The Diabolical History Of The Barbary Slave Trade

“From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli...” are the beginning lines from the United States Marine Corps Hymn, and the “Tripoli” that's mentioned is the largest city in today's Libya. The hymn was written sometime after 1867, and these lines commemorate two of the Marine Corps' most famous battles “the halls of Montezuma referring to the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, and “the shores of Tripoli” refers to the battles the Marine Corps, along with the US Navy, fought with the infamous “Barbary Pirates” who terrorized the coast of North Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and indeed, a large part of Europe for at three centuries.

Slavery had existed in the Mediterranean Basin since before the time of Rome. During the Roman expansion, people from all corners of the empire were enslaved: Franks, Germans, Slavs, Greeks, various people from the Balkans, Africans traded to Rome by Egypt, Jews from Israel and more. Some of the richest people in Rome and the Gothic and Arab empires which followed it were slave traders. Many Viking raiders grew rich and powerful from the treasure they hoarded trading slaves. Slavery was common in Europe, the north coast of Africa, and the Middle East until relatively recent times.

The Barbary States

In the 1500s, the Ottoman Turks expanded along the North African coast. Due to distance and the fiercely independent nature of the Berbers and others, however, Ottoman control of the Barbary Coast was nominal. As long as the people there recognized the Ottoman Sultan as their overlord and gave help when it was asked, the Turks left the people of the coast alone.

One of the many interesting things about the Barbary Pirates is that, as time went on, many of them were not from the region. Many were Europeans, acting much like today's mercenaries, looking for adventure and a quick buck. Unfortunately, what they were mainly looking for were other human being to sell into slavery.

#barbaryslavetrade #ottomanslavetrade #history #barbarypirates #whiteslaves

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[johnday]

Do you know why this aspect of slavery is never taught in schools and universities? Most of the slaves taken were the wrong colour for todays world.

[tiredman]

As an American we were never taught this in school. Which I think is appalling as it seems to be a rather large part of our history

[marksullivan]

A fantastic book called "White gold" by Giles Milton is a true story of a cornish boy Thomas Pellow who was captured by barbary pirates and taken to the court of sultan Moulay Ishmael. The sultan took a liking to Thomas and he stayed for 23 years until his escape. A brilliant book and would make one hell of a movie.

[ash]

As a history scholar, I'm happy to see such great historical productions bring light on this lesser known aspect of human slavery. Well done!
Regardless of who we are & where we come from, all human beings should know about the enormous scope & tragic history of slavery & its horrible legacy.

[hackyou]

Muslims will talk about the western imperialism but get real quiet(or try to justify it) when you bring up Muslim imperialism

[alfretwell]

A couple of points, Barbary Corsairs main focus was referred to as white gold! White slaves. The term Corsair actually refers to a pirate who is contracted by a state to engage in their activities on their behalf, effectively plausible deniability. The scale of their activities can only be alluded to by one raid on the island of Gozo, 6000 slaves were captured and transported. Just the scale of how many Corsairs would be needed to capture apprehend and transport this many people.English towns were raided constantly, many smaller settlements were evacuated and abandoned. The island of Lundy was for a time used by the pirates as base for their operation. The city of Dublin was founded as a slave market for captives taken in Britain and Ireland. This trade continued until recent years slave markets were closed by Italian troops in the early 1900’s. One other aside a town in Britain was raided and the population taken to slave markets in Africa Lord Cromwell sent his general of ships to bring them back, when they arrived they demanded release of their countrymen. On being refused they bombarded the town virtually destroying it, moving to the next town where enslaved people were held, the demand was met by an immediate release of the enslaved British people.

[pan-africanmovement]

Absolutely great presentation. As someone from West Africa, i feel this is a part of history that is not often talked about, and has mostly been ignored. Thank you for shedding light on this Keep up the good work..

[tinamitchell]

This needs to be taught in school. I never knew this until recently. Thank You.

[johnadey]

The Barbery pirates definitely did raid England and emptied a number of villages -all along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall the gun emplacements designed to reel them can still be seen. Most people assume they were to repel the French. The estimates of the number of people taken from England go up to as many as two million! They used to say you could buy a white slave in Tangier for the same price as an apple!

[Musician-Lee]

I’m so glad this aspect of slavery is being covered now, as it’s never covered in school.

[thomfiel]

If you could trace everyone's lineage all the way back to the Stone Age, you'd most likely find that each of us had an ancestor who was enslaved, and probably at least one ancestor who was either a slave owner or slave trader.

[ballisticdan]

I live in Cornwall in South West England, my ancestors were kidnapped and enslaved by the village and shipped to Africa by these naughty lot. Reparations...let's go.

[dahveed]

This is largely forgotten history. Thanks for covering it.

[AldousHuxley]

Captain James Riley wrote an incredible story of survival called Skeletons on the Zahara. He was ship wrecked and against all odds survived along with 6 of his crew members. Gives great historical context of the Sahara slave trade in 1816.

[codygates]

I definitely know why this has been left out of western history books (cause Lord forbid people with a lighter skin tone could have EVER been enslaved by someone from the Middle East or Africa) I’m honestly surprised this hasn’t been taken down. It’s so sad this HUGE part of history has been hidden, and therefore forgotten. Slavery was a human evil, not a white evil. The quicker some people learn that, the quicker we can all move on.

[spottsfreund]

the fact that slavery is still going on in these regions of the world is even crazier

[glenngoodall]

You mention in your video that Barbery Pirates kept clear of European coastline when in fact they raided Cornwall in England many times plus further up the English Chanel including the French coast Holland Norway as far as Iceland. My wife had a Great Great Great Grandmother who was taken in 1842 from Cornwall as a 21-year-old girl in a raid and sold as a concubine in Tangiers she was kept as a slave until bought by the Vatican in 1846 she had been made pregnant three times (Raped) she returned home Brocken and ill she died in 1848, 27 years old, she did get married and had a daughter a distant relative of my wife. She was quite shocked when she found out.

[adventussaxonum]

The Barbary Pirates raided South and West coasts of England, Wales and Ireland. The song "Rule Britannia" was written to celebrate the Royal Navy clearing the seas around Britain of these state-sponsored slavers, and an exhortation to "rule the waves" to make sure that Britons"never shall be slaves"
Right-on commentators today like to associate the song with colonialism and black slavery, whereas it's a call to anti slave actions.
And who was responsible for crushing the slave trade internationally? Yeah, the Royal Navy. Rule Britannia! God Save the King.

[adamesd]

We covered this briefly in school. I’ve learned about a thousand times more about history on my own than I learned in school, but I still learned a lot from this video.

[chougaghil]

I went to public school in some school in north africa during the 1990s
A similar story was told us by our excellent history teacher, but with time i realised this guy was more dreamer, a romantic or just another ideologue than a true historian, as the terms of this part of history were inverted: the corsairs were the europeans, the merchants and genuine sailors were the north africans, who fought bravely against the malevolent pirates ...
I started learning the truth with the coming of computers and internet in late 1990s, and this technology, mastered by those who act to establish and spread honest and objective information, is a bless for the futur of mankind and peace
Worst crimes and worst wars can't exist under the light of truth and objective information, so go on historians and journalists, do the right job