First, I understand there are pretty broad definitions of “slavery.” So I’ll define “slavery” as the type of chattel slavery that was practiced in the southern U.S. before the Civil War. Which is to say: a boat load of captives pulls into port, at which point the captives are sold into slavery at auction, and thus into a lifetime of servitude. IOW, let’s not talk about economic policies that essentially made slaves of peasants, or indentured servitude, or under-the-table human trafficking that goes on today.
Second, I understand there are pretty broad definitions of “the fall of the Roman Empire.” So I mean “The fall of the Roman Empire in the West; the sacking of Rome by the Barbarians, etc.”
So, as I’ve defined the terms, was slavery ever legally practiced in Europe?
There was slavery in Sicily under Arab/Berber rule from around 800 AD-1000 AD. I believe that this continued under the Normans at least for some time after Count Roger arrived, although I think that Christian slaves were freed. There is an intertwined history here with Malta, which also has slavery at times. I can recall reading specifically that the Normans freed Christian slaves there, which suggests to me that the Muslim slaves remained so.
I’m sure someone will come along and correct me summarily if any of that is wrong.
And don’t forget that during much of the slave trade, England (and other European nations) owned the colonies and islands on which it was taking place. So if there wasn’t widespread importation of African slaves into England and Europe, it was mostly because there was no shortage of local labor that could be oppressed.
During the Baltic crusades the participants from all over Europe could buy Lithuanians (“Europe’s last Heathens”) at fixed prices. AFAIK their situation wasn’t that different from domestic non-free peasants at their destination, but they were really captured and sold.
Venice was a major slave port (Africans, Slavs, E. Europeans) in the late medeival through Renaissance era.
The “friend of the Pilgrims” Squanto (name was probably closer to Esquantaho according to some sources] was one of many native Americans who had been taken as a slave to Europe. (He knew enough Dutch and Portugese to communicate with the Pilgrims.)
Germany had black slaves as early as the 15th century (though never very many). There are some hysterical accounts of white women in Europe giving birth to biracial babies due to being “startled by a blackamoor” while pregnant.
It was almost unheard of for members of the same ethnic group as the ruling or majority class to serve as slaves in Europe for several reasons including the religious (the Bible forbids enslaving members of the same “nation”) and practical (if a slave who looks like everybody else runs away, he’ll blend right in).
I don’t mean to be a jerk, but "The fall of the Roman Empire in the West; the sacking of Rome by the Barbarians, etc." is a 100 year process. Rome is divided into 2 empires forever in 395 (Constantinople has been the more important Capitol pretty much from about 330 on), it is sacked by the Visgoths in 410, by the Vandals in 455, & the last Roman Emperor is deposed in 476 by the Goths.
The reason I nit pick is because because this example may predate the bolded above - so sorry if it cheats by pre-dating your actual fall of Rome - it could be said to be an actual precursor to what happened Europe wide though. ca. 405 Patrick was captured in one of the many raids that pirates and slavers were conducting regularly against the Britons*, who were defenseless as the Roman legions had been pulling out of Britain to defend the Italian heartland. In the actual slave raid itself, Patrick’s father was killed in the raid and his sister disappeared forever. Patrick was transported on a slave ship to another country (Ireland), sold in a market into slavery in Ireland to Miliucc, a local Druid warlord at Antrim. Eventually he ran away and you know the rest of the story … His slavery was the direct result of the collapse of the Empire’s authority on its fringes, it was not “Roman style” slavery – but pre-dates the actual final death knell (probably).
Basically, slavery existed everywhere in every society, more or less, until about the mid-19th century. Then it dropped out of favor in Western nations. The Confederacy in the US, actually, had about 5000 years of precedent in its favor. The idea of fighting a war, or even (if you prefer) getting tensions so riled up over slavery was something completely foreign the experience of most of humanity. Slavery was not really unusual in history, though not everyone had slaves, certainly.
I wish I could remember where I read this, but I remember reading a story set in the time of William and Mary that mentioned poor Irish folk selling their children into slavery when they couldn’t afford to keep them. It was a fictional book, but one that was careful about getting historical facts right.
(a) That was legal and happened in Europe through the Dark/Middle Ages
(b) Actually the economic conditions are relevant – because for practical purposes serfdom and indenture took care of filling the same economic niche “chattel” slavery did, the latter was rather limited during the Feudal Age. You need liquid wealth to buy and trade slaves, and much of feudal Europe was quite short of just that. Also, as you kept converting heathen nations into “Christendom”, you kept running out of people who were eligible for chattel slavery.