Page "Slavery" Paragraph 24

Approximately 10 – 20 % of the rural population of Carolingian Europe consisted of slaves.

In Western Europe slavery largely disappeared by the later Middle Ages.

The trade of slaves in England was made illegal in 1102, although England went on to become very active in the lucrative Atlantic slave trade from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century.

Thralldom in Scandinavia was finally abolished in the mid-14th century.

Slavery persisted longer in Eastern Europe.

Slavery in Poland was forbidden in the 15th century ; in Lithuania, slavery was formally abolished in 1588 ; they were replaced by the second serfdom.

In Kievan Rus and Muscovy, the slaves were usually classified as kholops.