Slavery in North Africa...

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

Is it true that there were some Africans who captured whites and enslaved them in northern parts of Africa? I remember once talking about this in world history class...dunno if its true.

is it?

[RedAnarchist]

There was a documentary about this on BBC 2 afew months ago.

It is true, and many people were enslaved, but this slave trade pales in comparison to the one in which Africans were enslaved - millions were kidnapped and took across to the New World.

[Hampton]

There's something called the Barbary Captivity Narratives which tells stories of Englishmen abducted by the Barbary pirates of North Africa. I'm not to sure if it's true, although I'm sure that it did happen just like how some whites were held in slavery in the American South.

There's a couple of books if people want to read further into it:

White Slaves, African Masters: An Anthology of American Barbary Captivity Narratives by Paul Michel Baepler (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0226034038/qid=1073412459/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-2164700-2383023?v=glance&s=books)

They Were White and They Were Slaves: The Untold History of the Enslavement of Whites in Early America by Michael A. II Hoffman (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0929903056/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/103-2164700-2383023?v=glance&s=books&st=*)

Piracy, Slavery, and Redemption by Daniel J. Vitkus (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0231119054/qid=1073413101/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-2164700-2383023?v=glance&s=books)

[RedAnarchist]

interesting links

[RedAnarchist]

Apparently a town in Ireland was hit so bad by the slavers that its entire populace died out.

[Vladimir I. Kropotkin]

although that is horrible, tens of millions of dead Africans, and hundreds in slavery is more sombering.

[RedAnarchist]

the more recent slave trade which abused many innocent africans is an example of just how terribley we sometimes treat our fellow humans. Using another human as a slave is an evil thing to do.

[Vladimir I. Kropotkin]

Evil yes, and whether it be the physical torture, murder and exploitation of the Atlantic Slave Trade or the wage slavery of the contemporary capitalist hegemony, to use a cappie cliche, with slavery, the buck stops with capitalism, the capitalist, the greatest slave trader in world history, the purveyor of the worlds worst crimes and the foot in the back of billions of workers and peasants around the world.

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

Damn, good links there, I need to check out some of these books sometime...

So...how did these Africans capture the whites? If the Brits knew of this, wouldnt they have sent armed reinforcements to sort've 'subdue' the africans? Why would they just let 'em enslave their own slavedrivers?!

[Segarr]

Originally posted by Vladimir I. [email protected] 22 2004, 02:44 PM
although that is horrible, tens of millions of dead Africans, and hundreds in slavery is more sombering.
I heard estimates of 60 MILLION Africans killed as a result of slavery.

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

60 million's a good estimate. But you hafta remember that there were many rebellions, and that some even killed themselves just so they wouldnt be slaves. Kinda sad, but shows a true rebel.

"Give me freedom or give me death".

[abigratsass]

hey i didnt read much about this or anything but i know for a fact (since its a part of my history) that there was a muslim sultan in moroco and he used forgein (manily european slaves) to build a sort of castle more like a city actually to harbour his 500 hundred children(his synasty still rules moroco today) . anywayz he used to catch them as they were all tradesman so he simply used to catch thier ships and take who ever is in them.
after ages the frensh and english and spanish sent amasadors to get the prisoners back but he refused since europen kings saw him nothing more than a barberic african although hed built an extreamliy powerfull country and was highly educated!

[Severian]

A lot of people from Eastern Europe were sold into slavery, including Muslim countries, including North Africa. Captured and sold by some German baron or something. The English word "slave" comes from "Slav".
Dictionary (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=slave)

It's true that the trans-Atlantic slave trade was larger and more brutal...but so what? The two ain't counterposed.

[Severian]

Originally posted by Knowledge 6 6 [email protected] 22 2004, 04:35 PM
So...how did these Africans capture the whites? If the Brits knew of this, wouldnt they have sent armed reinforcements to sort've 'subdue' the africans? Why would they just let 'em enslave their own slavedrivers?!
Because for centuries, the Ottoman Empire, which controlled most of North Africa and protected the Barbary pirates, was more powerful than any European country. Certainly more powerful than the Brits, who didn't amount to anything 'til the 18th century or so.

[SittingBull47]

wow, i had no idea about this. So whites were enslaved by african's. That must have been satisfying to people in Africa, a payback for the millions of blacks abused, sold, dehumanized, and demoralized.

[RedAnarchist]

The white slave trade was a few hundred years before the African slave trade.

[sh0cker]

I think even if it is all true, what is possible but not precise, whole Africa payed everything back few times later on to British, French, Portugese, German and others.
Africans were slave people, and what is now happening there, it is the cause of slavery..
But it is hardly difficult to say in numbers how many people exactly were slaves.. etc.


sh0cker

[SittingBull47]

Originally posted by [email protected] 9 2004, 03:03 PM
The white slave trade was a few hundred years before the African slave trade.
that's true. I forgot about the european slave markets and the prostitution (aka the oldest profession)

[Misodoctakleidist]

I read an ariticle about this in the guardian today, apparently an historian has estimated that the barbary coats pirates captured over 1,000,000 europeans including people from cornwall and devon and even iceland.

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

Originally posted by [email protected] 9 2004, 02:57 PM
wow, i had no idea about this. So whites were enslaved by african's. That must have been satisfying to people in Africa, a payback for the millions of blacks abused, sold, dehumanized, and demoralized.
you can never pay back something of the trans-atlantic slave trade. It not only happened before, but it definitely was not out of retribution toward the whites.

[Morpheus]

This provides further evidence to show that slavery was more about class than race.