Slavery in Brunei

Bruneian Empire
An Iranun lanong warship used for piracy and slave raids in the Sulu Sea

Chattel slavery was legal in the Sultanate of Brunei until the 20th-century.

Historically, non-Muslim slaves were provided to Brunei via purchase from merchants and pirates; via enslavement of non-Muslim captives during warfare; and by enslavement of non-Muslim human tributes during taxation. Brunei came under British influence from the 1840s and became a British protectorate in 1888. The British conducted an abolitionist policy in Brunei, but could not enforce an abolition since Brunei was a protectorate and not a colony.

In the 20th-century, the development of an economy based on rubber and oil via investments by Westerners, who did not use slave labor, resulted in a deterioration of the institution of slavery in Brunei. Slavery in Brunei was formally abolished by law in 1928.


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