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:

A

• 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.
• Amanda America Dickson, 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).

B

• 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, was freed. He converted to Islam and was Muhammad's 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.

C

• 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.

D

• Dave Drake, also known as Dave the Potter, (c. 1801–1876)
• 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.