"An international team of 70 specialist historians has traced the history of slavery for this enormous book: its beginnings in prehistory, its establishment in the ancient advanced civilizations, the invention of the slave trade in ancient Greece, slavery as a matter of course in ancient Rome, how Judaism, Christianity and Islam dealt with slavery, the gradual transition from slavery to other forms of servitude in the European Middle Ages, the revival of the slave trade and slavery with European colonization in Asia, Africa and America, the great period of the transatlantic slave trade until well into the 19th century. century. And they do not leave out slavery in China, Korea or the Islamic world.

They compare the various forms of slavery, the living conditions of the enslaved and the slave owners in different places at different times, the forms of economic and sexual exploitation, but also the rules that were repeatedly established by the state or religion. Last but not least, they also examine the forms of resistance of the enslaved and the methods used to break this resistance.

In doing so, they repeatedly try to define what exactly slavery means, where the boundaries are between slavery and other forms of exploitation of people by people, noting that racism - the assertion that members of groups of people have a different value - is a result of slavery and that there are definitely modern forms of enslavement.

Finally, they also address the legacy left by transatlantic slavery in particular - the old traumas, desires for revenge here and feelings of guilt there - a legacy that has come back into the public consciousness in many places around the world these days." (Publisher)