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So it was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
There were more Europeans enslaved by the Muslims black slaves shipped to America
American historians have studied all aspects of the enslavement of Africans by whites, but have largely ignored the slavery of whites by North Africans. Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters [Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters] [1] is a carefully documented book and clearly written what Professor Davis calls "the new slavery", which flourished for about the same time as the transatlantic slave trade and devastated hundreds of European coastal communities. In the minds of whites today, slavery does not play at all the central role that among blacks. And yet, he was not treated or short-term problem or something unimportant. The history of slavery in the Mediterranean is, in fact, as sinister as the most tendentious descriptions of American slavery.
A wholesale
The Barbary Coast, stretching from Morocco to Libya and was home to a thriving kidnapping industry human beings from 1500 to about 1800. The main slave capitals were Salé (Morocco), Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli, European navies having been too weak during most of this period to effect more than a merely symbolic resistance.
The transatlantic traffic of blacks was strictly commercial, but for Arabs memories of the Crusades and anger for having been expelled from Spain in 1492 seem to have led a campaign of kidnapping of Christians who almost looked like a jihad.
"It was perhaps the sting of revenge against the friendly haggling in the market place, which made the Islamic slave traders were much more aggressive and much more prosperous beginning (so to speak) that Christian counterparts" writes professor Davis.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were more numerous slaves taken south across the Mediterranean to the west across the Atlantic. Some were returned to their families against payment of a ransom, others were used for forced labor in North Africa and the less fortunate died working as slaves in the galleys.
What catches the attention of slave raids against European populations is their scale and scope. The pirates kidnapped most of his slaves intercepting ships, but also organized large amphibious assaults that left almost depopulated whole parts of the Italian coast. Italy was the country hardest hit, partly because Sicily is only 200 km from Tunis, but also because it did not have a strong central government that could resist the invasion.
Large raids often met no resistance
When the pirates ransacked, for example, Vieste in southern Italy in 1554, were made with the amazing number of 6,000 prisoners. Algerians kidnapped 7,000 slaves in the Bay of Naples in 1544, a raid that brought down both the price of slaves who were said to "exchange a Christian by an onion".
Spain also suffered large scale attacks. After a raid in Granada in 1556 that took 4,000 men, women and children, it stated that "Christians in Algiers rained down." And for every major raid of this type, there were smaller dozen.
The appearance of a large fleet could make the entire population to flee inland, emptying coastal areas.
In 1566, a group of 6,000 Turks and privateers crossed the Adriatic to land in Francavilla al Mare. The authorities could not do anything, and recommended the complete evacuation, leaving the Turkish control over 1,300 square kilometers of abandoned villages to Serracapriola.
When appeared the pirates, people often fled from the coast to the nearest town, but Professor Davis explains that doing such a thing was not always a good strategy: "More than a medium-sized city filled with refugees, was unable to resist a frontal attack of hundreds of assailants. the captain of the pirates, who otherwise would have to find a few dozen slaves along the beaches and in the hills, could now find a thousand or more captives conveniently gathered in one place to take. "
The pirates returned again and again to ransack the same territory. In addition to a much larger number of small raids, the Calabrian coast suffered the following serious depredations in less than ten years: 700 persons arrested in one raid in 1636, 1,000 in 1639 and 4,000 in 1644.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the pirates set up semi-permanent bases in the islands of Ischia and Procida, near the mouth of the Bay of Naples, chosen for its commercial traffic.
On landing, Muslim pirates did not stop desecrating churches. Often they stole the bells, not only because the metal was valuable but also to silence the distinctive voice of Christianity.
In smaller and more frequent raids, a small number of ships operated stealthily and dropped quietly on coastal settlements in the middle of the night in order to catch the "meek and still naked in bed" people. This practice gave rise to this Sicilian "pigliato turchi dai" ( "taken by the Turks"), and is used when you catch someone by surprise or being asleep or distracted.
Women were easier to catch than men, and coastal areas could quickly lose all women of childbearing age. The fishermen were afraid to leave, and not the sea were only in convoys. Finally, the Italians left much of its coast. As Professor Davis, the late seventeenth century, "the Italian peninsula was sacked by corsairs for two centuries or more, and coastal towns withdrew greatly fortified villages in the hills, or to larger cities such as Rimini explains, abandoning kilometers of coastline, now populated with vagabonds and freebooters. "
It was not until around 1700 when the Italians were able to prevent raids, though piracy in the seas could continue unhindered.
Piracy led to Spain and especially Italy to turn away from the sea and lose with devastating effects their traditions of trade and navigation "At least for Spain and Italy, the seventeenth century represented a dark period in which Spanish and Italian societies They were mere shadows of what they had been during previous golden ages ".
Some Arab pirates were seasoned offshore sailors, and terrorized Christians to a distance of 1,600 km. A spectacular raid in Iceland in 1627 left about 400 prisoners.
There is a belief that England was a formidable naval power since the time of Francis Drake, but throughout the seventeenth century Arab pirates operated freely in British waters, penetrating even the Thames estuary to capture and devastate coastal cities. In just three years, from 1606 to 1609, the British navy admitted losing, because of the Algerian corsairs, no less than 466 British and Scottish merchant ships. In the mid-1600s, the British were devoted to an active slave trade between both sides of the Atlantic, but many of the British crews became property of Arab pirates.
Life under the whip
Ground attacks could be very successful, but were more risky than the sea. The ships were therefore the main source of white slaves. Unlike their victims, pirate ships had two modes of propulsion: in addition to the sails, the galley slaves. They had many different flags, so they sailed could fly the flag that had more chances to deceive their prey.
A good large merchant ship could carry about 20 sailors in good health, prepared to take a few years in the galleys. Passengers were used instead for ransom. Nobles and wealthy merchants became attractive pieces as well as Jews, who often could mean a succulent ransom paid for their coreligionists. The dignitaries of the clergy were also valuable because the Vatican used to pay any price to snatch from the hands of the infidels.
When the pirates came often passengers took off his good clothes and tried to dress as badly as possible, with the hope that their captors restituted to their families in exchange for a modest ransom. This effort was useless if the pirates tortured the captain to pry information about passengers. It was also common cause men to strip naked, to find objects of value sewn on clothes, and see if the Jews were not circumcised disguised as Christians.
If the pirates were short of slaves in the galleys, they could put some of their captives to work immediately, but the prisoners were usually placed in the hold for the return trip. They were huddled together, they could barely move between dirt, odor and parasites, and many died before reaching port.
Upon arrival to North Africa, it was tradition that Christians recently captured paraded through the streets so that people could make fun of them and cover garbage children.
In the slave market, men were forced to jump to prove they were not lame, and buyers often wanted to undress to see if they were healthy, which also possible to evaluate the sexual prowess of men and women; white concubines had a great value, and all slave capitals had a flourishing homosexual network. Buyers hoping to make money fast with a large ransom examining the earlobes to find punch marks, which was a sign of wealth. It was also customary to examine the teeth of a captive to see if he could survive a hard slave regime.
The pasha or ruler of the region received a certain percentage of slaves as a form of income tax. These were almost always men, and became government property rather than private property. Unlike private slaves, who usually shipped with their masters, those living in Bagnos, which is the name given to the slaves of the pasha stores. It was common shaving head and beard of the slaves as additional public humiliation, at a time when head and facial hair were an important part of male identity.
Most of these public slaves spent the rest of their lives as slaves in galleys. It is difficult to imagine a more miserable existence. The men were chained three, four or five on each oar, and his ankles were shackled together also. The rowers never left their bench, and when they were allowed to sleep, they did it. Slaves could be pushed to reach their needs in a make hole in the hull, but were often too tired or discouraged to move and unloaded there where they were sitting. They had no protection against the blazing Mediterranean sun, and their masters flayed their backs with the slave favorite instrument: the whip. There was almost no chance of escape or rescue, the work of a galley slave was to kill to work, especially in the raids to capture more miserable as he, being thrown overboard at the first sign of serious illness.
When the pirate fleet was in port, the galley slaves lived in the bagno and did all the dirty, dangerous or tiring work the pasha ordered them to do. They used to cut and drag stones, dredge the port or take care of the most painful tasks. The slaves who were in the fleet ruco Sultan did not even have that option. They were often at sea for months and remained chained to the oars even in port. Their ships were prison for life.
Other slaves in the Berber coast had a more varied work. Often did farm work we associate with slavery in the United States, but those who had skills were rented by their owners. Some of these simply loosened their slaves during the day in order to return with a certain amount of money at night, under the threat of being beaten brutally if not. The owners usually expected a profit of 20% on the purchase price. What they did in Tunisia and Tripoli slaves wore an iron ring around his ankle and dragging a heavy chain of between 11 and 14 kg.
Some owners put their white slaves to work the land far away, where they still face another threat: a new capture and a new slavery more inside. These unfortunates probably would not see anymore to another European in the rest of his short life.
Professor Davis notes that there was no obstacle to cruelty: "There was no force that could protect the slave from the violence of his master, there were no local laws against cruelty, nor a benevolent public opinion, and rarely was a pressure effective by foreign states. "
The white slaves were not only goods, but also infidels, and deserved all the suffering inflicted by their owners.
Professor Davis notes that "all slaves who, having lived in Bagnos, survived to tell their experiences stressed the endemic violence and cruelty practiced there." The favorite punishment was caning. A slave could receive up to 150 or 200 hits, which could leave him crippled. Systematic violence turned many men into automatons.
Christian slaves were often so abundant and cheap that there was no incentive to care for them. Many owners made them work to death and bought others to replace them.
Public slaves also contributed to a fund to support the priests in the bagno. It was a very religious time, and even in the most terrible conditions the men wanted to have the opportunity to confess, and, most importantly, to receive extreme unction. There was almost always a captive or two in the Bagnos priest, but to be available for their religious duties, other slaves were to contribute and buy time to Pasha, so some slaves in the galleys had nothing left to buy food or clothing . However, during certain periods, Europeans living free in the Berber cities contributed to the maintenance costs of the priests of the Bagnos.
For some, slavery became more than bearable. Certain trades, in particular of shipbuilder, were so coveted that the owner of a slave could reward him with a private villa and lovers. Even some residents were able to exploit the thermal baths of the hypocrisy of Islamic society and thereby improve their condition. The law strictly forbade Muslims trade in alcohol, but was more lenient with Muslims who consumed only. Entrepreneurs slaves established taverns in Bagnos, and some came to have a good life in the service of Muslim drinkers.
One way to ease the burden of slavery was "taking the turban" and convert to Islam. This service eximia in galleys of the drudgery and occasional improper slaughtering a son of the prophet, but not to be a slave. One of the jobs of the priests of the Bagnos was to prevent men from becoming desperate, but most slaves did not seem to need the such advice. Christians believed that conversion could endanger their souls, besides also required the unpleasant ritual circumcision of adults. Many slaves seemed to suffer the horrors of slavery treating them as a punishment for their sins and as a test of their faith. The owners conversion dissuaded them, as they limited the use of ill-treatment and down the resale value of a slave.
For slaves, escape was impossible. They were far from home, often were chained, and could be immediately identified by its European features. The only hope was a rescue. Sometimes luck is not slow in coming. If a group of pirates had captured many men and no longer have space under the bridge, he could make a foray into a city and then return within a few days to sell the captives to their families. Usually this was done at a much lower than that of someone who is rescued from North Africa price, but it was much more than what farmers could afford. Farmers generally had no liquidity or assets outside of the house and land. A trader was usually prepared to buy at a low price, but it meant that the captive returned to a completely ruined family.
Most slaves were dependent on the charitable work of the Trinitarians (order founded in Italy in 1193) and Mercy (founded in Spain in 1203). These religious orders were established to free Crusaders held by Muslims, but soon changed their work for the liberation of the slaves held by the Barbary pirates, raising money specifically for this work. Often they put safety boxes outside churches with the inscription "for the recovery of the poor slaves", and clergy called wealthy Christians to leave money. The two orders became skillful negotiating, and usually able to buy slaves at better prices than those obtained by inexperienced liberators. However, there was never enough money to free many captives, and Professor Davis estimated that no more than 3 or 4% of the slaves were rescued in a single year. This means that most left their bones in the unmarked graves of Christians, outside the city walls.
The religious orders had accurate accounts of the results obtained. In the seventeenth century, the Spanish Trinitarians, for example, carried out 72 expeditions to rescue slaves, with an average of 220 releases for each of these expeditions. It was customary to take with them the freed slaves and make them walk the streets of the city in great celebrations. These processions, which had a deep religious connotation, became one of the most characteristic urban spectacles of the time. Sometimes the slaves marched in their old habits of slaves to emphasize the torments suffered; sometimes they wore special white robes to symbolize their rebirth. According to the records of the period, many freed slaves not completely reinserted after their experiences, especially if they had spent many years in captivity.
Professor Davis notes that numerous investigations have made determined as accurately as possible the number of blacks brought across the Atlantic, but there is no similar effort to determine the extent of slavery in the Mediterranean. It is not easy to get reliable figures. The Arabs do not usually keep the files. But over ten years of research, Professor Davis has developed a method of estimation.
For example, the record indicates that from 1580 to 1680 was an average of about 35,000 slaves in Barbary countries. Having the constant loss through death and rescue, if the population remained constant, then the rate of capture new slaves by pirates was equal to the rate of wear. There is a good basis for estimating mortality rates. For example, we know of about 400 Icelanders captured in 1627, there were only 70 survivors eight years later. In addition to malnutrition, overcrowding, overwork, and brutal punishments, slaves suffered epidemics of plague, which usually eliminated between 20 and 30% of white slaves.
Through various sources, Professor Davis estimated that the mortality rate was approximately 20% per year. Slaves had no access to women, so the replacement was done exclusively through the catch.
His conclusion: between 1530 and 1780 was, almost certainly, a million and perhaps even and a quarter million white European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of Berber coast. This far exceeds the generally accepted figure of 800,000 Africans transported to the colonies in North America and later to the United States.
Professor Davis explains that, in the late 1700s, this trade is better controlled, but there was a revival of white slave trafficking during the chaos of the Napoleonic wars.
The American fleet was not free from predation. It was only in 1815, after two wars against them, the American sailors escaped Barbary pirates. These wars were important operations for the young republic; a campaign that recalls the verses of "the shores of Tripoli," the anthem of the marina. When the French took Algiers in 1830, there were still 120 white slaves in the bagno.
Why is there so little interest in Mediterranean slavery while scholarship and reflection on black slavery never ends? As Professor Davis, the white slaves with nonwhite owners simply do not fit into explains "the master narrative of European imperialism." Victimization patterns so beloved by intellectuals require white wickedness, not white suffering.
Professor Davis also points out that the European experience of slavery on a large scale shows that deception is another favorite topic on the left: that black slavery was a crucial step in the creation of European concepts of race and racial hierarchy.
It is not like this. For centuries, Europeans themselves have lived with the fear of the whip, and a large number attended processions held by the rescue of freed slaves, all of whom were white. Slavery was a more easily imaginable fate for themselves for distant Africans.
http://www.elmanifiesto.com/articulos.asp?idarticulo=4449
There were more Europeans enslaved by the Muslims black slaves shipped to America
American historians have studied all aspects of the enslavement of Africans by whites, but have largely ignored the slavery of whites by North Africans. Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters [Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters] [1] is a carefully documented book and clearly written what Professor Davis calls "the new slavery", which flourished for about the same time as the transatlantic slave trade and devastated hundreds of European coastal communities. In the minds of whites today, slavery does not play at all the central role that among blacks. And yet, he was not treated or short-term problem or something unimportant. The history of slavery in the Mediterranean is, in fact, as sinister as the most tendentious descriptions of American slavery.
A wholesale
The Barbary Coast, stretching from Morocco to Libya and was home to a thriving kidnapping industry human beings from 1500 to about 1800. The main slave capitals were Salé (Morocco), Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli, European navies having been too weak during most of this period to effect more than a merely symbolic resistance.
The transatlantic traffic of blacks was strictly commercial, but for Arabs memories of the Crusades and anger for having been expelled from Spain in 1492 seem to have led a campaign of kidnapping of Christians who almost looked like a jihad.
"It was perhaps the sting of revenge against the friendly haggling in the market place, which made the Islamic slave traders were much more aggressive and much more prosperous beginning (so to speak) that Christian counterparts" writes professor Davis.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were more numerous slaves taken south across the Mediterranean to the west across the Atlantic. Some were returned to their families against payment of a ransom, others were used for forced labor in North Africa and the less fortunate died working as slaves in the galleys.
What catches the attention of slave raids against European populations is their scale and scope. The pirates kidnapped most of his slaves intercepting ships, but also organized large amphibious assaults that left almost depopulated whole parts of the Italian coast. Italy was the country hardest hit, partly because Sicily is only 200 km from Tunis, but also because it did not have a strong central government that could resist the invasion.
Large raids often met no resistance
When the pirates ransacked, for example, Vieste in southern Italy in 1554, were made with the amazing number of 6,000 prisoners. Algerians kidnapped 7,000 slaves in the Bay of Naples in 1544, a raid that brought down both the price of slaves who were said to "exchange a Christian by an onion".
Spain also suffered large scale attacks. After a raid in Granada in 1556 that took 4,000 men, women and children, it stated that "Christians in Algiers rained down." And for every major raid of this type, there were smaller dozen.
The appearance of a large fleet could make the entire population to flee inland, emptying coastal areas.
In 1566, a group of 6,000 Turks and privateers crossed the Adriatic to land in Francavilla al Mare. The authorities could not do anything, and recommended the complete evacuation, leaving the Turkish control over 1,300 square kilometers of abandoned villages to Serracapriola.
When appeared the pirates, people often fled from the coast to the nearest town, but Professor Davis explains that doing such a thing was not always a good strategy: "More than a medium-sized city filled with refugees, was unable to resist a frontal attack of hundreds of assailants. the captain of the pirates, who otherwise would have to find a few dozen slaves along the beaches and in the hills, could now find a thousand or more captives conveniently gathered in one place to take. "
The pirates returned again and again to ransack the same territory. In addition to a much larger number of small raids, the Calabrian coast suffered the following serious depredations in less than ten years: 700 persons arrested in one raid in 1636, 1,000 in 1639 and 4,000 in 1644.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the pirates set up semi-permanent bases in the islands of Ischia and Procida, near the mouth of the Bay of Naples, chosen for its commercial traffic.
On landing, Muslim pirates did not stop desecrating churches. Often they stole the bells, not only because the metal was valuable but also to silence the distinctive voice of Christianity.
In smaller and more frequent raids, a small number of ships operated stealthily and dropped quietly on coastal settlements in the middle of the night in order to catch the "meek and still naked in bed" people. This practice gave rise to this Sicilian "pigliato turchi dai" ( "taken by the Turks"), and is used when you catch someone by surprise or being asleep or distracted.
Women were easier to catch than men, and coastal areas could quickly lose all women of childbearing age. The fishermen were afraid to leave, and not the sea were only in convoys. Finally, the Italians left much of its coast. As Professor Davis, the late seventeenth century, "the Italian peninsula was sacked by corsairs for two centuries or more, and coastal towns withdrew greatly fortified villages in the hills, or to larger cities such as Rimini explains, abandoning kilometers of coastline, now populated with vagabonds and freebooters. "
It was not until around 1700 when the Italians were able to prevent raids, though piracy in the seas could continue unhindered.
Piracy led to Spain and especially Italy to turn away from the sea and lose with devastating effects their traditions of trade and navigation "At least for Spain and Italy, the seventeenth century represented a dark period in which Spanish and Italian societies They were mere shadows of what they had been during previous golden ages ".
Some Arab pirates were seasoned offshore sailors, and terrorized Christians to a distance of 1,600 km. A spectacular raid in Iceland in 1627 left about 400 prisoners.
There is a belief that England was a formidable naval power since the time of Francis Drake, but throughout the seventeenth century Arab pirates operated freely in British waters, penetrating even the Thames estuary to capture and devastate coastal cities. In just three years, from 1606 to 1609, the British navy admitted losing, because of the Algerian corsairs, no less than 466 British and Scottish merchant ships. In the mid-1600s, the British were devoted to an active slave trade between both sides of the Atlantic, but many of the British crews became property of Arab pirates.
Life under the whip
Ground attacks could be very successful, but were more risky than the sea. The ships were therefore the main source of white slaves. Unlike their victims, pirate ships had two modes of propulsion: in addition to the sails, the galley slaves. They had many different flags, so they sailed could fly the flag that had more chances to deceive their prey.
A good large merchant ship could carry about 20 sailors in good health, prepared to take a few years in the galleys. Passengers were used instead for ransom. Nobles and wealthy merchants became attractive pieces as well as Jews, who often could mean a succulent ransom paid for their coreligionists. The dignitaries of the clergy were also valuable because the Vatican used to pay any price to snatch from the hands of the infidels.
When the pirates came often passengers took off his good clothes and tried to dress as badly as possible, with the hope that their captors restituted to their families in exchange for a modest ransom. This effort was useless if the pirates tortured the captain to pry information about passengers. It was also common cause men to strip naked, to find objects of value sewn on clothes, and see if the Jews were not circumcised disguised as Christians.
If the pirates were short of slaves in the galleys, they could put some of their captives to work immediately, but the prisoners were usually placed in the hold for the return trip. They were huddled together, they could barely move between dirt, odor and parasites, and many died before reaching port.
Upon arrival to North Africa, it was tradition that Christians recently captured paraded through the streets so that people could make fun of them and cover garbage children.
In the slave market, men were forced to jump to prove they were not lame, and buyers often wanted to undress to see if they were healthy, which also possible to evaluate the sexual prowess of men and women; white concubines had a great value, and all slave capitals had a flourishing homosexual network. Buyers hoping to make money fast with a large ransom examining the earlobes to find punch marks, which was a sign of wealth. It was also customary to examine the teeth of a captive to see if he could survive a hard slave regime.
The pasha or ruler of the region received a certain percentage of slaves as a form of income tax. These were almost always men, and became government property rather than private property. Unlike private slaves, who usually shipped with their masters, those living in Bagnos, which is the name given to the slaves of the pasha stores. It was common shaving head and beard of the slaves as additional public humiliation, at a time when head and facial hair were an important part of male identity.
Most of these public slaves spent the rest of their lives as slaves in galleys. It is difficult to imagine a more miserable existence. The men were chained three, four or five on each oar, and his ankles were shackled together also. The rowers never left their bench, and when they were allowed to sleep, they did it. Slaves could be pushed to reach their needs in a make hole in the hull, but were often too tired or discouraged to move and unloaded there where they were sitting. They had no protection against the blazing Mediterranean sun, and their masters flayed their backs with the slave favorite instrument: the whip. There was almost no chance of escape or rescue, the work of a galley slave was to kill to work, especially in the raids to capture more miserable as he, being thrown overboard at the first sign of serious illness.
When the pirate fleet was in port, the galley slaves lived in the bagno and did all the dirty, dangerous or tiring work the pasha ordered them to do. They used to cut and drag stones, dredge the port or take care of the most painful tasks. The slaves who were in the fleet ruco Sultan did not even have that option. They were often at sea for months and remained chained to the oars even in port. Their ships were prison for life.
Other slaves in the Berber coast had a more varied work. Often did farm work we associate with slavery in the United States, but those who had skills were rented by their owners. Some of these simply loosened their slaves during the day in order to return with a certain amount of money at night, under the threat of being beaten brutally if not. The owners usually expected a profit of 20% on the purchase price. What they did in Tunisia and Tripoli slaves wore an iron ring around his ankle and dragging a heavy chain of between 11 and 14 kg.
Some owners put their white slaves to work the land far away, where they still face another threat: a new capture and a new slavery more inside. These unfortunates probably would not see anymore to another European in the rest of his short life.
Professor Davis notes that there was no obstacle to cruelty: "There was no force that could protect the slave from the violence of his master, there were no local laws against cruelty, nor a benevolent public opinion, and rarely was a pressure effective by foreign states. "
The white slaves were not only goods, but also infidels, and deserved all the suffering inflicted by their owners.
Professor Davis notes that "all slaves who, having lived in Bagnos, survived to tell their experiences stressed the endemic violence and cruelty practiced there." The favorite punishment was caning. A slave could receive up to 150 or 200 hits, which could leave him crippled. Systematic violence turned many men into automatons.
Christian slaves were often so abundant and cheap that there was no incentive to care for them. Many owners made them work to death and bought others to replace them.
Public slaves also contributed to a fund to support the priests in the bagno. It was a very religious time, and even in the most terrible conditions the men wanted to have the opportunity to confess, and, most importantly, to receive extreme unction. There was almost always a captive or two in the Bagnos priest, but to be available for their religious duties, other slaves were to contribute and buy time to Pasha, so some slaves in the galleys had nothing left to buy food or clothing . However, during certain periods, Europeans living free in the Berber cities contributed to the maintenance costs of the priests of the Bagnos.
For some, slavery became more than bearable. Certain trades, in particular of shipbuilder, were so coveted that the owner of a slave could reward him with a private villa and lovers. Even some residents were able to exploit the thermal baths of the hypocrisy of Islamic society and thereby improve their condition. The law strictly forbade Muslims trade in alcohol, but was more lenient with Muslims who consumed only. Entrepreneurs slaves established taverns in Bagnos, and some came to have a good life in the service of Muslim drinkers.
One way to ease the burden of slavery was "taking the turban" and convert to Islam. This service eximia in galleys of the drudgery and occasional improper slaughtering a son of the prophet, but not to be a slave. One of the jobs of the priests of the Bagnos was to prevent men from becoming desperate, but most slaves did not seem to need the such advice. Christians believed that conversion could endanger their souls, besides also required the unpleasant ritual circumcision of adults. Many slaves seemed to suffer the horrors of slavery treating them as a punishment for their sins and as a test of their faith. The owners conversion dissuaded them, as they limited the use of ill-treatment and down the resale value of a slave.
For slaves, escape was impossible. They were far from home, often were chained, and could be immediately identified by its European features. The only hope was a rescue. Sometimes luck is not slow in coming. If a group of pirates had captured many men and no longer have space under the bridge, he could make a foray into a city and then return within a few days to sell the captives to their families. Usually this was done at a much lower than that of someone who is rescued from North Africa price, but it was much more than what farmers could afford. Farmers generally had no liquidity or assets outside of the house and land. A trader was usually prepared to buy at a low price, but it meant that the captive returned to a completely ruined family.
Most slaves were dependent on the charitable work of the Trinitarians (order founded in Italy in 1193) and Mercy (founded in Spain in 1203). These religious orders were established to free Crusaders held by Muslims, but soon changed their work for the liberation of the slaves held by the Barbary pirates, raising money specifically for this work. Often they put safety boxes outside churches with the inscription "for the recovery of the poor slaves", and clergy called wealthy Christians to leave money. The two orders became skillful negotiating, and usually able to buy slaves at better prices than those obtained by inexperienced liberators. However, there was never enough money to free many captives, and Professor Davis estimated that no more than 3 or 4% of the slaves were rescued in a single year. This means that most left their bones in the unmarked graves of Christians, outside the city walls.
The religious orders had accurate accounts of the results obtained. In the seventeenth century, the Spanish Trinitarians, for example, carried out 72 expeditions to rescue slaves, with an average of 220 releases for each of these expeditions. It was customary to take with them the freed slaves and make them walk the streets of the city in great celebrations. These processions, which had a deep religious connotation, became one of the most characteristic urban spectacles of the time. Sometimes the slaves marched in their old habits of slaves to emphasize the torments suffered; sometimes they wore special white robes to symbolize their rebirth. According to the records of the period, many freed slaves not completely reinserted after their experiences, especially if they had spent many years in captivity.
Professor Davis notes that numerous investigations have made determined as accurately as possible the number of blacks brought across the Atlantic, but there is no similar effort to determine the extent of slavery in the Mediterranean. It is not easy to get reliable figures. The Arabs do not usually keep the files. But over ten years of research, Professor Davis has developed a method of estimation.
For example, the record indicates that from 1580 to 1680 was an average of about 35,000 slaves in Barbary countries. Having the constant loss through death and rescue, if the population remained constant, then the rate of capture new slaves by pirates was equal to the rate of wear. There is a good basis for estimating mortality rates. For example, we know of about 400 Icelanders captured in 1627, there were only 70 survivors eight years later. In addition to malnutrition, overcrowding, overwork, and brutal punishments, slaves suffered epidemics of plague, which usually eliminated between 20 and 30% of white slaves.
Through various sources, Professor Davis estimated that the mortality rate was approximately 20% per year. Slaves had no access to women, so the replacement was done exclusively through the catch.
His conclusion: between 1530 and 1780 was, almost certainly, a million and perhaps even and a quarter million white European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of Berber coast. This far exceeds the generally accepted figure of 800,000 Africans transported to the colonies in North America and later to the United States.
Professor Davis explains that, in the late 1700s, this trade is better controlled, but there was a revival of white slave trafficking during the chaos of the Napoleonic wars.
The American fleet was not free from predation. It was only in 1815, after two wars against them, the American sailors escaped Barbary pirates. These wars were important operations for the young republic; a campaign that recalls the verses of "the shores of Tripoli," the anthem of the marina. When the French took Algiers in 1830, there were still 120 white slaves in the bagno.
Why is there so little interest in Mediterranean slavery while scholarship and reflection on black slavery never ends? As Professor Davis, the white slaves with nonwhite owners simply do not fit into explains "the master narrative of European imperialism." Victimization patterns so beloved by intellectuals require white wickedness, not white suffering.
Professor Davis also points out that the European experience of slavery on a large scale shows that deception is another favorite topic on the left: that black slavery was a crucial step in the creation of European concepts of race and racial hierarchy.
It is not like this. For centuries, Europeans themselves have lived with the fear of the whip, and a large number attended processions held by the rescue of freed slaves, all of whom were white. Slavery was a more easily imaginable fate for themselves for distant Africans.
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