Who Created the Myth that “White People” Invented Chattel Slavery?

If you discuss racism online, you’ll meet people who insist chattel slavery — the treatment of slaves as movable property — was invented by “white people” in the 1600s when slavery was limited to people of African descent. For example, someone recently left this comment on one of my articles:

…prior to the introduction of chattel slavery by Americans & Europeans, the only people held in bondage were: prisoners or war, criminals & debtors.

Chattel slavery is older than recorded history. Four thousand years ago, the Code of Ur-Nammu described chattel slavery in Ur:

4. If a slave marries a slave, and that slave is set free, he does not leave the household.

5. If a slave marries a native [i.e. free] person, he/she is to hand the firstborn son over to his owner. …”

Chattel slavery’s name should tell you it’s ancient. The Old French chatel comes from Latin capitalis, meaning “of the head”. Chattel referred to movable property in general—the word “cattle” also comes from capitalis. In ancient Rome, slaves and cows were both chattel—or to use another word from the same root, they were both capital, wealth that can be bought and sold.

Slavery has always been horrible, and where slaves were cheap, their lives were…