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When Europeans Were Slaves of North Africa

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WHEN EUROPEANS WERE SLAVES: RESEARCH SUGGESTS WHITE SLAVERY WAS MUCH MORE COMMON THAN PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED

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.

Most other accounts of slavery along the Barbary coast didn’t try to estimate the number of slaves, or only looked at the number of slaves in particular cities, Davis said. Most previously estimated slave counts have thus tended to be in the thousands, or at most in the tens of thousands. Davis, by contrast, has calculated that between 1 million and 1.25 million European Christians were captured and forced to work in North Africa from the 16th to 18th centuries. Davis’s new estimates appear in the book Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (Palgrave Macmillan).

“Enslavement was a very real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean, or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland.”

“Much of what has been written gives the impression that there were not many slaves and minimizes the impact that slavery had on Europe,” Davis said. “Most accounts only look at slavery in one place, or only for a short period of time. But when you take a broader, longer view, the massive scope of this slavery and its powerful impact become clear.”

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.”During the time period Davis studied, it was religion and ethnicity, as much as race, that determined who became slaves.

“Enslavement was a very real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean, or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland,” he said.

Pirates (called corsairs) from cities along the Barbary Coast in north Africa – cities such as Tunis and Algiers – would raid ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as seaside villages to capture men, women and children. The impact of these attacks were devastating – France, England, and Spain each lost thousands of ships, and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. At its peak, the destruction and depopulation of some areas probably exceeded what European slavers would later inflict on the African interior.

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. Many of the countries that were victims of slavery, such as France and Spain, would later conquer and colonize the areas of North Africa where their citizens were once held as slaves. Maybe because of this history, Western scholars have thought of the Europeans primarily as “evil colonialists” and not as the victims they sometimes were, Davis said.

Davis said another reason that Mediterranean slavery has been ignored or minimized has been that there have not been good estimates of the total number of people enslaved. People of the time – both Europeans and the Barbary Coast slave owners – did not keep detailed, trustworthy records of the number of slaves. In contrast, there are extensive records that document the number of Africans brought to the Americas as slaves.
So Davis developed a new methodology to come up with reasonable estimates of the number of slaves along the Barbary Coast. Davis found the best records available indicating how many slaves were at a particular location at a single time. He then estimated how many new slaves it would take to replace slaves as they died, escaped or were ransomed.

“The only way I could come up with hard numbers is to turn the whole problem upside down – figure out how many slaves they would have to capture to maintain a certain level,” he said. “It is not the best way to make population estimates, but it is the only way with the limited records available.”

Putting together such sources of attrition as deaths, escapes, ransomings, and conversions, Davis calculated that about one-fourth of slaves had to be replaced each year to keep the slave population stable, as it apparently was between 1580 and 1680. That meant about 8,500 new slaves had to be captured each year. Overall, this suggests nearly a million slaves would have been taken captive during this period. Using the same methodology, Davis has estimated as many as 475,000 additional slaves were taken in the previous and following centuries.

The result is that between 1530 and 1780 there were almost certainly 1 million and quite possibly as many as 1.25 million white, European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of the Barbary Coast.
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.

“As far as daily living conditions, the Mediterranean slaves certainly didn’t have it better,” he said. While African slaves did grueling labor on sugar and cotton plantations in the Americas, European Christian slaves were often worked just as hard and as lethally – in quarries, in heavy construction, and above all rowing the corsair galleys themselves. Davis said his findings suggest that this invisible slavery of European Christians deserves more attention from scholars.

“We have lost the sense of how large enslavement could loom for those who lived around the Mediterranean and the threat they were under,” he said. “Slaves were still slaves, whether they are black or white, and whether they suffered in America or North Africa.”
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Contact Robert Davis, Davis.711@osu.edu
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, Grabmeier.1@osu.edu
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46 thoughts on “When Europeans Were Slaves of North Africa”

  1. morroco came from ” marrakesh ” in spanish the coruption of the word is ” maruécos and in french it’s maroc and has nothing to do with the word moor

    Nehesy this is not moulay rashid ..ths is an imaginated portrait by europeans who weren’t allowed to enter morrroco ( law against chrestians ) this is the real moulay rashid as he apperas on several morrocan portrait …in the royale castle and of course in the old morrocan Currency
    http://www.douane.gov.ma/Histoire_douane/img/HISTOR11.jpg
    this is so not a black man…..
    http://www.carphaz.com/Images/Kenitra/moulay_ismail.gif

    his son moulay ismail….

  5. Karim

    The first slaves of the Arabs in North Africa were the WHITE BERBERS…

    Arabs had hundred thousands of White Berbers slaves, this is why Kahina fought against them. And this is why you have nowadays many white Berbers who live in the Mountains : Their Ancestors fled in the mountains in order to flee the ARABS…ISLAM (a new religion)….and SLAVERY…

    Leon the African ( who was Moroccan and a slave in Roma) , Flora Shaw ans Stanley Lane Pool gave enough proofs in their books.

    WHITE BERBERS were the first slaves of the ARABS in NORTH AFRICA…

    I didn’t say that Alaouites were blacks and this picture of Mulay Ismael is from the 18 Century.

    Nevertheless they claim descent from Ali Ib Abi Thalib ( ra) and some descriptions present him as a dark skinned Arab.

    ARABS had white skinned slaves like : Persians ( HASSAN AL BASRI- SALMAN AL FARSI), Slaves ( East Europeans), Indians, White Berbers, and even Arab slaves ( Ammar Ibn Yasir was a slave).

    The first slaves of the ARABS were the weak ARAB tribes through RAZZIAS. Pre-Islamic ARABIA was divided in two classes : MASTERS AND SLAVES.

    There was ( and still are) many BLACKS ARABS in ARABIA nowadays, like in YEMEN or OMAN.

    I’ll give you the reference of the book where you can find their pictures.

    The Original Arabs looked like actual yemenites: They were BLACKS and they look like ETHIOPIANS with often BLACK EBONY SKINS.

    When you say that there wasn’t any black Arab who participated in the North Africa conquest it’s not true…..Because many Yemenites tribes settled in North Africa.

    AMR IBN AL AS (ra) was a BLACK ARAB , he was among the refugees who went to Najashi (the Negus) in ETHIOPIA. He conquered Palestine and Egypt….

    UBADAH IBN AS SAMIT (ra) was also a BLACK ARAB, he was from a noble arab tribe, and he was the chief of the muslims when they conquered Egypt…He was an ANSAR as well…The Chief of the Copts didn’t want to talk with him because HE WAS BLACK.

    MUHAMMAD IBN MASLAMAH (ra) was BLACK. He was described as “Tall, Black and Strong”

    AMMAR IBN YASIR (ra) who was a QOREISH was also A BLACK ARAB.

    ZAIB IBN HARITHAH (ra) , MUHAMMAD’s (saw) adopted son was also a BLACK ARAB. He was kidnapped by members of the Banu AL QAYN tribe , and sold as a slaves. His father HARITHAH IBN SHURAHIL went to mecca in order to freed him but he refused.

    These are few examples, there were many BLACKS : ARABS and ETHIOPIANS within the Prophet’s companions.

    And among the first and best sholars of ISLAM there were many, many BLACKS. They don’t say it into the islamic books though (or they hide it)…

    Even OMAR IBN KHATTAB (ra), the second caliph, has been scorned by the enemies of islam as the ” SON OF A BLACK WOMAN” because his grandmother was a BLACK ETHIOPIAN. He was a very Dark skinned arab….

    There was many Black Arabs at the time of Prophet Muhammed(saw) and they were also in the armies who conquered North Africa…

    I’ll give you the reference of the book where you can find pictures of the present BLACK ARABS IN ARABIA.

    In this same book you have also pictures of Blacks Berbers in LIBYA (GHADAMES)

  6. i dont read this every day or i would have came back that day.i didnt say he was a negro i said he was a moor,i said no white man owned 25000 negroes ,isnt that what it says ,cant you comprehend english,when you call me out read what i typed properly.you looking to look smart off my back uh uh .now let me break it down,the moors were in ,akebulan kemet,egypt/egipt,nubia/mali/morooco before mohahamedism,the moors come before mohammedism an anything that came killing from the north an made people slaves.you dont know what black means in law in america an universally which is why people get paid to keep other people stupid by blocking knowlege with gangerine lessons put in place by the fake fez wearers who worship baphomet.all moors are not muslims of muhammed an the ones who are got moorish science after mohammedism islam not i self lord am master which was replaced that was first wars in west an east against the moors by religious fanatics of today.i didnt even keep reading what you wrote it say black black black ,africa africa african.this will be a stupid conversation cause africa is akebulan ,black for skin color is what the european named you after black a moor an you kept the black after negro.you are not black cause your skin is dark the only ral color black is up the black holes of you ass nose ears that the doctor needs light to see .where everyone must pass to be born.when you go to ancient times race was not invented,we did not have that ,the grafted ones did ,the blue /green eyed ones.we are from ancient times before we were taken as slaves an replaced by the ottoman turks an mohammedism.the fez went to the red /blue lodge temples ,thats why they have to learn the koran to initiate,egypt ,north akebulan when the conquered they kepyt the religion language arts an said it was theirs ,did the romans change spanish to italian no just moorish latin name to spanish.moors were here in this land for 100000 years an our seal is on the left side of the bill.we are not all from the east in the 1600s ,we were here an didnt call our self ni color of law coroprate title.i dont see how we were bought from africa either like the black people say an allof us here just came 400-500 years ago as slaves.noble dre ali ,c.m bey.do you know what the turks are ,is he talking bout turkey,no pale red ruddy amazon mystic turks from patagona,still telling people they come from caucus mountains,if you dont know where caucasions come from how can you know what a turk is ,caucus mountains are land we gave them when we ruled europe ,when we ruled europe,they couldnt attack the south until the moors lost europe except spain an portugal then we lost that to.,hes talkng history everybody which we know is a lie but its taught in universitys by fez wearing prpfessors with symbols on top.they took over tha masonry to with minimal degrees.these are the race creators ,they are the sons of the patagona blondes from south america,you nothing of this cause its not written for the average eye but im the owl who can tell you.the moors dont say the black they say they human,once again we gave people religions ,all the races we created an they changed them to paternal religions.we are a science not a religion,i woulssay all religions but that would be telling you the religions came before us.that would make adam ,eve the bible all that legitimate,thats why people have arguments on false platforms hizz.torys story,do you know what a tory is.the lighhter ones disrespected the darker ones but they stillcome from the darker ones.backward teachings like bilal being the fourt convet when he really was a moor conquered .we were expelled from kemet an that area in 641a.d..moorstoday are all religions cause they all are our science.when euros couldnt read write or speak we did not tell them we were black an they were white when we raised them into civilization and nobility.race was created to hide that.in i self lord am master is the first islam ,islamism,your talking mohammedism ,the boring modern history of mankind after we the moors fell.mohammedism is not the original moors ,man woman none of that.hizz torys story is not our story so you cant argue modern timeswhen you dont know wha we were doing 100000 years ago up until we fell an lost power tothe crreed holders of mohammedism an masonry.they dont hate muslims an praise allah,two arms two legs an one head ,muslim=muscles tisssues an bones,allah=all law see thats not mohammed male mystery god who translaters always call he like in the bible.those books all have the s taken away from he ,making them false platforms with saturn the male replacing venus as the creator.thats the day after my earth day an i know i didnt give out no false info all mathematically correct ,i do not have an opinion ,opinions area waste of time ,im trained to know not think an before a type i know what reality facts i am puttiing back in the brains of my people.washitaw moors ,iriquois moors are trying to put it back but its being blocked by the so called black mans hatred for the so called white moor like master farrad muhammed was.thats who came in a conquered ,but ah who conquered them first who raised them to speeak read write bathe ,christians didnt bathe we were we before we were slaves ,,we were the slave masters accept it.the plantations in the south were our taken over by euros who lied an said they was here first.im not a good moor ,i havent learned to love ignorance an lack of reading comprehension.my words were to short for a reading mistake like that to be made by someone who blazes in as if they have so much intelligence,an you gotta really be that to catch me in a false lie as you have claimed.you have lessons of the university ,1,2,or 3 degrees of the university ,we the moors are universal degreesan thats what we come from an cannot so 360 degrees cant be ruled by 3 an rasta livewire is going back to 360,you can come elevate or stay in the dark.my people,,,,search the curse of baphomet chick publications if you cant get site,,,www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0093/0093_01.asp this enforces bull crap about the fez an mystyc amazon turks ,invaded fez,they say muslim hordes ran over fez i the 8th century,thats modern history compared to us.we did moor than falll to the red ruddy ones who we created an be slaves for theem taking their last names an asking fort repect in them, a black person in law is a moor with a european slave name thats it in the union states of europe.kill the emotion its a spell with no potion.peace jah dey ,i challenged that man on you tube as did about three shieks so we gonna put back right an exact knowledge in our people,all asiatics the moors.we didnt start as slaves an we will not end as slaves.we must come back to our original nationality that they stole in this land right here.all others who insist on the slave name africa after it carthage an hannible was conquered by roman general cyprio africaanus in 204 a.d an sold out by the numidians who were moors to.thats when they first got in not the 8th century.we lost cecilia or cicily as its called today in 1081.back to africa by euros was revenge they still maintain today.i did not call the sultan a negro an once i see that you wrong an you cant see that admit that then whats the sense in talking with nonsense that cant read what they are refuting,then comment like they are making a point.its a creation like santa claus .2+2= 4 i aiint gotta say no moor

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