A short list of famous slaves:

• Hagar Biblical figure, belonging to Sarah
• Joseph Biblical figure (about 1600 BC)
• Aesop, Greek poet, c. 6th century BC
• Spartacus, gladiator and rebel leader (died 71 BC)
• Marcus Tullius Tiro, Roman author (c. 103–4 BC)
• Epictetus (55–c. 135)
• St. Felicitas martyr (died March 7, 203)
• Pope Callixtus I (died 222)
• Saint Patrick, British priest who, after escaping slavery in Ireland, returned there as a missionary (c. 387–461)
• Henry the Black, first person to circumnavigate the Earth
• Estevanico, or "Esteban the Moor," one of only four surivors of the ill-fated Narváez expedition and later a guide in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Gold (ca. 1503-1539)
• Saint Vincent de Paul. (1576–1660)Taken captive by Turkish pirates and sold into slavery. Freed in 1607.
• Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, also known as Job ben Solomon (1701–1773)
• Scipio Africanus (c. 1702-1720)
• Abram Petrovich Gannibal (died 1781), adopted by Peter the Great, became a governor-general
• George John Scipio Africanus (1763–1834)
• Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1797), also sometimes called Gustavus Vassa, prominent American author
• Denmark Vesey (c. 1767–1822)
• Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883)
• Juan Francisco Manzano (c.1797–1854) Cuban slave and poet.
• Dred Scott (c. 1799–1858)
• Nat Turner (1800–1831)
• Dave the Potter (c. 1800–1864)
• John Brown (fugitive slave) (c. 1810–1876)
• Frederick Douglass (c. 1818–1895)
• Harriet Tubman (1820–1913)
• Booker T. Washington (1856–1915)
• Abul-Hasan Alí Ibn Nafí, aka "Ziryab", musician, introduced asparagus to Europe (c. 789 - 857).
• François Mackandal, Haitian maroon leader
• Joshua Glover, a runaway slave whose plight led to Wisconsin becoming the only state to declare the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 unconstitutional.
• 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.
• Zheng He Chinese explorer.
• Publius Terentius Afer
• Qutbuddin Aibak, sultan of Hindustan.

See also: Janissary

Lists of people by occupation | Slaves