The Forgotten White Slaves and the Ignored History of Slavery Worldwide

The Forgotten White Slaves and the Ignored History of Slavery Worldwide

The story of slavery is more complicated than you’ve been told. Did you know that up to 1,250,000 white slaves were shipped to North Africa? Did you know a fifth of the United States government’s 1797 budget was paid in tribute to North African Muslim nations to free and stop enslaving Americans? Did you know the Ottoman Empire enslaved millions of Europeans? Did you know that slavery was so common in ancient Britain that the Anglo-Saxon word for ‘Briton’ was used interchangeably for ‘slave?’ Did you know owning and selling slaves was universal? Find out here White Slavery in the Mediterranean the Barbary Coast and Italy 1500 to1800 The story of slavery is more complex than we realise, and we should reassess our relationship to history and its legacy by acquainting ourselves with the facts. Speaking about the forgotten Barbary Slave Trade, Professor Jo Esra, of Exeter University said, “There’s an element that it has been culturally erased.” – Barbary Piracy that Enslaved Thousands ‘culturally erased,’ BBC Cornwall, 29 December 2017 But before we had lost sight of land, we were captured by Algerine pirates, who put all the men in irons... – Rev. Devereux Spratt, enslaved, April 1641, sailing with 120 passengers from Ireland to England. His story is but one of the estimated 7,000,000 white slaves taken to the Barbary Coast or to the Ottomon Empire Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future Slavery was a universal evil inflicted upon people in almost every culture, region and period of history. When you mention the word ‘slave’ your mind immediately is drawn to the horror of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Slavery was, however, widespread throughout the ancient world and in the modern era, and continues today. The number of slaves suffering today is estimated to be from 38,000,000 to 46,000,000. Captn. Mootham and Mr. Dawes (who have been both slaves there) did make me fully acquainted with their condition there: as, how they eat nothing but bread and water. At their redemption they pay so much for the water they drink at the public fountaynes, during their being slaves. How they are beat upon the soles of their feet and bellies at the liberty of their padron – The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Algiers Slavery, 8 February 1661 Almost every ancient civilisation possessed slaves and enslaved others. The English word ‘slave’ derives from the enslavement of the ‘Slavic’ peoples. Thus, when the word ‘slave’ was coined in the West, the impression was of a Caucasian slave. Only in the last century has the shocking history of slavery been selectively read through the lens of American race issues and that for political gain. The oldest written history of the Slavs can be shortly summarised – myriads of slave hunts and the enthralment of entire peoples. The Slav was the most prized of human goods. With increased strength outside his marshy land of origin, hardened to the utmost against all privation, industrious, content with little, good-humoured, and cheerful, he filled the slave markets of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It must be remembered that for every Slavonic slave who reached his destination, at least ten succumbed to inhuman treatment during transport and to the heat of the climate. Indeed Ibrāhīm (tenth century), himself in all probability a slave dealer, says: “And the Slavs cannot travel to Lombardy on account of the heat which is fatal to them.” Hence their high price. The Arabian geographer of the ninth century tells us how the Magyars in the Pontus steppe dominated all the Slavs dwelling near them. The Magyars made raids upon the Slavs and took their prisoners along the coast to Kerkh where the Byzantines came to meet them and gave Greek brocades and such wares in exchange for the prisoners –The Cambridge Medieval History, Volume II, p. 429, 1913 Slavery was a worldwide institution and was so accepted by all, that it went forcefully unchallenged until the eighteenth century, and this only by Western civilisation. After banning the Slave Trade and the institution of slavery itself, Britain experienced unyielding resistance from countries and empires, in Africa, the Middle East and South America, who desired to retain the trade. British documents from consulates, political debates chronicled in Hansard, records overseas and firsthand testimonies from missionaries attest to this. The question needs to be asked: Why did no power fundamentally question and thus end slavery in the ancient world? Aristotle called it ‘natural,’ whilst others played with abolishing it, only for it to return. Pope Zachary banned the sale of Christians to Muslims in the 740s and by 873, Pope John VIII called enslaving Christians sinful, advocating freedom. By 1080, William the Conqueror in England prohibited the sale of slaves to non-Christians and in 1102, London’s ecclesiastical council banned the slave trade in England decreeing it illegal to sell “men like animals.” The British inspired by their faith in Christ, smashed the death knell into the Slave Trade and slavery. In 1763, Lord Henley, set a precedent that as “soon as a man sets foot on English ground he is free.” The first major power in world history to permanently ban the Slave Trade was Britain in 1807, with the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. This was passed after decades of campaigning by evangelical Christians led by William Wilberforce and it abolished the trade throughout the British Empire. The Royal Navy was then commissioned to suppress and then end the Slave Trade. The Royal Navy freed 150,000 African slaves and began a campaign to destroy the Slave Trade network, blowing up slave ports and capturing slave ships. It is the first example of international law (albeit self-appointed) being enforced. The Slavery Abolition Act also abolished the institution of slavery itself in 1833. In Zanzibar, I walked inside the cells of what was erroneously called the last open market for trading slaves (Isis opened their own slave markets in 2014). Historians estimate 50,000 Africans were sold through this market each year and the Sultan was unwilling to sign a British deal to eradicate it. Therefore, the Royal Navy bombarded Zanzibar on 27 August 1896, creating the shortest war in history (38 minutes), and ending slavery there. The Arab-Muslim Slave Trade is another part of world history that has been ‘culturally erased’ for political reasons. Historians estimate 2,500,000 more Africans were sold as slaves to Muslim-majority countries, than to North America. This fact has been erased from our education systems. The Arab word ‘abīd’ used for ‘slave’ during the Arab Slave Trade is still used to describe black people in the region and selling black people as slaves continues in places such as Libya. 2,500 years before Christ, slave trading in the Indian Ocean was being operated by the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Persians and Indian peoples. The ‘modern’ Indian Ocean Slave Trade operated from the 7th century until 1920. The French historian Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau estimates 17,000,000 slaves were sold throughout the Middle East, East Africa and Indian Ocean territories. China has a 7th century text from an ambassador in Java who gifted an African slave to the Emperor in AD 614. White Slavery in the Mediterranean the Barbary Coast and Italy 1500 to1800 https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Slaves-Muslim-Masters-Mediterranean/dp/1403945519/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=23FQ1JS95R8IN&keywords=The+Forgotten+White+Slaves+and+the+Ignored+History+of+Slavery+Worldwide&qid=1688075888&sprefix=the+forgotten+white+slaves+and+the+ignored+history+of+slavery+worldwide%2Caps%2C2921&sr=8-1

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