Posted on 05/28/2014 12:12:26 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Keep in mind when reading the account that all these slavers were referred to as "Turks" even though they would more accurately be of North African/Berber/Barbary state origin.
Of course. Your ancestor from 300 years ago was probably treated unfairly.
How about our European ancestors who fled horrible oppression and even “slavery.” The governments of Europe owe me money! Give it up NOW!
/johnny
And of course Roman society was dependent on slavery (of other Europeans they conquered)
It really irks me that people do not include the historical long view of slavery and assume it was just a N. American invention.
Most Africans shipped across the Atlantic were enslaved first either by their own pagan leaders or by pagan slave raiders.
Throughout this period, the sale of slaves to Europeans was almost exclusively controlled by pagan kingdoms along the coast. Some of those they sold were probably initially captured by Muslims, but most Muslim captives went north across the Sahara or east across the Red Sea or Indian Ocean.
At is peak the “Christian” transatlantic trade was much larger in volume than the Muslim Sahara and Indian Ocean trade, but the Muslim trade started much sooner and lasted at least a century longer. The total number of Africans shipped out of Africa by the two trades was probably similar, somewhere between 10M and 15M.
IOW, few American blacks are descended from those enslaved by Muslims.
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It’s a good thing you put “Christian” in quotes because to some there is no difference between cultural Christians and actual Christians. There is in fact a difference, but this is the very basis on how some claim that Hitler was also a Christian, although never calling himself one. Western culture is basically what’s left of what was once known as “Christendom”, having now fallen somewhat from that.
Biggar, H.P., "The Early Trading Companies of New France," 1st edit., 1901, Toronto: University of Toronto Library; reprint, Clifton, NJ: Augustus M. Kelly Publishers, 1972; New York: Sentry Press
The black man you are referring to is probably Esteban or Estevanico, one of the four survivors of the Narvaez expedition which landed in Florida in 1528—known about from the narrative written by Cabeza de Vaca after they got back to Mexico. They had been shipwrecked on the coast of Texas and were enslaved by local Indians for several years before finally escaping.
There was also a huge slave trade in eastern Europe, with the Balkans, Ukraine and Russia regularly raided for a thousand years by Norse, Germans, Bulgars, Greeks, Tatars and Turks.
http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2013/09/from-slavs-to-slaves.html
This massive trade resulted in the word variants of the word “Slav” being imported into almost every modern European language to mean a person held in chattel bondage.
One big difference between Muslim and “Christian” slavery is that Muslim slavery was largely conspicuous luxury consumption (especially sex toys and soldiers) rather than used for capitalist production.
Unfortunately, most of those who engaged in the slave trade were actual Christians, to use your terms, at least in their own minds and those of their contemporaries.
I used the quotes because IMO slavery is in conflict with the basic ideas and concepts of Christianity. Unfortunately, the actual New Testament contains no specific denunciation of the institution, with the writers apparently accepting it as just a fact of life.
As indeed apparently all human societies did until Christians began a campaign against it in the 18th century.
The Romans, like just about all human societies, were equal-opportunity enslavers. They enslaved people from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. And they bought slaves from almost anywhere outside the Empire.
There was little or no racial or racist component to slavery in most societies before the 16th century in the Americas.
But we certainly can think of it as something Muslims did to both.
Oh, I'm sorry - did that step on some rose-colored world views? :)
Do they ever count indentured servants or bond-slaves in the statistics?
It was very frequent in Europe to sentence someone to being a bond-slave as punishment for a crime like stealing a loaf of bread, or not being able to pay a debt.
I’m Slavic… Where do they think that name came from????
I see your point there too. John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, continued in the slave trade for a while even after converting, before becoming an abolitionist. But the point is that his conversion began a transition toward a better state of being. Islam, however, still practices slavery. Conversion carries no such desire to better one’s self in that regard.
Just look at what the Germans did in ww2.
Mans inhumanity to man can only be stopped by God.
Your politically-correct dictionary will not tell you this, but where o you think the term “barbarian” came from?
A little discussed FACT is that the main reason Europe established colonies in North Africa in the first place was to simply control their coastlines, so that they could trade in peace with each other (as in Italy trading with Spain).
The idea that they went there just for kicks is totally discredited.
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