# When and where was the last place you could legally own a slave? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 7, 2016, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136 "2016-05-07T02:59:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136/1 "2016-05-07T02:59:22Z")
I understand that human trafficking is still a huge problem. Still, what was the last place that you could openly acknowledge that you owned another person? To put it another way, has there ever been a global Emancipation Proclamation? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136/2 "2016-05-07T03:05:14Z")
[Wikipedia entry on timeline of slavery abolition.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_slavery_timeline) Looks like Mauritania, either 1981 (when slavery was abolished) or 2007 (when owning a slave became a crime). ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136/3 "2016-05-07T03:05:40Z")
Mauritania, 1981, though no criminal penalties were in place for owning slaves until 2007. > **[Slavery in Mauritania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Mauritania)** > > Slavery has been called "deeply rooted" in the structure of the Northwestern African country of Mauritania and "closely tied" to the ethnic composition of the country, despite the cessation of slavery across other African countries and a ban on the practice by colonial owners in 1905. > The French colonial administration declared an end to slavery in Mauritania in 1905, but the size of Mauritania prevented enforcement. In 1981, Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery, wh... ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136/4 "2016-05-07T04:20:01Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > To put it another way, has there ever been a global Emancipation Proclamation? [The Universal Declaration on Human Rights](http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/) that states in Article 4: “no one should be held in slavery or servitude, slavery in all of its forms should be eliminated.” So, yes. Has it been 100% effective? Not yet. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136/5 "2016-05-07T05:45:39Z")
Jesus Wept. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136/6 "2016-05-07T07:03:26Z")
In the Western hemisphere, it looks like Brazil and Cuba kept passing “Abolition of Slavery, This Time We Mean It For Real” laws up until 1888 in Brazil and around 1900 in Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136/7 "2016-05-07T15:23:26Z")
Mauritania had (IIRC) abolished slavery before 1981, but the laws weren’t enforced, so they had to keep passing new laws. Prior to that, some of the Persian Gulf monarchies abolished slavery in the 1962-1970 period, and Bhutan did in 1958. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136/8 "2016-05-07T20:31:21Z")
The UK only specified “Slavery” as a crime in 2010. Earlier prosecutions to enforce abolition used pre-existing laws (false imprisonment, etc). Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136/9 "2016-05-07T22:19:13Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > In the Western hemisphere, it looks like Brazil and Cuba kept passing “Abolition of Slavery, This Time We Mean It For Real” laws up until 1888 in Brazil and around 1900 in Cuba. Brazil did it very gradually. By the time of the Golden Law in 1888, other laws had already been passed that abolished the slave trade, automatically freed slaves at age 65, and legislated that all children of slaves were born free (meaning that even without the Golden Law, slavery still would have eventually died out). But in 1888 it was finally done away with for good all at once. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-where-was-the-last-place-you-could-legally-own-a-slave/754136/10 "2016-05-08T10:10:46Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > The UK only specified “Slavery” as a crime in 2010. Earlier prosecutions to enforce abolition used pre-existing laws (false imprisonment, etc). And AUS, with the historically shared legal system (we didn’t have a revolution), did the same around the same time. In Aus, it had the unexpected effect of making indentured servitude de jure “slavery”, which meant that some behaviour was declared “slavery” and became illegal from that date.