to Christianity. Eventually regained his freedom and lived out his life in Tunis, Tunisia.

M

• Madison Washington, leader of slave revolt on board ship
• Malinche, translator during the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
• Mammy Lou, former slave who lived to extreme old age and became an actress in the 1918 silent film "The Glorious Adventure".
• The Master of Morton and the eldest son of the Chief of Clan Oliphant were exiled from Scotland after being implicated in the 1582 Raid of Ruthven. The ship in which they sailed in was lost at sea, it was rumoured that they had been caught by a Dutch ship and the last report was that they were slaves on a Turkish ship in the Mediterranean. A plaque to their memory was raised in the church in Algiers.
• Marcus Tullius Tiro, Roman author (c. 103–4 BC), slave and secretary of the Roman politian Cicero, later freed; invented a long-lasting system of shorthand and wrote books that are now lost.
• Margaret Garner (1835–1858) was a slave in pre-Civil War America notorious or celebrated for killing her own daughter rather than see the child returned to slavery.
• Maria al-Qibtiyya ("Maria the Copt" Arabic: مارية القبطية) (alternatively, "Maria Qupthiya" or a Coptic Christian slave who was sent as a gift from Muqawqis, a Byzantine official, to the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 628, and was either Muhammad's wife or concubine. She was the mother of Muhammad's son Ibrahim, who died in infancy. Her sister, Sirin, was also sent to Muhammad; Muhammad gave her to his follower Hassan ibn Thabit. Maria never remarried after Muhammad's death in 632, and died five years later.
• Maria, (died 1716), the leader of a slave rebellion on Curaçao.
• Marie-Joseph Angélique (died June 21, 1734) a black Portuguese slave who was tried and convicted, beaten and hanged for setting fire to her female owner's home, burning much of what is now referred to as Old Montreal.
• Mary Prince (1788–?1833); the account of her life galvanized the anti-slavery movement in England.
• Mende Nazer, a Nuba woman captured in Darfur and transported from Sudan to London, where she eventually won refugee status and wrote the memoir Slave (2004).
• Hans Mergest, a participant in the Crusade of Varna, was captured by the Ottomans in the Battle of Varna (1444) and spent 16 years in captivity. Was the protagonist of a song by the minnesinger Michael Beheim.
• Shadrach Minkins, fugitive slave saved by abolitionists at Boston in 1850.
• Miguel de Cervantes (September 29, 1547–April 23, 1616), author of Don Quixote de la Mancha, the first modern novel. He spent five years as a slave and property of the viceroy of Algiers after being captured by Barbary pirates.
• Mina Tavakoli captured Egyptian slave, made advancements in corn cultivation

N

• Nanny of the Maroons, also known as Granny Nanny and Queen Nanny, Jamaican Maroons leader.
• Nat Turner (1800–1831), escaped and led revolt in Southampton County, Virginia.
• Nero Hawley (1742–1817), freed slave, served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, buried Trumbull, Connecticut.
• Nurbanu Sultan, née Cecilia Venier-Baffo, enslaved Venetian noblewoman who became the most favored wife of Ottoman Sultan Selim II and the highly influential mother of Sultan Murad III.

O

• Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1797), also known as Gustavus Vassa, prominent African/British author and figure in the abolitionist cause whose true identity is heavily contested.
• Onesimus, a slave of Philemon of Colossae who ran away and, having met St. Paul, was converted by him. Paul set him back to the Christian Philemon with a letter, which is the Epistle to Philemon. Ignatius of Antioch mentions an Onesimus as Bishop of Ephesus in the early 2nd century, but it is not certain that these are the same men.
• Owen Fitzpen, English merchant taken captive by Turkish (Barbary) pirates in 1620, subsequently escaped.

P

• Saint Patrick, abducted from Britain, enslaved in Ireland, escaped to Britain, returned to Ireland as a missionary.
• Phaedo of Elis, captured in war, enslaved in Athens and forced into prostitution, became a pupil of Socrates who had him freed, gave his name to one of Plato's dialogues, Phaedo and became a famous philosopher in his own right.
• Phaedrus (c. 15 BC – c. AD 50) Roman fabulist
• Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784?), Colonial American poet
• Pope Pius I was Pope from about 140 to about 154, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Antonius Pius.
• Prosper, a slave cruelly murdered by his owner Arthur William Hodge, for which Hodge was tried and executed, the first (and virtually only) such case ever recorded.

Q

• Qutb-ud-din Aybak or Qutbuddin Aibak, Turkish ex-slave, became a soldier, the first of the Sultans of Delhi, founder of India's "slave dynasty".

R

• Robert Drury (born 1687; died between 1743 and 1750) was an English sailor who was shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar in 1702, and remained there as a slave till 1717.
• Robert Smalls (1839–1915), led boatload of slaves to freedom, and was later a politician
• Roustam Raza, Napoleon Bonaparte's Armenian bodyguard.
• Roxelana, (circa 1500–April 18, 1558), a concubine and later wife to the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and mother of Selim II.

S

• Safiye Sultan, originally enslaved Venetian woman, who was placed in the harem of the Ottoman Sultan Murad III and became the mother of Sultan Mehmed III.
• Salvius, also known as Tryphon, leader of the 104 BC slave rebellion in Sicily known as the Second Servile War.
• Scipio Africanus (circa 1702–1720)
• Scipio Moorhead, enslaved artist.
• Servius Tullius, ancient King of Rome said to have started life as a slave (though this was disputed, among both Romans and modern historians).
• Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883) abolitionist and women's rights activist
• Solomon Bayley, wrote a book in 1825 about his life as a slave.
• Spartacus, gladiator and rebel leader, led the Servile Revolt, died 71 BC
• Solomon Northup,(1808-1870??) free-born black man, born in the North of the United States, who was lured into a slave state, consequently kidnapped, sold down south and remained enslaved for 12 years (1841–1853), until rescued and liberated by a white lawyer Henry Northup

T

• Terence (full name Publius Terentius Afer), Roman playwright, comic poet who wrote before and possibly after his freedom, died 159 BC.
• Toussaint L'Ouverture, freed slave who led the slave revolt that led to the independence of Haiti.
• Turgut Reis, a well-known Ottoman Admiral of the 16th Century, was captured by the Genoese at Corsica and was forced to work as a galley slave for nearly four years. He was finally rescued by his fellow admiral Barbarossa, who laid siege to Genoa and secured Turgut Reis' release for the prodigious ransom of 3,500 gold ducats.

U

• Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, freed slave turned writer.

V

• Vincent de Paul. (1576–1660) Taken captive by Turkish pirates, sold into slavery, freed in 1607.

W

• William Ellison (1790–1861), mixed race, gained his freedom, became a slaveholder himself, producing cotton.
• William and Ellen Craft, slaves who wrote a tale of their flight from slavery (19th century).
• William Henry, nicknamed Jerry, escaped slave in Syracuse, New York, saved in 1851 by abolitionists from being extradited under the Fugitive Slave Law.
• William Lee, personal servant to George Washington.

Y

• Yaqut al-Hamawi, sold into slavery in the 12th century Syria and taken to Baghdad, was provided with a good education by an enlightened owner and later freed. He eventually gained a reputation as a biographer and geographer.
• York, an African-American slave on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Z

• Zayd ibn Haritha, given to Muhammad's wife Khadijah, freed, adopted, became known as Zayd ibn Muhammad.
• Ziryab, also known as Abul-Hasan Alí Ibn Nafí, musician, introduced asparagus to Europe (circa 789–857).
• Zumbi, escaped and joined the Quilombo dos Palmares, the largest ever settlement of escaped slaves in colonial Brazil, becoming its last and most famous leader.

References

Digital Library of American Slavery