Slavery has been part of the history of humanity since the dawn of time. It predates any known written record of ancient civilization. The oldest civilizations that knew how to tax and license slavers are ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient China, as well as a few less ancient civilizations, the Roman Empire and the American colonies, to name a few- some. Slavery in Africa, however, existed in its earliest civilizations. . More than three thousand years ago, the Egyptians attacked neighboring societies and reduced prisoners of war to slavery. They bought them and then resold them at many sites across Egypt, but mainly along the Nile. The early Egyptians were the first to leave written records of their transactions, leading many scholars to believe that this had happened even earlier than the ancient Egyptians. So why did people become slaves to humans? Besides more timid laziness, this was one of the few ways for an ordinary person to become somewhat wealthy, and as in many other civilizations, wealth equals status. Slavery in Africa began like many other examples of slavery. You have two tribes at war with each other, one wins and takes the others captive and forces them to do your laborious work. These slaves had different tasks. Women often performed household chores at home or on the plantation, such as preparing food, washing clothes, and cleaning. They would also work on the agricultural crops that the owner would grow. The majority of men generally worked on plantations, cultivating fields and tending animals. When European empires began exploring, they discovered the New World, or North, Central, and South America. They set up settlements and began planting crops like tobacco and cotton. As demand rapidly increased in Europe for these pr...... middle of paper ......o paralleled any part of human history. And to truly understand how this affects Africa and its many lost generations, one must know the past and how it came to be so that one can truly know how it affects the present and how to prevent future monstrosities like this. Our history is marked by atrocious crimes, but none worse than the horrific act of enslaving other humans. So how was this possible? How could this last for so long and on such a scale? How did this affect the families of the time, the economy and the natural resources of the time? And how does this still affect many nations today? A crime like this has no parallel in any part of human history. And to truly understand how this affects Africa and its many lost generations, one must know the past and how it came to be so that one can truly know how it affects the present..