Slavery is a social-economic system under which certain persons — known as slaves — are deprived of personal freedom and compelled to perform labour or services. The following is a list of known slaves:

• Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696–1781), adopted by Russian czar Peter the Great, governor of Tallinn (Reval) (1742–52), general-en-chef (1759–62) for building of sea forts and canals in Russia.
• Absalom Jones, (1746 - February 13, 1818), abolitionist and clergyman.
• Aesop, Greek poet, c. 6th century BC, author or transcriber of Aesop's Fables.
• Al-Khayzuran bint Atta, a Yemenite slave girl who became the wife of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mahdi and mother of both Caliphs Al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid, the most famous of the Abbasids.
• Diandra Kimoi Page, daughter of her owner; the fight over her inheritance on his death went all the way to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
• Ammar bin Yasir, one of the most famous sahaba (companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), freed by Abu Bakr.
• Antarah ibn Shaddad, pre-Islamic Arab born to a slave mother, freed by his father on the eve of battle, also a poet.
• Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, also known as Job ben Solomon (1701–1773).
• Baibars, a Kipchack Turk who became a Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria.
• Benedict the Moor (1526 – April 4, 1589), Italian saint.
• Bilal ibn Ribah, 6th century, freed and converted to Islam; chosen by Muhammad as his muezzin.
• Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was an American educator, author and leader of the African American community.
• Brigitta Scherzenfeldt (1698-1733), Swedish memoirist and weaving teacher who was captured during the Great Northern War and lived as a slave in the kingdom of the Kalmyks in Central Asia.
• Pope Callixtus I (died 222) was Pope from about 217 to about 222, during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Heliogabalus and Alexander Severus. He was martyred for his Christian faith and is a canonized saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Cinque, leader of the slaves in the Amistad v. United States case in 1839
• Pope Clement I (died in 100) was the fourth Pope according to Catholic tradition. He may have been a freedman of Titus Flavius Clemens.
• Cesar Picton ca.1765 - 1831, enslaved in Senegal, servant in England, later a wealthy coal-merchant.
• Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha (1713-1790) an Ottoman grand vizier, Kaptan Pasha and an army commander.
• Dave Drake, also known as Dave the Potter, (c. 1800–1864)
• Denmark Vesey (c. 1767–1822) was an African American slave, and later a freeman, who planned what would have been one of the largest slave rebellions in the United States had word of the plans not been leaked.
• Dred Scott (c. 1799–1858), attempted to sue for his freedom in Scott v. Sandford.
• Enrique of Malacca, also known as Henry the Black, slave and interpreter of Ferdinand Magellan, the first man to circumnavigate the globe.
• Epictetus (55–c. 135), ancient Greek stoic philosopher
• Estevanico, also known as Esteban the Moor, one of only four survivors of the ill-fated Narváez expedition, later a guide in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Gold (ca. 1503-1539)
• Felicitas, Christian martyr and saint (died March 7, 203).
• Francis Bok, born 1979, Dinka slave from Sudan now in United States
• François Mackandal, Haitian maroon leader.
• Frederick Douglass (c. 1818–1895), abolitionist writer and speaker.
• George Africanus (1763-1834) was a negro slave from Sierra Leone who became a successful entrepreneur in Nottingham.
• Gonzalo Guerrero (?–1536) was a sailor from Palos, in Spain who shipwrecked along the Yucatan Peninsula and was taken as a slave by the local Maya.
• Guðríður Símonardóttir (1598-1682), Icelandic woman taken captive by North African slavers (Barbary Pirates).
• Hagar, Biblical figure, belonging to Sarah.
• Hark Olufs (1708-1754), Danish sailor, was captured by Algerian pirates. Sold to the Bey of Constantine, he became Commander in Chief of the Bey's cavalry. He was released in 1735.
• Harriet Tubman, nicknamed "Moses" because of her efforts in helping other slaves escape through the Underground Railway.
• Hermas, author of the text The Shepherd of Hermas and brother of Pope Pius I.
• İbrahim Pasha (?-1536), Suleyman the Magnificent's first appointed Grand Vizier. Greek by birth, he was sold as a slave at the age of six to the Ottoman palace for future sultans. There he befriended Suleiman who was of the same age.
• Ivan Bolotnikov (? - 1608), a fugitive kholop (slave in Russia) and leader of the Bolotnikov rebellion.
• James Somersett, his escape, supported by abolitionists, led to the milestone Somersett's Case, which effectively ended slavery in Britain, though not in its colonies.
• Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758–1806), leader of the Haitian Revolution and first leader of independent Haiti.
• Jean Saint Malo, leader of runaway slaves in colonial Louisiana and founder of the secret community that bears his name.
• Jean Parisot de la Valette (c.1494-1568), Grand Master of the Order of St John, in 1541 he was captured and made a galley slave for a year by Barbary pirates under the command of Turgut Reis.
• John Ezzidio (c. 1810 - October 1872), Nigerian slave who became a successful Sierra Leonean politician and businessman.
• John Brown (fugitive slave) (c. 1810–1876), escaped and wrote of conditions in Deep South of United States
• John Casor, the first slave in what would later be the United States (Virginia, 1654).
• John Smith, English soldier, sailor, and author, captured by Turks in 1602 while fighting in Wallachia, escaped and returned to England by 1604.
• Jeffrey Hudson, English courtier, spent 25 years as a slave in North Africa.
• Jordan Lockett, a runaway slave whose plight led to Wisconsin becoming the only state to declare the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 unconstitutional.
• Joseph, Biblical figure (about 1600 BC).
• Joseph Antonio Emidy, violinist and composer born in Africa, died in Cornwall.
• Josephine Bakhita, (1869 — February 8 1947), Sudanese, a Roman Catholic nun and saint.
• Joseph Knight, unsuccessfully sought to get his freedom through the courts in 18th century Scotland.
• Juan Francisco Manzano (c.1797–1854) Cuban poet.
• Kunta Kinte (1750-1810), Gambian slave and Mandinka tribesman,who unsuccessfully tried to escape to freedom for four times. Then part of his foot was chopped of by slave catchers. Ancestor of the famous writer of "Roots.The Saga of an American Family", Alex Haley.
• Lovisa von Burghausen (1698-1733) was a Swedish memoir writer who became famous for her story about her time in captivity as a slave in Russia after being taken prisoner by the Russians during the Great Northern War.
• Lydia, a slave shot and wounded by her owner when she struggled to escape a whipping, an action ruled legal by the Supreme Court of North Carolina in 1830 (see North Carolina v. Mann).
• Malinche, translator during the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
• Mammy Lou, actress who appeared in the silent film, The Glorious Adventure.
• Marcus Tullius Tiro, Roman author (c. 103–4 BC), slave and secretary of the Roman politian Cicero, later freed; invented a long-lasting system of shorthand and wrote books that are now lost.
• Margaret Garner (1835 – 1858) was a slave in pre-Civil War America notorious or celebrated for killing her own daughter rather than see the child returned to slavery.
• Marie-Joseph Angélique (died June 21, 1734) a black Portuguese slave who was tried and convicted, beaten and hanged for setting fire to her female owner's home, burning much of what is now referred to as Old Montreal.
• Mary Prince (1788-?1833); the account of her life galvanized the anti-slavery movement in England.
• Mende Nazer, a Nuba woman captured in Darfur and transported from Sudan to London, where she eventually won refugee status and wrote the memoir Slave (2004).
• Miguel de Cervantes (September 29, 1547 - April 23, 1616), author of Don Quixote de la Mancha, the first modern novel. He spent five years as a slave and property of the viceroy of Algiers after being captured by Barbary pirates.
• Moses, ancient Israelite who led his people out of slavery in Egypt.
• Nanny of the Maroons, also known as Granny Nanny and Queen Nanny, Jamaican Maroons leader.
• Nat Turner (1800–1831), escaped and led revolt in Southampton County, Virginia.
• Nero Hawley (1742-1817), free slave, served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, buried Trumbull, Connecticut.
• Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1797), also known as Gustavus Vassa, prominent African/British author and figure in the abolitionist cause.
• Onesimus, a slave of Philemon of Colossae who ran away and, having met St. Paul, was converted by him. Paul set him back to the Christian Philemon with a letter, which is the Epistle to Philemon. Ignatius of Antioch mentions an Onesimus as Bishop of Ephesus in the early second century, but it is not certain that these are the same men.
• Owen Fitzpen, English merchant taken captive by Turkish pirates in 1620, subsequently escaped.
• Saint Patrick, abducted from Britain, enslaved in Ireland, escaped to Britain, returned to Ireland as a missionary.
• Phillis Wheatley, Colonial American poet
• Pope Pius I was Pope from about 140 to about 154, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Antonius Pius.
• Prosper, a slave cruelly murdered by his owner Arthur William Hodge, for which Hodge was tried and executed, the first such case ever recorded.
• Qutb-ud-din Aybak or Qutbuddin Aibak, Turkish ex-slave, became a soldier, the first of the Sultans of Delhi, founder of India's "slave dynasty".
• Robert Drury (born 1687; died between 1743 and 1750) was an English sailor who was shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar in 1702, and remained there as a slave till 1717.
• Romaica, slave girl who became the favorite wife of Muhammad al-Mu'tamid, Muslim king of Seville, Spain.
• Roustam Raza, Napoleon Bonaparte's Armenian bodyguard.
• Roxelana, (circa 1500 - April 18, 1558), a concubine and later wife to the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and mother of Selim II.
• Salman Al Farisi, of Persian descent, he was owned by a Jew of the Beni Quraiza in Arabia, became one of Muhammad's companions and was the first to translate the Quran.
• Salvius, also known as Tryphon, leader of the 104 B.C. slave rebellion in Sicily known as the Second Servile War.
• Scipio Africanus (circa 1702 - 1720)
• Scipio Moorhead, enslaved artist.
• Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883) abolitionist and women's rights activist
• Solomon Bayley, wrote a book in 1825 about his life as a slave.
• Spartacus, gladiator and rebel leader, led the Servile Revolt, died 71 BC
• Sumayyah binte Khabbab, an Abbyssinian slave, the mother of Ammar bin Yasir, was killed by her master when she refused to renounce Islam, thus becoming its first martyr.
• Terence (full name Publius Terentius Afer), Roman playwright, comic poet who wrote before and possibly after his freedom, died 159 BC.
• Thomas Pellow, a young Cornish boy who was kidnapped by North African pirates and sold as a slave in Morocco. His story is told in the book "White Gold" by Giles Milton.
• Toussaint L'Ouverture, freed slave who led the slave revolt that led to the independence of Haiti.
• Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, freed slave turned writer.
• Vincent de Paul. (1576–1660) Taken captive by Turkish pirates, sold into slavery, freed in 1607.
• William Ellison (1790 - 1861), mixed race, gained his freedom, became a slaveholder himself, producing cotton.
• William and Ellen Craft, slaves who wrote a tale of their flight from slavery (1800s).
• William Lee, personal servant to George Washington.
• Yarrow Mamout, freed after serving many years in America
• Zayd ibn Haritha, given to Muhammad's wife Khadijah, freed, adopted, became known as Zayd ibn Muhammad.
• Zheng pang wang, Chinese explorer.
• Ziryab, also known as Abul-Hasan Alí Ibn Nafí, musician, introduced asparagus to Europe (circa 789 - 857).
• Zumbi, escaped and joined the Quilombo dos Palmares, the largest ever settlement of escaped slaves in colonial Brazil, becoming its last and most famous leader.