Editing Debt bondage (section)

=== Africa ===
Important to both East and West Africa, pawnship, defined by Wilks as "the use of people in transferring their rights for settlement of debt," was common during the 17th century.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last=Wilks|first=I.|date=1988|title=Pawnship in Africa. Debt bondage in historical perspective|journal=African Economic History|volume=26}}</ref> The system of pawnship occurred simultaneously with the [[History of slavery|slave trade]] in Africa.<ref name=":5" /> Though the export of slaves from Africa to the Americas is often analyzed, slavery was rampant internally as well.<ref name=":6" /> Development of [[plantation]]s like those in [[Zanzibar]] in East Africa reflected the need for internal{{Clarification needed|date=March 2024}} slaves.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" /> Furthermore, many of the slaves that were exported were male as brutal and labor-intensive conditions favored the male body build.<ref name=":4" /> This created gender implications for individuals in the pawnship system as more women were pawned than men and often sexually exploited.<ref name=":4" />

After the abolition of slavery in many countries in the 19th century, Europeans still needed laborers.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=Carolyn|last2=van der Linden|first2=Marcel|date=2010|title=Shifting Boundaries between Free and Unfree Labor: Introduction|journal=International Labor and Working-Class History|volume=78|issue=1|pages=4–11|doi=10.1017/S0147547910000086|s2cid=145707441}}</ref> Moreover, conditions for emancipated slaves were harsh.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> [[Discrimination]] was rampant within the labor market, making attainment of a sustainable income for former slaves tough.<ref name=":4" /> Because of these conditions, many freed slaves lived through slavery-like contracts with their masters in a manner parallel to debt bondage.<ref name=":5" />