Slavery in ancient Egypt

The word translated as "slave" from the Egyptian language does not neatly align with modern terms or traditional labor roles. Egyptian texts refer to words 'bꜣk' and 'ḥm' that mean laborer or servant. Some Egyptian language refers to slave-like people as 'sqr-ꜥnḫ', meaning "living prisoner; prisoner of war". Forms of forced labor and servitude are seen throughout all of ancient Egypt. Egyptians wanted dominion over their kingdoms and would alter political and social ideas to benefit their economic state. The existence of slavery not only was profitable for ancient Egypt, but made it easier to keep power and stability of the kingdoms.

History

Old Kingdom

During the Old Kingdom Period, prisoners of war captured by the Egyptian army were called sqr.w-ꜥnḫ ("living prisoners"; the root meaning of sqr is "strike; hit," thus nominalized as "(one who has been) struck down"). This was not a distinct term for "slave" but for prisoners of war, as already stated. The term, 'ḥm', emerged with at least two distinct usages: 1) "Laborer" and 2) "Servant". Documented evidence exists as early as the reign of Sneferu, in the 26th century BC, war campaigns in the territory of Nubia, in which war-captives would be labeled skrw-ꜥnḫ - and Libyans all of whom would be used to perform labour—regardless of their will otherwise—or – if warranted, would be conscripted into the military.

Reliefs from this period depict captured prisoners of war with their hands tied behind their backs. Nubia was targeted—because of its close geographical proximity, cultural similarity, and competitiveness in imperial dominion, and then the scope of campaigns intended to acquire foreign war captives expanded to Libya and Asia. Local Egyptians also entered into servitude due to an unstable economy and debts. Officials who abused their power could also be reduced to servitude.

First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom

During the First Intermediate Period, slaves were first defined as men with dignity but remained treated as property. When borrowed money owed to wealthier individuals in Egyptian society could not be paid back, family members – especially women – were sold in return into slavery. During the Middle Kingdom, records show that coerced laborers included conscripts (hsbw), fugitives (tsjw), and royal laborers (hmw-nsw). The Reisner Papyrus and El Lahun papyri depict prisoners being employed in state enterprises. Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446 also shows forced labor being performed on arable state land.

Slaves, especially of Levantine origin were grouped in ghetto camps to perform labor for the state where they lived in harsh conditions, often including beating by their masters. The term for "male Asiatic" in ancient Egyptian language became synonymous with "slave".

If an individual coerced into labor attempted to escape or was absent from their work, they might be condemned to coerced labor for life. One of the Lahun papyri describes an example of this occurring: "Order issued by the Great Prison in year 31, third month of the summer season, day 5, that he be condemned with all his family to labor for life on state land, according to the decision of the court." Military expeditions continued to reduce Asiatics to slavery, and state-owned slaves (royal laborers) shared in the same status as these Asiatic slaves.

Asiatics could often have Egyptian names but sometimes inscriptions or papyri mentioning them would still apply an ethnic qualification, such as one which mentions an "Asiatic Aduna and her son Ankhu". Both Asiatics and state-owned slaves could perform a variety of jobs: "We find royal laborers employed as fieldworkers, house servants, and cobblers; female laborers as hairdressers, gardeners, and weavers." If a household servant failed to adequately perform their job, they could be dismissed from the home they worked at. In some cases, servants appear to have become emotionally important to their household as depicted on the Cairo Bowl.

Second Intermediate Period and New Kingdom

One of the Berlin papyri show that by the time of the Second Intermediate Period, a slave could be owned by both an elite individual (like the king) and a community. In addition, the community had grown in power and now held the capacity to own and administer to public property, including that of slaves, replacing some of the traditional power of the king and his private royal laborers. By this period, slaves could also sometimes become citizens. One method by which this could happen was through marriage.

During the New Kingdom period, the military and its expenses grew and so additional coerced labor was needed to sustain it. As such, the "New Kingdom, with its relentless military operations, is the epoch of large-scale foreign slavery". Many more slaves were also acquired via the Mediterranean slave market, where Egypt was the main purchaser of international slaves. This Mediterranean market appears to have been controlled by Asiatic Bedouin who would capture individuals, such as travelers, and sell them on the market.

The tomb of Ahmose I contains a biographical text which depicts several boasts regarding the capture of foreign Asiatic slaves. Egyptian servants were treated more humanely as employees, whereas foreign slaves were the objects of trade. The foreigners captured during military campaigns are, for example, referred to in the Annals of Thutmose III as "men in captivity" and individuals were referred to as "dependents" (mrj). In reward for his services in the construction of temples across Egypt, Thutmose III rewarded his official Minmose over 150 "dependents".

During and after the reign of Amenhotep II, coerced temple labor was only performed by male and female slaves. At Medinet Habu, defeated Sea Peoples are recorded as having been captured as prisoners of war and reduced to slavery. During this period, slaves could sometimes be rented. One manuscript known as Papyrus Harris I records Ramses III claiming to have captured innumerable foreign slaves:

"I brought back in great numbers those that my sword has spared, with their hands tied behind their backs before my horses, and their wives and children in tens of thousands, and their livestock in hundreds of thousands. I imprisoned their leaders in fortresses bearing my name, and I added to them chief archers and tribal chiefs, branded and enslaved, tattooed with my name, their wives and children being treated in the same way."

In the Adoption Papyrus, the term "slave"/"servant" is contrasted with the term "free citizen (nmhj) of the land of the pharaoh". Often, the phrase nmhj traditionally refers to an orphan or poor. Methods by which slaves could attain their freedom included marriage or entering temple service (being "purified"). The latter is depicted in, for example, the Restoration Stela of Tutankhamen. Ramesside Egypt saw a development in the institution of slavery where slaves could now become objects of private (rather than just public) property, and they could be bought and sold. Slaves themselves could now own some property and had a few legal protections, although they were not many.

Ptolemaic Kingdom

Slavery in Ptolemaic Egypt was supplied through warfare, purchase, debt enslavement, and birth, though the latter was likely limited. The Zenon papyri indicate that slaves were primarily imported from Syria and Israel, particularly coastal cities such as Tyre and Gaza, which hosted active slave markets. The widespread capture and sale of free Syrians into slavery led Ptolemy II Philadelphus to issue a decree addressing the practice, highlighting its scale and persistence. Prices varied widely in the 3rd century BCE, ranging from about 50 to 300 drachmas for female slaves and roughly 112 to 150 drachmas for males, with higher values in major markets such as Alexandria. The state imposed taxes on slave imports, sales, and manumissions, but there is no clear evidence of a general ownership tax. Slaves could be transferred as debt payments, were carefully described for identification in transactions, and runaway slaves were actively pursued, often with rewards offered for their capture.

Roman Egypt

Much of what is known about slavery in Roman Egypt comes from papyri documenting slave sales, ownership, and legal disputes. Slave transactions were formally regulated, often including taxes, and guarantees against defects. Buyers and sellers were typically drawn from wealthier urban groups. Although slavery was an established institution, modern scholarship stresses that it coexisted with extensive free labor and should not be viewed as the dominant form of economic production in Roman Egypt.

According to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, an anonymous work written at around 60CE, the city of Opone on the Somali coast supplied Roman Egypt with "better-quality slaves, the greater number of which go to Egypt." According to the ancient writer Ptolemy:

"Besides aromatics, slaves of a superior description are exported from Opone, chiefly for the Egyptian markets."

A Roman document from the 6th century CE details the sale of a 12 year old Ethiopian slave-girl named Maura for 4 solidi in Hermopolis Magna.

Slaves from the Land of Punt

The Land of Punt maintained long-standing trade relations with Ancient Egypt in which a variety of goods were exchanged, including enslaved people. Pharaoh Djedkare is known to have kept a Congoid (pygmy) slave acquired through Punt at his court for entertainment, the young Pharaoh Pepi II was likewise intrigued by another Congoid slave procured through Punt.