Talk:History of slavery in Alabama

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Scope of article

Slavery also existed in Mobile, established by the French in 1702, and other French and Spanish settlements in what became the state of Alabama in 1819.

By the 1790s some Creek and other Indians were slaveholders, as were many of the Anglo-Americans who had settled among them even before the Mississippi Territory was organized.

Before European settlement, slavery existed among indigenous peoples of the Southeast, although it was unlike the chattel slavery later imposed on Africans and their descendants. War captives could be enslaved. The condition was not necessarily permanent. I think this material belongs in this article, but am concerned that it not be used to minimize the significance of African slavery in Alabama history — which was much greater.

A case has been made that the convict lease system that operated in Alabama until the 1940s also constituted a form of slavery in all but name. I don't think this can be dismissed as a fringe theory, so it should be dealt with here as well. — ℜob C. alias ᴀʟᴀʀoʙ 00:15, 8 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]