The shocking history of enslavement of 1.5 million white Europeans in North Africa in the 16th century
The shocking history of enslavement of 1.5 million white Europeans in North Africa in the 16th century Late last year, the BBC reported that historians had launched a campaign to create awareness about the Barbary pirates of North Africa. These pirates, also called the Barbary corsairs, captured hundreds of thousands of people from Britain’s coastal communities from the 16th to 19th century and sold them into slavery in North Africa, where many spent the rest of their lives. The Barbary slave trade, which occurred at the same time as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade where black Africans were shipped off from Africa to the Americas, has been an especially contentious topic, drawing furious debate on the issues of slavery, racism, and religion. Also called the ‘White Slavery’, the trade occurred on the Berber Coast of North Africa that encompasses present-day Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria, which were then independent states under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire. The people ...