Global InformationWhite slavery information
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White slavery (also white slave trade or white slave trafficking) refers to the enslavement of any of the world's European ethnic groups throughout human history, whether perpetrated by non-Europeans or by other Europeans. Slavery in ancient Rome was frequently dependent on a person's socio-economic status and national affiliation, and thus included European slaves. It was also common for European people to be enslaved and traded in the Muslim world; European women, in particular, were highly sought-after to be concubines in the harems of many Muslim rulers. Examples of such slavery conducted in Islamic empires include the Arab slave trade, the Barbary slave trade, and the Black Sea slave trade, among others. It was common for Europeans to be traded alongside Africans, Turks, Iranians, and sometimes other Arabs.
Many different types of white people were enslaved. On the European continent under feudalism, there were various forms of status applying to people (such as serf, bordar, villein, vagabond, and slave) who were indentured or forced to labour without pay.
During the Arab slave trade, Europeans were among those traded by the Arabs.[1] The term Saqaliba (Arabic: صقالبة) was often used in medieval Arabic sources to refer specifically to Slavs being traded by the Arabs, but it could also refer more broadly to Central, Southern, and Eastern Europeans who were also traded by the Arabs, as well as all European slaves in some Muslim-controlled regions like Spain, including those abducted from raids on Spanish Christian kingdoms.[2][3] During the era of the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), the majority of slaves were Europeans taken from European coasts and during conflicts.[1] Similarly, the Ottoman slave trade that included European captives was often fueled by raids into European territories or were taken as children in the form of a blood tax from the families of citizens of conquered territories to serve the empire for a variety of functions.[4] In the mid-19th century, the term 'white slavery' was used to describe the Christian slaves that were sold into the Barbary slave trade in North Africa.
- ^ a b Akinbode, Ayomide (20 December 2021). "The Forgotten Arab Slave Trade of East Africa". The History Ville. Archived from the original on 6 December 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ^ Mishin, Dmitrij (1998). The Saqaliba slaves in the Aghlabid state (PDF). Budapest: Central European University. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
- ^ Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery saqaliba&f=false The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery: A-K ; Vol. II, L-Z, by Junius P. Rodriguez
- ^ Shaw, Stanford (1976). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Volume I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-21280-4.