To clarify, I’m doing some personal research on the history of slavery as I have a very general and limited knowledge on the subject and it is a topic that is brought up frequently it seems in casual to deep political conversations around me. I don’t have enough information to properly form opinions in many areas concerning this topic
I’ve tried googling but everything is extremely american-centric or in reference to Greece/Rome or the Caribbeans when I know many other periods of slavery existed and in many other societies
I’m also interested in pin pointing some of the worst cases of its existence throughout history (even if that includes current human trafficking)
I love reading so big books would be fantastic and I’d really, idealistically, like to find anything that covers from as far back as possible, to as current as possible
Thanks everyone in advance!
Outcasts of the Gods, by Hazel Petrie, covers Māori slavery in New Zealand; mostly in the early colonial period, and how Europeans interacted with it with their own contexts and mental pictures of 'slavery'. It's pretty good. It's quite thematic, so it has some quite sudden odd jumps in subject time and place (that might be especially hard to follow if you don't have the context for NZ history), and occasionally it's oddly apologetic, but at the same time it's a very valuable collection of material from a wide range of sources (it's pretty well illustrated too).
It's a relatively recent work too, so the bibliography's good too: lots of general works on slavery.
I suspect the biggest problem with it for you would be that I doubt many libraries outside the country bothered buying it, so it might be more hassle than it's worth getting your hands on it.
The book you want is Orlando Patterson's Slavery and Social Death which is a comparative study looking at slavery as a concept through many different times and regions. Its a great work, generally, and pretty foundational to boot. For me, I'd go so far as to say it was pretty transformative in how I understand the concept. Can't recommend highly enough.
Have you checked out the booklist yet? For instance, this section on American Aboriginal history has The Other Slavery, on the native slave trade in the Spanish Empire, and Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society.