Slavery in Africa differed in some dramatic ways from the new forms of slavery that developed in the New World. One of the starkest differences had to do with racial composition. While most people think of slavery in terms of the New World Model, where a dominant racial group enslaved a minority racial group, African slavery was somewhat different. For many centuries, the slaveholders and the slaves were both black Africans. However, these individuals would often come from different ethnic groups within their region, or from different tribes. Still, there was not the intense racial divide that characterized slavery before the Civil War in the United States.

In addition, slavery in Africa mostly developed through warfare. Quite often, the winning group in a war would take captives, and those captives would serve as slaves for the group that won. This did not so much happen in America. By the time slavery came to the New World, a highly developed slave trading system had been instituted between Africa and the Americas. Under this system of slave trading, the people who acquired slaves in the New World did so by purchasing the rights to those slaves. Some of this happened in Africa, as well, but taking captive slaves through war was mostly how slave populations were generated on the African continent.

Another central difference had to do with the long-term prospectus of slaves in each part of the world. While it is not fair to say that slaves were treated “better” in one place or the other –slavery was a brutal practice both in Africa and the New World – there was an opportunity for more advancement for the slave who lived in Africa. In some cases, slaveowners bought slaves in Africa with the hopes of having that slave one day become a part of his family. In many parts of Africa, slaves were given more responsibility. They were offered, at times, the ability to work in the military of a developing nation. In the New World, slaves were mostly used like farming equipment. They were expendable. The slaveowners only valued their contributions to completing menial work, and did not truly see a future for the slave as anything other than a resource to be used up as the slaveowner saw fit.

Slavery, in its many forms, had some differences from the types of servitude that one might have seen in Europe during the Middle Ages and slightly after. “Serfdom,” as it became known, was a process by which people were allowed to live on and work the land that was owned by a king. Under this hierarchy, there were enforcers that ensured that the people paid appropriate taxes and that they stayed loyal to the king and their lord through the process. These people were quite often tied to the land, and they depended significantly on their betters for protection. During this time, things were somewhat unsettled, and if they did not have this protection, they could either starve, be robbed, or be killed. This system in many respects took the form of ancient racketeering, with those who had power putting life pressure on the people who did not, forcing them to work the land for the betterment of those with power.

While this was not officially slavery, it came with some of the basic features of slavery. These people had little option but to stay in one place and work. That, too, was a central feature of real slavery around the world. There were some differences, of course. The people working under the feudal system did not have their every moment monitored, and their schedules were not as rigid. Likewise, they were given slightly more autonomy, even if the ultimate result – them working the same plot of land – was the same as under newer forms of slavery.