Slavery in Georgia (country)

Slavery in Georgia refer to the history of slavery in the area that was later to form the nation of Georgia.

There are limited information about slavery in Ancient Georgia. However, Georgia close to the ancient Black Sea slave trade, which affected Georgia for centuries. From the Middle Ages, Georgia became a Christian country surrounded by Muslim lands, which made it defined as infidel kafir of Dar al-Harb and therefore vulnerable to Islamic slave raids. During the early modern age, Georgia was a weak religious border zone, politically split between an Eastern part who was tribute state to Iran, and a Western part that was a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, and forced to deliver tributary slaves to both Islamic empires. Georgia also participated in the Black Sea slave trade.

In the late 18th century, Russia took the slave trade as an excuse to intervene and eventually conquer Georgia. The Russian anti-slavery campaign was the official policy when Georgia became a part of Russia in 1801–1802, but it was arbitrarily enforced and the success was slow. Not until the 1850s had Georgia's open participation in the Black Sea slave trade ended, and the remaining slave trade of the mountain tribes in the Caucasus was finally eradicated in the 1860s.