By the late eighteenth century, European law recognized only what kinds of people as slaves?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

By the late eighteenth century, European law recognized only Africans or people of African descent as slaves. This was due to the transatlantic slave trade, which saw millions of Africans forcibly transported to the Americas to work as enslaved labor. While debt servitude and other forms of unfree labor existed in Europe, they were not classified as slavery under the law. Similarly, while serfdom was a common form of labor in Eastern Europe, it was not recognized as slavery by European law. Finally, while social inequality was certainly a feature of European society, being born into the non-noble classes did not automatically mean one was a slave.

By the Late Eighteenth Century, European Law Recognized Only What