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Slavery in the British Isles existed and was recognised from before the Roman occupation until the 12th century, when chattel slavery virtually disappeared after the Norman Conquest and was replaced by feudalism and serfdom.〔.〕 From the 17th century until well into the 19th century, transportation to the colonies as a criminal or an indentured servant served as punishment for both major and petty crimes in England and Ireland. During the same period, workhouses employed people whose poverty left them no other alternative than to work under forced labour conditions. British merchants were among the largest participants in the Atlantic slave trade. Ship owners transported enslaved West Africans to the New World to be sold into slave labour. The ships brought commodities back to Britain then exported goods to Africa. After a long campaign for abolition led by William Wilberforce, Parliament prohibited the practice by passing the Slave Trade Act 1807 which was enforced by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron. Britain used its influence to persuade other countries around the world to abolish the slave trade and sign treaties to allow the Royal Navy to interdict their ships. Somersett's case in 1772 held that no slave could be forcibly removed from Britain. This case was generally taken at the time to have decided that the condition of slavery did not exist under English law, and emancipated the remaining ten to fourteen thousand slaves or possible slaves in England and Wales, who were mostly domestic servants.〔Heward, Edmund (1979). Lord Mansfield: A Biography of William Murray 1st Earl of Mansfield 1705–1793 Lord Chief Justice for 32 years. p.141. Chichester: Barry Rose (publishers) Ltd. ISBN 0-85992-163-8〕 However slavery elsewhere in the British Empire was not affected. Joseph Knight's case in 1778 established a similar position in Scots law. Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, with exceptions provided for the East India Company, Ceylon, and Saint Helena. These exceptions were eliminated in 1843.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Slavery Abolition Act 1833; Section LXIV )〕 The prohibition on slavery and servitude is now codified under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights, incorporated into United Kingdom law by the Human Rights Act 1998 and Republic of Ireland law by the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003. Article 4 of the Convention also bans forced or compulsory labour, with some exceptions such as a criminal penalty or military service. ==Before 1066== From before Roman times, slavery was normal in Britannia, with slaves being routinely exported.〔Strabo, Geographica book 4 chapter 5: Britain, Ireland, and Thule. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/4E *.html "It bears grain, cattle, gold, silver, and iron. These things, accordingly, are exported from the island, as also hides, and slaves, and dogs"〕〔Museum of Wales. Artefacts from Llyn Cerrig Bach. Gang Chain (Slave Chain) http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/2369/〕 Slavery continued as an accepted part of society under the Roman Empire and after; Anglo-Saxons continued the slave system, sometimes in league with Norse traders often selling slaves to the Irish.〔(Slave Trading in Anglo-Saxon and Viking England )〕 In the early 5th century the Romano-Briton Saint Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland. St. Brigit, a patron saint of Ireland, was herself the daughter of Brocca, a Christian Brythonic Pict and slave in Ireland who had been baptised by Saint Patrick. Early Irish law makes numerous reference to slaves and semi-free ''sencléithe''. A female slave (''cumal'') was often used as a unit of value, e.g. in expressing the honour price of people of certain classes. From the 9th to the 12th century Dublin in particular was a major slave trading center which led to an increase in slavery.〔''The Historical encyclopedia of world slavery'', Volume 1; Volume 7 By Junius P. Rodriguez ABC-CLIO, 1997〕 In 870, Vikings besieged and captured the stronghold of Alt Clut (the capital of the Kingdom of Strathclyde) and in 871 took most of the site's inhabitants, most likely by Olaf the White and Ivar the Boneless, to the Dublin slave markets.〔 Maredudd ab Owain (d. 999) paid a large ransom for 2,000 Welsh slaves,〔 which demonstrates the large-scale slave raiding upon the British Isles. Vikings traded with the Gaelic, Pictish, Brythonic and Saxon kingdoms in between raiding them for slaves.〔 The legacy of Viking raids can be seen in the DNA of the Icelandic people. Recent evidence suggests that approximately 60% of the Icelandic maternal gene pool is derived from Scotland and Ireland, which is much higher than other Scandinavian countries, although comparable to the Faroe Islands.〔http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1287529/〕 Some of the earliest accounts of the Anglo-Saxon English comes from the account of the fair-haired boys from York seen in Rome by Pope Gregory the Great. In the 7th century the English slave Balthild rose to be queen of the Frankish king Clovis II. Anglo-Saxon opinion turned against the sale of English abroad: a law of Ine of Wessex stated that anyone selling his own countryman, whether bond or free, across the sea, was to pay his own weregild in penalty, even when the man so sold was guilty of crime.〔H. R. Loyn, ''Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest'', 2nd ed. 1991:90.〕 Nevertheless, legal penalties and economic pressures that led to default in payments maintained the supply of slaves, and in the 11th century there was still a slave trade operating out of Bristol, as a passage in the ''Vita Wulfstani'' makes clear.〔Noted by Loyn 1991:90 note 39.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Slavery in the British Isles」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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