Research suggests white slavery was much more common than previously believed

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 – a far greater number than had ever been estimated before.

In a new book, Robert Davis, professor of history at Ohio State University, developed a unique methodology to calculate the number of white Christians who were enslaved along Africa’s Barbary Coast, arriving at much higher slave population estimates than any previous studies had found.

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Between 1 million and 1.25 million European Christians were captured and forced to work in North Africa from the 16th to 18th centuries.

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Davis said it is useful to compare this Mediterranean slavery to the Atlantic slave trade that brought black Africans to the Americas. Over the course of four centuries, the Atlantic slave trade was much larger – about 10 to 12 million black Africans were brought to the Americas. But from 1500 to 1650, when trans-Atlantic slaving was still in its infancy, more white Christian slaves were probably taken to Barbary than black African slaves to the Americas, according to Davis.

“One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature – that only blacks have been slaves. But that is not true,” Davis said. “We cannot think of slavery as something that only white people did to black people.”

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Although hundreds of thousands of Christian slaves were taken from Mediterranean countries, Davis noted, the effects of Muslim slave raids was felt much further away: it appears, for example, that through most of the 17th century the English lost at least 400 sailors a year to the slavers.

Even Americans were not immune. For example, one American slave reported that 130 other American seamen had been enslaved by the Algerians in the Mediterranean and Atlantic just between 1785 and 1793.

Davis said the vast scope of slavery in North Africa has been ignored and minimized, in large part because it is on no one’s agenda to discuss what happened.

The enslavement of Europeans doesn’t fit the general theme of European world conquest and colonialism that is central to scholarship on the early modern era, he said.

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Davis said his research into the treatment of these slaves suggests that, for most of them, their lives were every bit as difficult as that of slaves in America.

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I am not worthy! I am not worthy!

[scandal 951]

Although hundreds of thousands of Christian slaves were taken from Mediterranean countries, Davis noted, the effects of Muslim slave raids was felt much further away: it appears, for example, that through most of the 17th century the English lost at least 400 sailors a year to the slavers.

There were Barbary raids as far away as Ireland and even Iceland.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

There were Barbary raids as far away as Ireland and even Iceland.

White Christians should conquer their lands and steal their oil and call it reparations

[justashooter 430]

every black slave that was bought on the west or east african coast and shipped to America or other destination was made a slave by either another black, or by an arab like obama's family founders.

obama is like 8% black, 42% arab, and 50 % white. first black American president my A$$. he is a slaver at heart just like his forefathers.

[scandal 951]

obama is like 8% black, 42% arab, and 50 % white. first black American president my A$$. he is a slaver at heart just like his forefathers.

Awesome. I am stunned by the depth of research in these figures, and the dramatic conclusion. By my own estimates, your values of 8% and 42% are somewhat off - I calculate it to be roughly 9.2 and 40.8, respectively. But why bicker over such small discrepancies, when clearly you've nailed the essence of the issue. Oh, which was WHITE slavery not BLACK slavery, but hey - we're color-blind right?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Awesome. I am stunned by the depth of research in these figures, and the dramatic conclusion. By my own estimates, your values of 8% and 42% are somewhat off - I calculate it to be roughly 9.2 and 40.8, respectively. But why bicker over such small discrepancies, when clearly you've nailed the essence of the issue. Oh, which was WHITE slavery not BLACK slavery, but hey - we're color-blind right?

And on that subject, white slavery exists today. Lots of "sex slaves" from Russia and East Europe in oil-rich Muslim countries.

[justashooter 430]

Awesome. I am stunned by the depth of research in these figures, and the dramatic conclusion. By my own estimates, your values of 8% and 42% are somewhat off - I calculate it to be roughly 9.2 and 40.8, respectively. But why bicker over such small discrepancies, when clearly you've nailed the essence of the issue. Oh, which was WHITE slavery not BLACK slavery, but hey - we're color-blind right?

obamas ancestors didn't care what color someone was. they took egyptian slaves, black slaves, and white slaves. whatever they could sell.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

And on that subject, white slavery exists today. Lots of "sex slaves" from Russia and East Europe in oil-rich Muslim countries.

There are sex slaves in American suburbia. I saw it on MSNBC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCVe1D9CcmE

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

There are sex slaves in American suburbia. I saw it on MSNBC.

Yes, there are. Although I'm told they're mostly Chinese.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

obamas ancestors didn't care what color someone was. they took egyptian slaves, black slaves, and white slaves. whatever they could sell.

Someone could say the same about your colonial ancestors.

I wonder if its just Obama who can be judged for the alleged crimes of his ancestors. Somehow I think you would balk if someone said that you were personally responsible for the repression of women, blacks and the eradication of the Native American nations.

Shooter, you've got more blood on your hands than Milosevic

[Ali G. 37]

This is rubbish. Everyone knows - well in America- that the only slaves were Black Americans.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Except the article isn't talking about "slavery in America" in which case the slaves WERE black. It's talking about the Barbary pirates who operated out of Morocco in North Africa.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Except the article isn't talking about "slavery in America" in which case the slaves WERE black. It's talking about the Barbary pirates who operated out of Morocco in North Africa.

There were "indentured servants". As a matter of fact, many of the first blacks brought to the English colonies were given the same opportunities as those temporary servants from Europe, and treated much the same. Cheap labor was hard to come by, and the indigenous population was not as "hardy" as imported laborers. However, whether by intent, or by the example of the other colonial endeavors in the New World, most African slaves were bought and sold the same as cattle, and considered not as equals, but as property, as shown in the original Constitution, and court decisions, until amended post civil war.

[Ali G. 37]

Except the article isn't talking about "slavery in America" in which case the slaves WERE black. It's talking about the Barbary pirates who operated out of Morocco in North Africa.

I'm just mentioning what the word on the US streets is from the likes of Jesse Jackson and co. Apparently black Americans have a trademark on slavery.

We were in Port Aurthur Tasmania the other week, where 'white' Australian convicts were actually tortured to death. I thought this must be some sort of mistake, ask anyone here and they will tell you firsthand that cotton picking American slaves had it the hardest.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Ali G.