Blog # 3

   
" As in all civilizations, slavery found a place in West Africa, and most of them were women working as domestic servants and concubines." Not going on a personal women's lib crusade against anyone in particular, rather, I am expressing my own feelings from a female's  opinion. Women and slavery developed in the early stages of civilizations because of wealth and power. Oh yeah, for the same reason that still exists today for women, status, and ethnicity being oppressive issues in our society. Strayer portrays this story of the trade in slaves across the Sahara, " between 1100 and 1400, around 5,500 slaves per year made this perilous trek." I enjoy reading Strayer's portrayal of history mixed with stories and facts. Allows us the opportunity to view these readings with some imagination, instead of the typical boring world history textbooks I used to put myself to sleep, when counting sheep didn't work?  I always wondered how the term " Slav " was started? Strayer explains that slaves in Europe from the Slavic - speaking regions along the northern coast of the Black Sea were so numerous that's how the word "slave" began in European languages, then " Slav."
The women in the " golden age " of the Song Dynasty around 1000 C.E., was not a walk in the park, by any means, for women. Women were considered a distraction and not equal to a man in any way possible. Women at an early age were expected to go through the extremely long painful process of " foot binding," lasting until the 20th century ( wow, I would have really been stuck forever since my shoe size is 10).
This was all relative to one's opinion again on the balance of women's lives in the Song Dynasty, so as property rights made progress, the advancement for SOME new doors of opportunities opened for women.