Slave Lake, Lesser See Lesser Slave Lake
slave narrative Account of the life, or a major portion of the life, of a fugitive or former slave, either written or orally related by the slave himself or herself. A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surpris¬ ing Deliverance of Briton Mammon, a Negro Man (1760) is often con¬ sidered the first example. The first slave narrative to become an international best-seller was the two-volume Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789), but evi¬ dence turned up at the outset of the 21st century suggests that the author was born in South Carolina rather than Africa—i.e., that at least part of the work is not autobiographical. The major period of slave narratives was 1830-60. Some were factual autobiographies, while others were influenced or sensationalized by the writer’s desire to arouse sympathy for the abolitionist cause. The genre reached its height with the autobi¬ ography of Frederick Douglass (1845). In the 20th century, documentary narratives were compiled from recorded interviews with former slaves.
Slave River River, northern Alberta and southern Northwest Territo¬ ries, Canada. Forming an integral part of the Mackenzie River waterway, the river flows northward 258 mi (415 km) from Lake Athabasca before emptying into Great Slave Lake near Fort Resolution. The Peace River and several small streams enter it along its course.
slave trade Capturing, selling, and buying of slaves. Slavery has existed throughout the world from ancient times, and trading in slaves has been equally universal. Slaves were taken from the Slavs and Iranians from antiquity to the 19th century, from the sub-Saharan Africans from the 1st century ad to the mid-20th century, and from the Germanic, Celtic, and Romance peoples during the Viking era. Elaborate trade networks developed: for example, in the 9th and 10th centuries, Vikings might sell East Slavic slaves to Arab and Jewish traders, who would take them to Verdun and Leon, whence they might be sold throughout Moorish Spain and North Africa. The transatlantic slave trade is perhaps the best-known. In Africa, women and children but not men were wanted as slaves for labour and for lineage incorporation; from c. 1500, captive men were taken to the coast and sold to Europeans. They were then transported to the Caribbean or Brazil, where they were sold at auction and taken throughout the New World. In the 17th and 18th centuries, African slaves
Skier competing in the slalom.
FABRICE COFFRINI-AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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were traded in the Caribbean for molasses, which was made into rum in the American colonies and traded back to Africa for more slaves.
slavery Forced labour for little or no pay under the threat of violence. Slavery has existed on nearly every continent, including Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and throughout most of recorded history. The ancient Greeks and Romans accepted the institution of slavery, as did the Mayas, Incas, Aztecs, and Chinese. Until European involvement in the trade, however, slavery was a private and domestic institution. Beginning in the 16th century, a more public and “racially” based type of slavery was established when Europeans began importing slaves from Africa to the New World (see slave trade). An estimated 11 million people were taken from Africa during the transatlantic slave trade. By the mid-19th century the slave population in the U.S. had risen to more than four mil¬ lion, although slave imports had been banned from 1809. Most of the Africans sent to the United States worked on cotton or rice plantations in the South, their status governed by slave codes. Almost 40 percent of cap¬ tives transported from Africa to the Americas were taken to Brazil, where harsh conditions required the constant replenishing of slaves. Following the rise of abolitionism, Britain outlawed slavery in its colonies in 1833, and France did the same in 1848. During the American Civil War, slavery was abolished in the Confederacy by the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), which was decreed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln. Brazil was the last to abolish slavery, doing so in 1888. Official policy notwithstanding, sla¬ very continues to exist in many parts of the world. Many contemporary slaves are women and children forced into prostitution or working at hard labour or in sweatshops. Debt bondage is common, affecting millions of people, and slaves are often traded for material goods. See also Dred Scott decision; Fugitive Slave Acts; serfdom; Underground Railroad.
Slavic Vsla-vik, 'sla-vik\ languages or Slavonic languages
Branch of the Indo-European language family spoken by more than 315 million people in central and eastern Europe and northern Asia. The Slavic family is usually divided into three subgroups: West Slavic, comprising Polish, Slovak, Czech, and Sorbian; East Slavic, comprising Russian, Ukrai¬ nian, and Belarusian; and South Slavic, comprising Slovene, Serbo- Croatian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian. Polish belongs to the Lekhitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, which also includes Kashubian—now spoken in western Poland by fewer than 150,000 people and regarded in Poland as a Polish dialect—and several now-extinct languages. A distinc¬ tive feature of this subgroup is its preservation of the Proto-Slavic nasal vowels. Another remnant language is Sorbian, spoken by 60,000-70,000 people in eastern Germany. Western Lekhitic and Sorbian are all that remains of what was once a much greater Slavic speech area in central Europe; that area was gradually Germanized from about the 9th century. Among Indo-European languages, Slavic is closest to the family of Bal¬ tic LANGUAGES.
Slavic religion Beliefs and religious practices of the ancient Slavic peoples of East Europe, including the Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Most Slavic mythologies hold that God ordered the devil to bring up a handful of sand from the bottom of the sea and created the land from it. Slavic religion was often characterized by dualism, with a Black God named in curses and a White God invoked to obtain protection or mercy. Lightning and fire gods were also common. The ancient Russians appear to have erected their idols outdoors, but the Baltic Slavs built temples and enclosed sacred places, where festivals were held and animal and human sacrifices occurred. Such festivals also often included communal banquets at which the flesh of sacrificial animals was consumed.
Slavonia Historical region, Croatia. It lay between the Sava River on the south and the Drava and Danube rivers on the north and east. It was included in the kingdom of Croatia in the 10th century. As Slavonia- Crotia, it joins Dalmatia and Istria as one of the three traditional regions of Croatia.
Slavophiles and Westernizers Opposing groups of intellectuals in 19th-century Russia. Prominent in the 1840s and ’50s, the Slavophiles believed in the uniqueness of Russian culture and contended that Russia should rely on its own character and history to determine its future devel¬ opment. They hoped to restore the autocracy and the church to their ideal forms before Peter I (the Great) introduced Western reforms, and they also favoured emancipation of the serfs and freedom of speech and the press. The Slavophile movement declined in the 1860s, but its principles were adapted and simplified by extreme nationalists, advocates of Pan-Slavism,
and revolutionary Narodniks (Populists). It was opposed by the Western¬ izers, who viewed western Europe as a model for Russian modernization.
sled dog Any working dog used to pull a sled carrying people and sup¬ plies across snow and ice. The breeds most commonly used are the Alas¬ kan malamute, Laika, Samoyed, and Siberian husky. All are powerful dogs with a thick coat and high endurance. See also Eskimo dog.