Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (Early Modern History: Society and Culture)

In 1492 Christopher Columbus, I suppose in the spirit of the age, in a spirit of conquest, exploration, and ultimately exploitation set the tone for mastery; at about the same time Isabelle and Ferdinand expelled the Moors from southern Spain and created fierce enemies which, ultimately, would seek vengeance upon Christendom. Perhaps a remarkable difference in slavery in the American south was that was primarily for economic reasons; in the Maghred, there was another element, a value, in addition to profit, and that was passionate revenge. It would be close to call it “jihad.”. Whatever the motives there is in slavery a loss of personhood and freedom. We live now in a DNA culture and may of us get reports which show 1 or 2% of some region in the world unbeknownst to us and just perhaps these trace evidences are the remnants of three centuries of slave cultures. In this superb and scholarly volume, Robert Davis tracks the taking and pillage of ships—-piracy—-what is called “going out a thieving.”. Pirate princes and pashas drove campaigns to injure European shipping along the costal areas of Spain, Italy, and Mediterranean islands in order to annihilate Christian resistance to the expansion of the Turks. Plunder was divided among the captain and the officers and the soldiers, and that was the deal. Davis, a professor of Italian history at Ohio State University, carefully articulates the taking of slaves, slave labor, the vocabulary of slave breaking and maintenance; ultimately the demise of white slavery would rest with merging politics and conquests in the region. If, in fact, the great nations engage in the moral arc of justice, anyone interested in slavery as a phenomenon must reckon with the real and often ignored reality of centuries of white slavery just as much as we have to reckon with black slavery.

In concurrence with other reviewers, this was an excellently researched book. Even with a lot of historical context it was not dry at all. The author's style made it very readable.

I learned a lot about a subject of which I knew very little. What a surprise to find out that the Moslem Barbary pirates captured slaves all the way up to Iceland. For those who want to counter the prevailing mindset that slavery was practiced only by Europeans/Americans for the Atlantic trade, this book provides plenty of facts to support rebuttals.

When they think of slavery, most Americans doubtless think of way Black Africans were captured by other Black Africans and then sold to White slave traders who transported them across the Atlantic for resale to British, American, and Portuguese masters in the new world, most ending up in Brazil and the American South. Doubtless fewer Americans are aware that a roughly equal number of Black Africans were sold to Arabic slave traders who ran slave markets in the Middle East. Transportation by land across the Sahara was about as deadly as the Middle Passage by sea across the Atlantic and some historians say about an equal number crossed the Sahara as the Atlantic. Historians rightly point out that Africans taken to the New World had few rights and were treated little better than farm animals while Africans taken to Islamic countries , while still slaves, were somewhat protected by provisions in the Koran that recognized and regulated slavery and did not recognize a hierarchy of races.

So to their great credit, North African states, nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, did not select their victims on the basis of race. They were, indeed, equal opportunity slavers. They were not totally unlike hunters who round up wild horses and tame them for eventual resale. Intrigued when I came across a reference to Professor Davis’ book in The Economist, I ordered it to learn a bit more about how the other half slaved.

Professor Davis’ research into the nature and extent of the enslavement of White Europeans was a considerable scholarly challenge. It was no easy task to develop credible conclusions from the scant data about events that took place between 1500 and 1750 in the Eastern Mediterranean. Still, he is firm in his conclusion that around a million Europeans were captured by Muslim state-sanctioned warriors, sold in public markets, and subsequently forced to work without pay and with minimal civil rights. Their lives were often nasty, brutal, and short.

This is a topic fraught with potential for bias, counter-bias, and more. Davis never comes close to polemics or lurid atmospherics. He never presents his research as anything like an "expose" or the "true story" of anything. Keeping all this in mind, I would say four things stuck with me after reading the book.

1. The European part of the African slave trade was just that, a trade. They bought and sold in a free market. Long before they came on the scene the power and wealth of many African political leaders depended on their ability to capture and enslave other Africans. In some places this had been going on for centuries by the time Europeans arrived on the scene and quickly began to outbid other bidders for slaves. The market quickly expanded. African slavers produced more and more product. Europeans bought and transported more. Who’s to blame? Davis bends over backwards to avoid indicting any other than the White slaver traders, but still leaves the question up to the reader.

2. In the Moslem Mediterranean slave trade, there was no separation between those who captured the victims and those who sold them. Barbary coast raiders went out into the Mediterranean with the express purpose of capturing non-Muslims for eventual resale in slave markets. Since the Koran forbids one Muslim to enslave another, only Christians, Jews, and the occasional non-believer could be taken. They were just as willing to scoop up a few dozen peasants from an Italian village as they were to grab a similar number from a becalmed merchant ship off the coast of Sicily for transportation to a slave market in North Africa.

3. But Davis writes as an academic researcher, not a revisionist. So we learn that those “enslaved” by Muslim pirates could and (sometimes) would be redeemed by their relatives/friends etc. We also learn that it was not a “free for all” between Muslims and Christians in the Mediterranean. Pirates could only attack, capture, and enslave people from stages that were “officially” at war with the Ottoman Empire. Other Christians could sail by unmolested (with a little bit of luck). And pirates worked overtime to find out the social status of captured Europeans because they knew the relatives of better off Europeans would eventually pay a pretty price for their release. Also, Southern Europeans who were captured and enslaved by North Africans were really fairly close to home, able to communicate with family and friends, and negotiate for eventual ransom and release. Africans who sold into slavery in a the New World were thousands of miles from home, stigmatized by their race, and forced to struggle with totally alien cultures.

Since the Koran forbids a Muslim to enslave another Muslim, many enslaved Christians were tempted to escape enslavement by accepting Islam as a new faith. Davis reports that a lot of bargaining went on since owners knew that a Christian slave could become a free Muslim with an oath or two and recanting slaves knew they would be cutting ties with family and community. Davis makes it very clear that galley slaves led short and hellish lives, the great majority of enslaved peasants and common sailors were a lot worse off than they had been before enslavement, and the middle-class and aristocratic captives were often ransomed and returned within a year or two.

4. Still, I am aware of a fair amount of research that suggests that Africans who survived the dangerous trek across the Sahara were somewhat protected by the Koran and by Shari law. Most Africans taken into slavery eventually blended into the population of the Arab middle east fairly well.

me to Europeans and Americans.

His research was no piece of cake. He obviously struggled to develop conclusions from the now scant data about events that took place centuries ago, between 1500 and 1750 in the Eastern Mediterranean. But it certainly seems likely that in something like a million Europeans were captured by Muslim pirates/privateers/commandos (take your pick), sold in public markets, forced to work without pay, and likely to lead short, unhappy lives. In short, they were sought out, captured, sold at auction, and thus enslaved.

This is a topic fraught with potential for bias, counter-bias, and more. Davis never come close to polemics of any kind. He never presents his research as anything like an "expose" or the "true story" of anything. Keeping all this in mind, I would say 4things stuck with me after reading the book.

from the scant archives of a half-century ago and African slaves were transported to what is now Brazil, to the French and British Caribbean, and to what are now the Southern states of the U.S. that few contemporary readers are likely aware that a very aggressive enslavement of Europeans by North African subject states of the Ottoman Empire (the Barbary States) over two centuries (roughly 1550 to 1750) resulted

1. The African slave trade by Europeans was just that, a trade. There were many African political leaders whose power was dependent on their ability to capture and enslave other Africans. They had been doing it for centuries by the time Europeans arrived. The Europeans outbid the locals for slaves. The market quickly expanded. African slavers produced more and more product. Europeans bought and transported more. Who’s to blame? Davis bends over backwards to avoid indicting any other than the White slaver traders, but still leaves the question up to the reader.

2. In the Moslem Mediterranean slave trade , there was no separation between those who captured the victims and those who sold them. Barbary coast raiders were just a willing to scoop up a few dozen peasants from an Italian village as they were to grab a similar number from a becalmed merchant ship off the coast of Sicily. So not a pretty picture. In Africa, European merchants were just transporting “cargo” from point to point. But in the Mediterranean, Muslims seemed to claim that a holy war justified capturing and selling Europeans.

3. But, as I said above, Davis writes as an academic researcher, not a revisionist. So we learn that those “enslaved” by Muslim pirates could and (sometimes) would be redeemed by their relatives/friends etc. We also learn that it was not a “free for all” between Muslims and Christians in the Mediterranean. Pirates could only attack, capture, and enslave people from stages that were “officially” at war with the Ottoman Empire. Other Christians could sail by unmolested (with a little bit of luck). Also, Southern Europeans captured and enslaved by Ottomans were often quite close to home, able to communicate with family and friends, and negotiate for eventual ransom and release.

As always in the ironic world of Islam, there existed the stipulation that one Muslim cannot be enslaved by another Muslim. Hence, many enslaved Christians were tempted to try to regain “freedom” by accepting Islam as a new faith. Davis reports that a lot of bargaining went on. Some did. Some didn’t. To me, sounds like Ireland.

4. Still, there is a lot of research that suggests that about the same number of African captives (seven million) crossed the “middle passage” as crossed the Sahara on the way to Arabic slave markets. Yet , once processed by such markets, and protected by Shari law, former slaves in Africa eventually blended into the population of the Arab middle east fairly well. All well and good. But only in the West, in the U.S., did Obama become Head of State.

Hardly an easy topic to research. Thanks to Dr. Davis, we are a step closer to truth.

I was drawn to this book because of my own family's experience with enslavement in Tunisia, numerous ancestors and relatives taken from coastal areas in southern Italy during the 18th century. My limited knowledge of Neapolitan song and folklore gave me the understanding that slavery was a genuine fear among the populace, but I knew little of the context nor the history. For these reasons, I found Professor Davis's book valuable. Its primary focus is on Italy, which was in a far more precarious situation than other areas of Mediterranean Europe due to its extensive coastline, collection of islands, and most importantly, in the south at least, the total lack of any naval or military might. As a colony (for all intents and purposes) of Spain, southern Italy and its inhabitants had no protection from Ottoman plunderers.

Since ransoming slaves was a popular cause among Catholic monks and priests, some of those who were taken captive were eventually released and returned home. The accounts of those who were freed as well as those who did the ransoming form the primary source material for Davis to explain what types of work enslaved men (and it was primarily men that were taken, and who were not allowed to procreate once in captivity) did, how they were treated, etc.

My main criticism of the book is that the prose is very dry and utilitarian. A second criticism is the unfortunate title, which superimposes modern day American racial terms where they don't belong. As the author discusses in great detail, the difference between the masters and the slaves was not race, but religion. It was by no means "blacks" enslaving "whites" as some of these reviews seem to think. In fact, it's highly unlikely those involved would have even thought in such terms; they were all Mediterranean people and their identities were based on language, religion, custom, etc. Skin color was not a differentiating factor. In short, the slavery described in this book was a largely Mediterranean phenomenon, based in religion and territorial aggression, and has nothing to do with the Atlantic slave trade.

Criticisms aside, this is a good place to begin learning this history. Unfortunately, after this book, at least in English, there isn't much else to read.

I purchased this book for background research for A historical fiction novel that I am writing. The scholarship is excellent, and the author shines significant light into a region of history that, although I’m a history, buff, I knew essentially nothing about for example, it took me by complete surprise that Barbie pirates regularly rated the coasts of England, Scotland and Ireland and took tens of thousands perhaps hundreds of thousands of people from those countries hostage or into servitude. Anybody who has an interest in naval history, European history the history of the Barbie states would do well to purchase this book.

The historical account of this era is fascinating. Well written and what a different account than that offered by mainstream media and academics. Slavery had nothing to do with race and had everything to do with exploiting vulnerable people by more powerful people. Terrifying exercise in thought and imagination putting myself in the shoes of the priests, travelers, explorers, fisherman and villagers who were raided by these pirates for hundreds of years.

I found this book truly fascinating. If ever we need to understand what is going on today we need to read about the history of the Muslim world. Readers will have a much better understanding of how and why the people in that area and under the Muslim religion think of us the way they do. This should be taught in school and I know it will never be, simply because we need to understand their contempt of Christians and of European/Western Civilizations. This book is an excellent read for anyone. A lot of thorough research, bibliographies, and laid out history of the dark past our politicians and college professors want us to forget. Kudos to R. Davis. I have yet to understand why it is so taboo to talk about slavery especially of whites. The people from the Barbary States had a hunger for white slaves just as some colonists had the same appetite for African slaves. The Muslims were like many other people back then, they made money off slavery. The difference here is the way they treated their slaves.

Much has been written about slavery in the Americas. The injustices and misery of the Black Africans will never be forgotten. However, there is little focus on other examples of "Mans inhumanity to Man".

Dr. Robert C. Davis, Professor of History at The Ohio State University, has brought another example to light. His documentation and research is vast. He tells how pirates of the Mediterranean and the Barbary Coast captured and enslaved a million or more whites from England, Europe and the Mediterranean countries from the year 1502, and continued for the next 400 years.

The stories in this book, peppered with researched historical facts, are very interesting and easy to read. Even more interesting is how this enslavement may well have changed the history of Europe.

Der Handel mit weißen christlichen Sklaven ist ein heute meist verdrängtes oder unbekanntes Problem, tatsächlich aber war es ein großes Problem das von 1500 bis 1833 dem Fall von Algier andauerte. Mich hatte dieses Buch daher gleich angesprochen. Der Autor ist Professor an der Ohio State University, und leider hat sich dieser lehrbuchhafte professorale Ton auch in dieses Buch eingeschlichen. Es ist ein interessantes Thema, aber man muss sich wirklich dafür interessieren wenn man es lesen will, denn die reine Freude ist es nicht. Zu trocken.

Gleich zu Anfang geht es mit Tabellen und Umrechnungsfaktoren los, dann folgen Listen mit den spektakulärsten Beutezügen der Moslemischen Piraten. So etwas gehört in ein solches Buch aber doch bitte in den Anhang. Erst nach diesem Abschnitt geht es mit den Beschreibungen der Sklavenhaltung und der Sklavenjagd los. Wobei immer wieder das Klagelied angestimmt wird wie schwierig doch die Quellenstudien waren.

Alles in Allem ein durchwachsenes Buch das ich nur wirklich Interessierten empfehlen möchte, sonst fliegt das Buch nämlich in die Ecke.

Mit besten Empfehlungen

JTK

For very long centuries Christians were put in slavery in Muslim run countries, and then from 1492 to 1830 pirates of the Ottoman Empire ruling over the North Africa territories organised the capture , the torture and the death of millions of Christians taken at sea or from the villages on the coast of the Mediterranean sea and the English, Irish and Nordic coasts. They had to work or were put in harems. The Barbaresques sold a few men back thanks to the Catholic Church (The Knight of Malta) or the Protestant clergy that managed to free some of them. Women and children were never sold, but kept until they died. Those atrocities were well known for centuries than recently were pushed aside for political reasons, but those horrors have to be put on the front to make people understand better the history of our countries. All that had been very well documented for anyone who wants to know the truth. This book contributes to bring back the true story of those Christians

This book reveals facts about the history of slavery of which most people are totally ignorant. It places events into chronological order and traces slavery before the more widely known Atlantic Slave Trade.

informative and well put together, and very interesting.

Spain's Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, author of my favourite novel, Don Quixote, was probably the most famous victim of the Barbary slave trade. Captured by Muslim pirates on the Mediterranean Sea and taken to Algiers, he remained enslaved for 5 years until he was ransomed by a Catholic religious order, the Trinitarians, and returned to Spain. (You will learn a lot about the Trinitarians in this book.) For this reason, Cervantes includes a short story about the Barbary slave trade in Don Quixote.

Nevertheless, many people are surprised to learn that Europeans were enslaved by Africans at all. But the fact is that every race has been enslaved, and every race has practiced slavery. It existed on a large scale in China, India, and the Muslim world. It existed in the Western hemisphere even before the arrival of the first Europeans, and the same is true of sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, for the most part, Europeans bought African slaves from African slave traders, who were eager to sell their fellow Africans into slavery for profit. If Europeans can be singled out for anything regarding slavery, it would be the establishment of the global abolitionist movement, that originated in Europe and was enforced by European colonial powers throughout the world.

A couple of years ago, I completed Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The fifth book in that series, "The Wolves of the Calla," is about a town that is routinely raided by hooded wolves on horseback who steal a child from each household, only to return them as a mere shell of their formal selves. Well, that's the Barbary slave trade in a nutshell...

Coastal towns on the north Mediterranean, from Italy to France, Spain and beyond, were constantly under threat by Muslim pirates who would steal away loved ones by sea or by land, demanding a considerable sum for their return, often amounting to multiple year's income. Since most people were unable to pay, religious orders like the Trinitarians took up the cause, attempting to ransom as many European slaves from North Africa as possible, although they never managed more than a small fraction of the total in any given year.

I did not find this to be a difficult read. If you find the topic interesting, you should find yourself breezing through the book. In the first chapter, Davis considers how many slaves were taken, being over a million. In the second chapter, he describes the process by which slaves were taken and beaten into submission. In the next couple of chapters, he describes the trials and tribulations of European slaves in North Africa, not least of which was the temptation to convert to Islam in order to escape the horror of slavery. Indeed, some of the slaves holders were themselves former Christians, called "renegades." In the penultimate chapter, he describes how donations for the redemption of slaves were collected in Europe. Finally, in a chapter titled "Celebrating Slavery," he describes how returning slaves would be celebrated with elaborate public processions, including fireworks, Mass, and special attention by dignitaries.