Slavery in Lebanon

Slavery existed in the territory of modern Lebanon until the 20th century. It was formally abolished by the French in 1931.

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Lebanon belonged to Ottoman Empire in 1516–1920. Slaves were imported from the Red Sea slave trade via Damascus, and from the Trans-Saharan slave trade via Egypt; there were also a small import of Caucasian (Circassian) women for the rich.[1] Eunuch boys and female slaves were used for domestic service in private households (harems).[1]

The Ottoman Empire issued decrees to restrict and gradually prohibit the slave trade and slavery between 1830 and 1909, but these laws were not strictly enforced in the Ottoman provinces.[2]

The Ottoman Empire introduced laws to gradually abolish the slave trade in the 19th century (1830–1909), but these laws were not executed in the Ottoman provinces. By the 1870s, the slave market in Beirut was conducted away from the public eye and mainly consisted of private importation and private sale.[1] In 1877, there were about 4,500 "negresses" in the private Muslim households in Beirut, with an average of 450 being imported annually, in addition to about 100 white (Circassian) women each year.[1]

Open slavery became defunct in practice when Lebanon and Syria was transformed in to the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (1923−1946), and on 20 July 1931, France ratified the 1926 Slavery Convention on behalf of both Syria and Lebanon, which was enforced on 25 June 1931.[3]

Many members of the Afro-Lebanese minority are descendants of the former slaves. After the abolition of slavery, poor migrant workers were employed under the Kafala system, which have been compared to slavery.[4]