How did people in Ancient Greece become slaves?

Answer 1

Slaves came from a variety of sources:

Captives taken in war

Convicted criminals

Born slaves (The children of slaves)

Debtors

Orphans

These groups of people were eiher forced into slavery (eg captives taken in war) or sold themselves into slavery (eg if they were debtors), when their new masters paid their debts for them.

There are quite emotive attitudes towards slavery in the Roman Empire, because we always see the Roman slave through the eyes of modern-day slavery (eg that seen in the USA in the 1700s, and the Slave Trade) which was a shameful episode in human history. However, the Roman - and Biblical - idea of slavery was very different.

This may now sound very controversial, but in Roman times, provided a slave was owned by a good master or mistress (which was very common) being a slave was often seen as a reasonably good life. Many were actually proud of their slave status. Slaves, as someone's "property", had rights in law, were often given great responsibility within a household (such as a 'butler', housekeeper, etc), often had other staff under them and were given protection (both physically and lawfully) that they would otherwise not have had if they had been sent, say, to a debtors' prison or made, as a war prisoner, to fight in the arena, or even if they had ended up on the streets as a casual labourer. Casual workers, on the other hand, were not given these same rights, and for them, slavery was seen as an upward step socially.

Whilst these days the very thought of a person being 'owned' by another is abhorrent, in Roman society this was part of their culture and accepted. And, as a result, slaves, on the whole, were well-treated in the same way as someone today would treat a prize possession like a car (automobile). Good motorists make sure it's serviced, topped up with fluids, clean, the tyres are legal and so on as it is an expensive commodity to replace. In the same way, slaves were treated on the whole, very well. Of course, there were bad and abusive owners, but, on the whole, these tended to be the exception rather than the rule. In fact, being in slavery in those days was similar to being 'in service' in Victorian times.

The Romans also practised a slave ransom system whereby a slave could either purchase his freedom (say, by paying his debts if he was once a debtor), or by marrying out of slavery, or by his freedom being granted by his master for good deeds performed or a host of other reasons. In Jewish Law, as an example, Jewish slaves were all released every seventh ("Jubilee") year.

So while we see slavery today as a horrid episode in human history, we must be careful not to see Roman history and culture through 21st century eyes. Slavery, in the possession of a human by another, is very wrong, but we must realise that the the actual day-to-day existence of a Roman slave was not as wretched as we might think.

Answer 2

There were several ways the people in the Roman empire became slaves. Many slaves were prisoners of war or people from the provinces who were sold into slavery. Those convicted of crimes could also be sentenced to slavery, as well as people unable to pay their debts. Family members were sometimes sold into slavery to preserve the family, and there were instances of people selling themselves into slavery in order to survive. Generally speaking, ancient peoples became slaves of ancient empires in the same manner. For example, ancient Persia and ancient Egypt had a slave population.

Even in The Bible, there are passages on how to treat slaves.