The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam

by Simon Webb

Overview

Explains the role of the newly independent United States in putting an end to the trade in European and American slaves.

Everybody knows about the transatlantic slave trade, which saw black Africans snatched from their homes, taken across the Atlantic Ocean and then sold into slavery. However, a century before Britain became involved in this terrible business, whole villages and towns in England, Ireland, Italy, Spain and other European countries were being depopulated by slavers, who transported the men, women and children to Africa where they were sold to the highest bidder. This is the forgotten slave trade; one which saw over a million Christians forced into captivity in the Muslim world.

Starting with the practice of slavery in the ancient world, Simon Webb traces the history of slavery in Europe, showing that the numbers involved were vast and that the victims were often treated far more cruelly than black slaves in America and the Caribbean. Castration, used very occasionally against black slaves taken across the Atlantic, was routinely carried out on an industrial scale on European boys who were exported to Africa and the Middle East. Most people are aware that the English city of Bristol was a major center for the transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century, but hardly anyone knows that 1,000 years earlier it had been an important staging-post for the transfer of English slaves to Africa.

Reading this book will forever change how you view the slave trade and show that many commonly held beliefs about this controversial subject are almost wholly inaccurate and mistaken.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526769268
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	02/08/2021
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	250,351
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Simon Webb is the author of a number of non-fiction books, ranging from academic works on education to popular history. He works as a consultant on the subject of capital punishment to television companies and filmmakers and also writes for various magazines and newspapers; including the Times Educational Supplement, Daily Telegraph and the Guardian.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vi

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 The Roots of Slavery 1

Chapter 2 Slavery in Europe until the Coming of the Vikings 10

Chapter 3 Exporting Concubines and Eunuchs from Europe to Africa 19

Chapter 4 Mamluks and Janissaries 37

Chapter 5 The Coming of the Corsairs 54

Chapter 6 The Raids on the British Isles 69

Chapter 7 Fighting Back 81

Chapter 8 Paying the Dane-Geld 101

Chapter 9 The Sale Rovers 113

Chapter 10 America Enters the World Stage 126

Chapter 11 The Barbary Wars 138

Chapter 12 The Aftershock 161

Endword 173

References 176

Index 184