Life in Slavery Trivia Quiz

Answer: Wang Mang

Wang Mang's rule (09-23 CE), the Xia Dynasty, broke the Han Dynasty into a former period and a latter period. Before claiming the throne for himself, he had served as regent for more than one infant Emperor of the Han Dynasty. Described as China's first "socialist" leader, Wang Mang's abolishment of slavery (through a extremely high tax on slave owners) was part of a broader program of social and economic reform that included government appropriation of "excessive" land from wealthy landowners and redistribution of the land poorer peasants.

Historians' opinions are mixed on whether Wang Mang acted more from a concern for the less fortunate or a desire to enrich imperial coffers. Slaves during the Han and Xia Dynasties made up about 1% of the population of China, a lower percentage than many other ancient societies.

In ancient China, there were both privately owned slaves and government owned slaves. Due to a high-level of pushback, Wang Mang reinstated slavery in 12 CE. Discontent among the peasants with his policies led to rebellion breaking out in 17 CE, culminating in Wang Mang's overthrow and execution in 23 CE.

Although Shi Huangdi, Han Feizi, and Pu Yi were all Chinese Emperors, none of the three ruled or even were living during the first century CE.

Answer: Helots

In Laconia (the Greek city-state that included Sparta), a very large majority of the population were Helots. According to Herodotus, in the Fifth Century BCE, the ration was about seven Helots for each free citizen. Because of past rebellions by the Helots and fear of future rebellions, Spartan culture and society evolved in a very military direction. All free Spartan males were trained to be warriors and Spartan girls were raised to bear future warriors.

The Helots were assigned the non-military tasks. Metics was a term that described foreign-born residents of Athens (Attica). Plebians were the non-patrician portion of the Roman Republic.

The Philistines were a people in the ancient Middle East.

Answer: Janissaries

Established in the late 14th century CE, the Janissaries were disbanded in the early 19th century CE. The original Janissaries were kidnapped Christians who were converted to Islam and trained as soldiers. Atypically for slaves, the Janissaries were paid a salary.

However, other rights were restricted such as the ability to marry or engage in trade. Over time, the Janissaries became corrupt and participated in the overthrow and/or execution of more than one Sultan. The Janissaries underwent years of training, at first in archery, and later in firearms.

The Cossacks are a people in southern Russia who were known as skilled horsemen. The Carpathians are a mountain range in Eastern Europe. The Immortals were an elite military unit in ancient Persia.

Answer: Brazil

An exact number of enslaved people moved across the Atlantic in the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries is hard to determine--the opinion of historians suggest somewhere between 12 and 18 million. It is estimated that approximately five million went to Brazil.

It is also thought a majority of all immigrants to Brazil at this time were enslaved people (involuntary immigrants). Enslaved workers were an important part of several areas of the Brazilian economy at different times including sugar plantations in the seventeenth century and coffee plantations in the nineteenth century.

Interestingly, the impetus for the end of slavery in Brazil in 1888 came from the top down with Emperor Dom Pedro II playing a leading role. Soon after, this very popular ruler was overthrown in a palace coup.

Although many Brazilians (including soon the members of the coup itself) wanted Dom Pedro returned to the throne, the ex-Emperor himself had no interest in this and instead died in exile in 1891. While the other three countries all had enslaved populations, all received smaller numbers of enslaved people through the Middle Passage than Brazil.

Answer: Thrall

One could become a thrall in several ways: by being a prisoner of war, by being in debt and unable to pay, or by being born the child of a thrall. Though thralls were the lowest level on the social hierarchy, it was possible to the thrall to gain his/her freedom through manumission or sometimes purchasing his/her freedom. Thralls could be bought or sold, but did enjoy some legal protection from improper treatment. If a thrall gained his/her freedom, he/she would be considered a freedman/woman. Thralldom became less common in the Eleventh Century CE and was finally abolished in the fourteenth century CE.

In Scandinavian society, a Jarl or Eorl was a chieftan or nobleman (the English word "Earl" comes from this) and a Karl or Ceorl was a freeborn commoner. Daryl is a male name (one use is the character Daryl from "The Walking Dead" television series).

Answer: Maroons

The Spanish word "cimarron" (meaning wild or unruly) is thought by some to be the origin of the English word maroon. In some cases, maroons were newly enslaved people who were able to escape soon after arrival in the Caribbean from Africa. In other cases, maroons were descendants of African-born enslaved people.

In both cases, they lived in interior areas of the islands that were difficult to reach and often had limited resources such as water. In many cases, people of African descent would intermarry with indigenous populations.

While areas on smaller islands have been broken up, maroon communities still exist on larger islands even after the end of slavery.

Answer: United States

The American Colonization Society, founded in Washington, DC, in 1816, included among its membership prominent citizens of the United States such as Henry Clay and Roger B. Taney. The organization encouraged slave owners to manumit their enslaved people.

The freed slaves--due to a belief that free peoples of different races would not be able to co-exist in the same society--would then be resettled in Liberia. Liberia would gain its independence in 1847. With support from the United States, Liberia would maintain its independence through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when European imperialism spread of much of the rest of Africa.

The former slaves, in many cases, could trace their families several generations back in the United States and formed a political-economic elite in Liberia that controlled the country until the mid-twentieth century.

Answer: The introduction of Christianity to Ethiopia

Attempts to legally end slavery in Ethiopia dated back to the nineteenth century, though these were largely unsuccessful. Ethiopia's first attempt tojoin the League of Nations in 1919 was rejected because of concern from Great Britain and Italy over slavery in Ethiopia.

After Ethiopia signed the Covenant of Saint Germain (which sought to end slavery), Ethiopia was admitted. Surprisingly, when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, the Italian government passed two laws (in October 1935 and April 1936) outlawing slavery.

Italy would use these laws as public justification for invading Ethiopia. After Ethiopia was liberated by the Allies, Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, under pressure from the Allies, formerly outlawed slavery in 1942. Christianity and slavery co-existed in Ethiopia for well over 1,000 years.

Answer: Spartacus

The Three Servile Wars were a series of slave revolts in the Roman Republic. The revolt in the third war (73-71 BCE) was led by Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator. Biographical information about Spartacus is limited but it is believed that he was a former auxiliary soldier who worked for Rome who was later imprisoned and sold into slavery.

The Roman Senate would eventually send a large army under the command of Marcus Licinius Crassus to put down the rebellion, which ended with 6,000 rebels crucified along the famed Appian Way. Terence was a slave who gained his freedom in the second century BCE and became a playwright. Marcus Tiro was a slave who was the secretary of the Roman author/politician Cicero. Onesimus is a slave who Paul mentions in the Epistle to Philemon in the first century CE.

Answer: Thirteen

Slavery had been legally established in all thirteen colonies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During and after the Revolutionary War, the northern states would gradually (very gradually in some cases) would abolish slavery. In general the northern states had a smaller population of enslaved peoples. According to the 1790 US Census, the northern states had enslaved populations that were between 0.0% (Massachusetts and New Hampshire) and 6.3% (New York) of the total population. (Note that by 1790, Massachusetts and New Hampshire had already outlawed slavery.) In the southern states, the enslaved population was between 15.0% (Delaware) and 43.0% (South Carolina) of the total population.

Interestingly, the process of emancipation in New Jersey was extremely slow, beginning in 1804 and not finishing until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.