Was there any slavery in Europe around the same time we had in America?

Yes there was. Basically all the major European powers of the early colonial era practiced slavery. But it was outlawed and ended there far earlier (late 1700’s early 1800’s).

@tedd is correct. Slavery existed in Europe pretty much until 1800’s (depending on what country you look at, it was abolished at different times).

Wikipedia article

So did America continue slavery even though Europe abolished it in different times?

@AntonRubio10101 Yes slavery continued in America after it was abolished in all (I think all) of Europe.

If I remember the facts correctly, the abolitionist movement started in Europe. European countries eventually went to great expense (and risk of life) to also abolish slavery in their colonies. In many areas the move to stamp out slavery was strongly resisted and even laughed at.

In the US, it was illegal to import slaves long before slavery itself was abolished. Slave traders caught smuggling new slaves into the US were hanged, and this was actually enforced. Some framers of the constitution wanted to outlaw slavery from the start, but the southern states objected. Slavery was allowed in order for their to be a United States of America. If we’d formed two countries, let’s say a Northern United States and a Southern United States, each independent of each other, I wonder how much longer slavery would have lasted here. I’d imagine that eventually the censure and opinion of the rest of the world would have taken a toll, but it might have gone on past Abe Lincoln’s time. I’m pretty sure I read all of this in an essay by Thomas Sowell, but can’t remember the name of it. It was in his book “Black Rednecks and White Liberals.

A movie came out a few years ago about the Engllish abolitionist William Wentworth. Slavery was abolished in England around 1806.

The movie Amazing Grace tells the tale of William Wilberforce‘s struggle to abolish slavery in Britain. The result was the Slave Trade Act of 1807 which outlawed slave trading. It wasn’t until 1833 that slavery itself was abolished there as well.

Ah, thanks – @robmandu. Trying to remember facts without Googling for verification; costly. You’ve got the skivvy I was trying for.

Slavery existed then, and it exists now. We call it capitalism. But don’t fret, communism is a form of slavery, too.

Slavery has always existed and still exists through out the world today, even in America. For more information see this