Solon
Solon outlawed debt slavery which is when people with severe debt would sell themselves into slavery to get out of debt.
Solon
He Abolished Debt Slavery in Athens. I think He did this in 594 or 593 B.C. Not exactly sure which though.
His reform affected only his city-state of Athens. He eliminated debt slavery, bought back the farmers who had been sold as slaves, established a more equitable balance between aristocracy and lower classes.
The were sold as slaves to other cities to pay for the debt.
Debt bondage is a form of modern day slavery.
Solon was appointed to counter the friction, and threat of revolution, between upper and lower classes mainly over debt slavery. He solved this problem, but it had little to do with democracy which is the people at large controlling government. That did not happen for another 90 year under the active leadership of Cleisthenes in 507 BCE who brought in an assembly where landowners, big and small, passed legislation.
All countries have some sort of debt.
war, debt, crime
He had to walk a careful middle line - to reduce the power of the aristocracy without going too far, and adding benefits to the lower classes, again without bringing retribution form the aristocracy. It was too much for one side and too little fro the other.
They were sold into foreign slavery to pay for the debt. It was part of Solon's reforms in the early sixth century to cancel debts and recover these people where possible.