# Earliest abolitionists

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-abolitionists/719460>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 7, 2015, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-abolitionists/719460 "2015-05-07T07:18:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-abolitionists/719460/1 "2015-05-07T07:18:04Z")

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Question is inspired by _Game of Thrones_, some mouseover space for a mild spoiler;

In the show, set in a medieval fantasy world, one of the characters [Daenerys Targaryen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGRyZSMzRyo) is a staunch abolitionist in a violent John Brown kinda way and grants manumission to any slaves she comes across. Got me thinking - how much of an anachronism would this have been in reality? Someone who thought the institution of slavery was an evil that should be destroyed in a world full of it?

Obviously the 19th century is when abolitionism got its legs - were there significant figures for the movement long before that, even in antiquity?

The earliest I can find, hopefully you can help me find some more, is [Gregory of Nyssa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_of_Nyssa#Anthropology), a bishop who lived in the fourth century and condemned slavery in religious terms (much as the more famous abolitionists like Wilberforce and indeed Brown would centuries later).

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**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-abolitionists/719460/2 "2015-05-07T07:54:27Z")

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Are we limited to Americans, and the “modern” institution of slavery? If not, I’d toss in Cyrus the Great of the Achaemanids and Wang Mang of the Chinese, both of whom abolished it.

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**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-abolitionists/719460/3 "2015-05-07T08:08:25Z")

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> [@Recusant](#):
>
> Are we limited to Americans, and the “modern” institution of slavery? If not, I’d toss in Cyrus the Great of the Achaemanids and Wang Mang of the Chinese, both of whom abolished it.

By no means, these were the kind of examples I was looking for. Particularly Wang Mang who I wasn’t familiar with, looks like he was forced to repeal the abolition of slavery which must have been a bit…awkward.