I read this in [[Not A Nation of Immigrants]]. The word "slave" comes from "Slav", because the Slavic people were captured in wars or punished for crimes by the Holy Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire and put to forced labour. They were not subject to permanent racial or caste codes, and their offspring were not born into slavery. This changed with the Atlantic slave trade, when Africans were viewed by Catholics as "natural" slaves. --- From ChatGPT-5: From 1100s onward, slavery declined in the Holy Roman Empire and was gradually replaced by serfdom. It became prohibited to enslave Christians. Unlike slaves, serfs could not be removed from their land.