A Study On The Evolution Of The Status Of Slaves In Northern Sudan(1821-1936)

The use of slaves in Northern Sudan predates the conquest of the Turco-Egyptian government.During the period of the kingdom of Fenj and Darfur in Sudan,slaves were only used by the royal family and the elite.As the privilege of the minority,they represented the noble social status.However,slaves were prominent among the elite during this period,and they mostly served bureaucrats and military institutions.The conquest of Muhammad Ali brought the history of Sudan into the period of Turco-Egyptian rule.In the early days,the Turco-Egyptian government,European businessmen and jallaba devoted themselves to hunting slaves.Muhammad Ali and his successors seized slaves to build a loyal slave army,in which Jihadiyya played an important role.The frenzied plunder of slaves by merchants originated from the lucrative slave trade.During this period,the subject of slaves changed from military or bureaucratic aristocracy to professional military slaves.In 1863,Ismail took power in Egypt and began to restore his grandfather’s strong rule over Sudan.After the signing of Anglo-Egyptian Slave Trade Convention,the export of slaves was controlled by the government.Most of the slaves in the market were hoarded in Northern Sudan,and the slave owners expanded to most free people.The increase in the number of slaves contributed to the beginning and popularization of domestic slaves in Sudan.Slaves were engaged in many occasions,such as family,agriculture,factories and so on.In the process of being enslaved,slaves realized the integration of themselves and society,adapted to and accepted their own identity,and developed a lazy social concept under the influence of slave owners.During this period,the subject of slaves changed from military slaves to domestic slaves.The Mahdi uprising in 1881 caused devastating damage to slave agriculture.During the Mahdi period,the export of slaves to Egypt was prohibited,male slaves were forced to join the army,and the slave labor force needed for agricultural production was greatly reduced.Famine occurred frequently during this period.The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium absorbed the lessons of the strong slave prohibition movement during the period of the rule of Egypt,adopted the gradual emancipation policy in the early stage,and steadily restored the destroyed slave agricultural production in the northern region.The emancipation process of slaves in the early period of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium was slow.A series of policies issued by the government objectively allowed male slaves to stay with the slave owners,while the emancipation of female slaves was slow due to the complexity of their status as concubines or mothers.In 1914,under the background of the efforts of Diggle and the Anti slavery Association and the famine in Danaqla and other areas,the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium began the slave liberation movement in essence.Male slaves found paid jobs in various public works projects,while female slaves were still fighting for their own freedom.In Northern Sudan during this period,the overall status of slaves was gradually changing from domestic slaves engaged in production to free men.