White slavery (alsowhite slave trade orwhite slave trafficking) refers to the enslavement of any of the world'sEuropean ethnic groups throughout human history, whether perpetrated by non-Europeans or by other Europeans.[not verified in body]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 theMuslim world; European women, in particular, were highly sought-after to beconcubines in theharems of many Muslim rulers. Examples of such slavery conducted inIslamic empires include theTrans-Saharan slave trade, theBarbary slave trade, theOttoman slave trade, and theBlack Sea slave trade, among others.
During the Arab slave trade, Europeans were among those traded by the Arabs.[1] The termSaqaliba (Arabic:صقالبة) was often used in medieval Arabic sources to refer specifically toSlavs 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 someMuslim-controlled regions like Spain, including those abducted from raids on Spanish Christian kingdoms.[2][3] During the era of theFatimid Caliphate (909–1171), the majority of slaves were Europeans taken from European coasts and during conflicts.[1] Similarly, theOttoman slave trade that included European captives was often fueled by raids into European territories or were taken as children in the form of ablood tax from the families of citizens ofconquered 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 inNorth Africa.
In the late 19th-century, the term "white slave trade" became associated with sex trafficking of primarily women and girls for sexual exploitation. This term was in use also for the first half of the 20th century, when it was gradually replaced with the more modern term trafficking.
The phrase "white slavery" was used byCharles Sumner in 1847 to describe the slavery of Christians throughout theBarbary States and primarily inAlgiers, the capital ofOttoman Algeria.[5] It also encompassed many forms of slavery, including the Europeanconcubines (Cariye) often found inTurkishharem.[6]In the Muslim world, sexual slavery was legitimate by Islamic law in the form ofconcubinage in Islam, and there was an ongoing traffick in slave girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation to the harems.
The term was also used byClifford G. Roe from the beginning of the twentieth century to campaign against theforced prostitution andsexual slavery of girls who worked in Chicago brothels. Similarly, countries of Europe campaigned against the sex trafficking of women and girls in both Europe as well as brothels in Asia from the late 19th century. European countries signed in Paris in 1904 anInternational Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic aimed at combating the sale of women who were forced into prostitution in the countries of continental Europe as well as Asia.
The use of the term "white slavery" in this sense was considered racist and replaced by "traffic" byThe League of Nations in 1921.[7]
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The Volga trade route was established by theVarangians (Vikings) who settled inNorthwestern Russia in the early 9th century. About 10 km (6 mi) south of theVolkhov River entry intoLake Ladoga, they established a settlement calledLadoga (Old Norse:Aldeigjuborg).[8] It connectedNorthern Europe and Northwestern Russia with theCaspian Sea, via theVolga River. TheRus used this route to trade withMuslim countries on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, sometimes penetrating as far asBaghdad. The route functioned concurrently with theDnieper trade route, better known as thetrade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, and lost its importance in the 11th century.
Saqaliba originally was used to denoteSlavic people, however later it came to denote all European slaves in some Muslim regions like Spain including those abducted from raids on Christian kingdoms of Spain. The Franks started buying slaves from the Slavs andAvar Khaganate while Muslims also came across slaves in the form ofmercenaries serving theByzantine Empire and settlers in addition to among theKhazars. Most Slavic slaves were imported to theMuslim world through the border between Christian and Islamic kingdoms where castration centres were also located instead of the direct route. From there they were sent into Islamic Spain and other Muslim-ruled regions especiallyNorth Africa. The saqaliba gained popularity in Umayyad Spain especially as warriors. After the collapse of the Umayyads, they also came to rule over many of thetaifas. With the conversion ofEastern Europe, the trade declined and there isn't much textual information on saqaliba after 11th century.[3]
Central Europe was the most favoured destination for importation of slaves alongside Central Asia andBilad as-Sudan, though slaves fromNorthwestern Europe were also valued. This slave trade was controlled mostly by European slave traders. France andVenice were the routes used to send Slavic slaves to Muslim lands andPrague served as a major centre for castration of Slavic captives.[9][10] TheEmirate of Bari also served as an important port for this trade.[11] Due to theByzantine Empire andVenice blocking Arab merchants from European ports, they later started importing in slaves from theCaucasus and the Caspian Sea.[12]
TheSaqaliba were also imported as eunuchs and concubines to Muslim states.[13] The slavery ofeunuchs in the Muslim world however was expensive and they thus were given as gifts by rulers. TheSaqaliba eunuchs were prominent at the court ofAghlabids and laterFatimids who imported them from Spain. The Fatimids also used otherSaqaliba slaves for military purposes.[14]
In the time of the Crimean Khanate, Crimeans engaged in frequent raids into theDanubian principalities,Poland–Lithuania, andMuscovy. For each captive, the khan received a fixed share (savğa) of 10 percent or 20 percent. The campaigns by Crimean forces categorize intosefers, declared military operations led by the khans themselves, andçapuls, raids undertaken by groups of noblemen, sometimes illegally because they contravened treaties concluded by the khans with neighbouring rulers. For a long time, until the early 18th century, the khanate maintaineda massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East.Caffa was one of the best known and significant trading ports and slave markets.[15] Crimean Tatar raiders enslaved between 1 and 2 million slaves from Russia and Poland–Lithuania over the period 1500–1700.[16][17]Caffa (city on Crimean peninsula) was one of the best known and significant trading ports and slave markets.[18][19] In 1769, a last major Tatar raid resulted in the capture of 20,000 Russian and Ruthenian slaves.
Slave markets flourished on theBarbary Coast of North Africa, in what is modern-dayMorocco,Algeria,Tunisia, and westernLibya, between the 15th and middle of the 19th century.
These markets prospered while the states were nominally underOttoman suzerainty, though, in reality, they were mostly autonomous. TheNorth African slave markets traded inEuropean slaves which were acquired by Barbary pirates inslave raids on ships and by raids on coastal towns from Italy to Spain, Portugal, France, England, the Netherlands, and as far afield as theTurkish Abductions in Iceland. Men, women, and children were captured to such a devastating extent that vast numbers of sea coast towns were abandoned.
According to Robert Davis, between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves inNorth Africa andOttoman Empire between the 15th and 19th centuries.[20][21] However, to extrapolate his numbers, Davis assumes the number of European slaves captured by Barbary pirates was constant for a 250-year period, stating:
There are no records of how many men, women and children were enslaved, but it is possible to calculate roughly the number of fresh captives that would have been needed to keep populations steady and replace those slaves who died, escaped, were ransomed, or converted to Islam. On this basis it is thought that around 8,500 new slaves were needed annually to replenish numbers – about 850,000 captives over the century from 1580 to 1680. By extension, for the 250 years between 1530 and 1780, the figure could easily have been as high as 1,250,000."[22]
Davis's numbers have been challenged by other historians, such as David Earle, who cautions that the true picture of European slaves is clouded by the fact the corsairs also seized non-Christian whites from eastern Europe and black people from west Africa.[22] A second book by Davis,Holy War and Human Bondage: Tales of Christian–Muslim Slavery in the Early-Modern Mediterranean, widened its focus to related slavery.[23] Middle East expert John Wright cautions that modern estimates are based on back-calculations from human observation.[24]
Such observations, across the late 1500s and early 1600s observers, account for around 35,000 European Christian slaves held throughout this period on the Barbary Coast, across Tripoli and Tunis, but mostly in Algiers. The majority were sailors (particularly those who were English), taken with their ships, but others were fishermen and coastal villagers. However, most of these captives were people from lands close to Africa, particularly Spain and Italy.[25]
From bases on the Barbary Coast of North Africa, theBarbary pirates raided ships traveling through the Mediterranean and along the northern and western coasts of Africa, plundering their cargo and enslaving the people they captured. From at least 1500, the pirates also conducted raids along seaside towns of Italy, Spain, France, England, the Netherlands and as far away as Iceland, capturing men, women and children. On some occasions, settlements such asBaltimore, Ireland, were abandoned following the raid, only being resettled many years later. Between 1609 and 1616, England alone had 466 merchant ships lost to Barbary pirates.[26]
While Barbary corsairs looted the cargo of ships they captured, their primary goal was to capture people for sale as slaves or for ransom. Those who had family or friends who might ransom them were held captive, but not obliged to work; the most famous of these was the authorMiguel de Cervantes, who was held for almost five years. Others were sold into various types of servitude. Attractive women or boys could be used assex slaves. Captives who converted to Islam were generally freed, since enslavement of Muslims was prohibited; but this meant that they could never return to their native countries.[27][28] Moroccan SultanMoulay Ismail Ben Sharif controlled a fleet ofcorsairs based atSalé-le-Vieux andSalé-le-Neuf (now Rabat), which supplied him with Christian slaves and weapons through their raids in the Mediterranean and all the way to theBlack Sea. Moulay Ismail was nicknamed the 'bloody king' by the Europeans due to his extreme cruelty and exaction of summary justice upon his Christian slaves. He is also known in his native country as the "Warrior King".
16th- and 17th-century customs statistics suggest that Istanbul's additional slave import from theBlack Sea may have totaled around 2.5 million from 1450 to 1700.[29] The markets declined after the loss of theBarbary Wars and ended in the 1830s, when the region wasconquered by France.
During theal-Andalus (also known as Islamic Iberia), theMoors controlled much of the peninsula.
Muslim Spain imported Christian slaves from the 8th century until theReconquista in the late 15th century. The slaves were exported from the Christian region of Spain, as well as from Eastern Europe, sparking significant reaction from many in Christian Spain and many Christians still living in Muslim Spain. Soon after, Muslims were successful, taking 30,000 Christian captives from Spain. In the eighth century, slavery lasted longer[clarification needed] due to "frequent cross-border skirmishes, interspersed between periods of major campaigns". By the tenth century, in the eastern Mediterranean Byzantine, Christians were captured by Muslims. Many of the raids designed by Muslims were created for a fast capture of prisoners. Therefore, Muslims restricted the control[clarification needed] in order to keep captives from fleeing. The Iberian peninsula served as a base for further exports of slaves into other Muslim regions in Northern Africa.[30]
Slavery was a legal and a significant part of theOttoman Empire's economy and society.[31] The main sources of white slaves wereOttoman wars into Europe and organized enslavement expeditions in Eastern Europe,Southern Europe, theBalkans,Circassia andGeorgia in the Caucasus. It has been reported that the selling price of slaves fell after large military operations.[32] Enslavement of Europeans was banned in the early 19th century, while enslavement of other groups was permitted.[33]
Even after several measures to ban slavery in the late 19th century, the practice continued largely unabated into the early 20th century. As late as 1908, female slaves were still sold in the Ottoman Empire.[34]Sexual slavery was a central part of the Ottoman slave system throughout the history of the institution.[35][36]
Nafisa al-Bayda, meaning "Nafisa the White-skinned", was aCircassian orGeorgian woman who was enslaved and became the "most famousMamluk woman in 18th-century Egypt", being a wife of Mamluk leaders of EgyptAli Bey al-Kabir andMurad Bey.[37]
In theArauco War (1550–1662), a long-running conflict between Spanish andMapuches in Chile, both sides engaged in slavery of the enemy population, among other atrocities.[38] Much like the Spanish had captured Mapuche people, the Mapuches had also captured Spaniards, often women, and traded their ownership among them.[38] Indeed, with theDestruction of the Seven Cities (1599–1604) Mapuches are reported to have taken 500 Spanish women captive, holding them as slaves.[38] It was not uncommon for captive Spanish women to have changed owner several times.[38] As late as in the 1850s allegedshipwreck survivorElisa Bravo was said to be living as wife to a Mapuchecacique,[39] in what is described as the most brutal forced coexistence[40] resulting in children of "mixed blood".[41] A report dating from 1863 said that her captors, fearing vengeance from Spaniards, sold her to the warlordCalfucurá inPuelmapu for a hundred mares, but that she had died after three years.[42]
In theRoman Republic and laterRoman Empire, slaves accounted for most of the means of industrial output inRoman commerce.[citation needed] Slaves were drawn from all overEurope andthe Mediterranean, includingGaul,Hispania,North Africa,Syria,Germania,Britannia,the Balkans, andGreece. Generally, slaves in Italy were indigenous Italians,[43] with a minority of foreigners (including both slaves and freedmen) born outside of Italy estimated at 5% of the total in the capital, where their number was largest, at its peak.[citation needed]
Damnati in metallum ("those condemned to the mine") were convicts who lost their freedom as citizens (libertas), forfeited their property (bona) to the state, and becameservi poenae, slaves as a legal penalty. Their status under the law was different from that of other slaves; they could not buy their freedom, be sold, or be set free. They were expected to live and die in the mines.[44] Imperial slaves and freedmen (thefamilia Caesaris) worked in mine administration and management.[45] In the Late Republic, about half thegladiators who fought in Roman arenas were slaves, though the most skilled were often free volunteers.[46]
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The "pençik" or "penç-yek" tax, meaning "one fifth", was a taxation based on a verse of the Quran; whereby one fifth of the spoils of war belonged toGod, toMuhammad and hisfamily, to orphans, to those in need and to travelers. This eventually included slaves, and war captives were given to soldiers and officers to help motivate their participation in wars.[32]
Christians and Jews, known asPeople of the Book in Islam, were considereddhimmis in territories under Muslim rule, a status ofsecond-class citizens that were afforded limited freedoms, legal protections, personal safety, and were allowed to "practice their religion, subject to certain conditions, and to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy" in return for paying thejizya andkharaj taxes. If a dhimmi broke his agreement and left Muslim territory for enemy land, he was liable to be enslaved – unless the dhimmi had left Muslim territory because he suffered injustice there.[47]
Dhimmis were protected persons who could not be enslaved unless they violated the terms of protection. Such violations normally included rebellion or treason; according to some authorities this could also include failure to pay due taxes.[48][49] Failure to pay tax could also result in imprisonment.[50][51]
TheDevshirme was a blood tax largely imposed in theBalkans andAnatolia[52] in which the Ottoman Empire sent military to collect Christian boys between the ages of 8 and 18, who were taken from their families and raised to serve the empire.[53] The tax was imposed byMurad I in the mid 1300s and lasted until the reign ofAhmet III in the early 1700s. From the mid to late 14th, through early 18th centuries, thedevşirme–janissary system enslaved an estimated 500,000 to one million non-Muslim adolescent males.[54] These boys would attain a great education and high social standing after their training and forced conversion to Islam.[55] Basilike Papoulia wrote that "the devsirme was the 'forcible removal', in the form of a tribute, of children of the Christian subjects from their ethnic, religious and cultural environment and their transportation into the Turkish-Islamic environment with the aim of employing them in the service of the Palace, the army, and the state, whereby they were on the one hand to serve the Sultan as slaves and freedmen and on the other to form the ruling class of the State."[56] When the Ottoman Empire allied with Muslim territories against Christian, slavery would be a major persistence in ensuring economic gain to both sides. This was showcased during theBattle of Barawa where Portuguese slaves were held captive by theAjuran Empire and sold into slavery to the Ottomans after attacking the city of Barawa, Somalia.[57]
In the 17th to 18th centuries, many white people in Britain, Ireland andEuropean colonies in North America wereindentured servants. Sterling Professor of History at Yale UniversityDavid Brion Davis wrote that:[58]
From Barbados to Virginia, colonists long preferred English or Irish indentured servants as their main source of field labor; during most of the seventeenth century they showed few scruples about reducing their less fortunate countrymen to a status little different from chattel slaves – a degradation that was being carried out in a more extreme and far more extensive way with respect to the peasantry in contemporary Russia. The prevalence and suffering of white slaves, serfs and indentured servants in the early modern period suggests that there was nothing inevitable about limiting plantation slavery to people of African origin.
Between 50 and 67 percent of white immigrants to theAmerican colonies, from the 1630s and American Revolution, had traveled under indenture.[59] Many women brought to the colonies were poor, some were abandoned or young girls born out of wedlock, others prostitutes or criminals. One ship's captain reportedly described them as a "villainous and demoralized lot". Many were transported against their will and for profit to Virginia and Maryland. The French transported women from theSalpêtrière prison for the homeless, insane and criminal toNew Orleans.[60]
Women held at Salpêtrière were bound in chains, flogged and lived in generally poor and unsanitary conditions. Female inmates, some of whom were sick withvenereal disease, were forced to attendconfessions three times each day where they would be whipped if their demeanor and behaviors were not acceptablypenitent.[61] In addition to Salpêtrière, the French transported women from other almshouses and hospitals includingBicêtre,Hôpital général de Paris andPitié.[60]
The International Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic is a series of anti–human trafficking treaties, the first of which was first negotiated in Paris in 1904. It was one of the first multilateral treaties to address issues of slavery and human trafficking. TheSlavery, Servitude, Forced Labour and Similar Institutions and Practices Convention of 1926 and theInternational Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women of Full Age of 1933 are similar documents.
In Anglophone countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the phrase "white slavery" was used to refer to sexual enslavement of white women. It was particularly associated with accounts ofwomen enslaved inMiddle Easternharems, such as the so-calledCircassian beauties,[62] which wasa slave trade that was still ongoing in the early 20th century.[63]The phrase gradually came to be used as a euphemism for prostitution.[64] The phrase was especially common in the context of the exploitation of minors, with the implication that children and young women in such circumstances were not free to decide their own fates.
The slave trade in primarily white girls intended for the harems in the Ottoman Middle East attracted attention in the West. Attempting to suppress the practice,an Ottomanfirman abolishing the trade of Circassians andGeorgians was issued in October 1854.[65] The decree did not abolish slavery as such, only the import of new slaves. However, in March 1858, the Ottoman Governor ofTrapezunt informed the British Consul that the 1854 ban had been a temporary war time ban due to foreign pressure, and that he had been given orders to allow slave ships on the Black Sea passage on their way to Constantinople, and in December formal tax regulations were introduced, legitimizing theCircassian slave trade again.[66] The so-calledCircassian slave trade was to continue until the 20th century.The sex slave trade in white girls for sexual slavery (concubinage) did not stop, and the British travel writer John Murray described a batch of white slave girls in the Middle East in the 1870s:
An international campaign against the white slave trade started in several countries in the West in the late 19th century. Many of the procurers and prostitutes who had accompanied the British and French troops to Constantinople during theCrimean war in the 1850s opened brothels inPort Said in Egypt during the construction of theSuez Canal, and these brothels was a destination for many victims of thewhite slave trade, since they were under protection of the foreign consulates because of the capitulatory privileges until 1937 and therefore protected from the police.[68]
In 1877 the first international congress for the abolition of prostitution took place in Geneva in Switzerland, followed by the foundation of theInternational Association of Friends of Young Girls (German:Internationale Verein Freundinnen junger Mädchen or FJM; French:Amies de la jeune fille); after this, national associations to combat the white slave trade was gradually founded in a number of nations, such as theFreundinnenverein in Germany, theNational Vigilance Association in Britain andVaksamhet in Sweden.[69]Moral panic over the "traffic in women" rose to a peak in England in the 1880s, after the exposure of theEliza Armstrong case and the internationally infamousWhite slave trade affair in the 1880s.[70] In 1884, theAnglo-Egyptian Slave Trade Convention pressed upon Egypt by the British explicitly banned the sex slave trade of "white women" toslavery in Egypt; this law was particularly targeted against the import of white women (mainly fromCaucasus and usuallyCircassians via theCircassian slave trade), which were the preferred choice forharemconcubines among the Egyptianupper class.[71][72]
The first international congress against prostitution and sex slave trade in Geneva in 1877, organized by theInternational Abolitionist Federation, was followed by conferences in 1899, 1904 and 1910.[73]When the second international congress against white slave trade took place in London in 1899, where theInternational Bureau for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children was founded to coordinate an international campaign.[74] TheInternational Abolitionist Federation (1875) andInternational Bureau (1899) where the two big pioneering organizations against the worldwide sex trade and conducted an international campaign via their local and national sub-sections and associated organizations in different countries.[75]As a result of the campaign of the movement suggestions was put forward on how to combat the white slave trade in Paris in 1902, which eventually resulted in theInternational Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic in May 1904.[74]
AfterWorld War I, the white slave trade or sex trafficking was addressed by theLeague of Nations, whoseAdvisory Committee on Traffic in Women and Children created theInternational Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children in 1921.[76]
In 1910, the US Congress passed theWhite Slave Traffic Act (better known as the Mann Act), which made it afelony to transport women across state borders for the purpose of "prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose". The Act was applied to a wide variety of offences, many of which were consensual in nature.[77][78]
While women were indeed victims of trafficking in the US, the public outcry about white slavery was mostly in response to racial anxieties about interracial contact.[79] Local prosecutors in New York were the first to convict a defendant for "white slavery" case using theMann Act.[78] InPeople v. Moore, anall-white jury convicted Bella Moore, a mixed race woman from New York, for the "compulsory prostitution" of two white women, Alice Milton and Belle Woods.[80][81] Another notable court case involvedJack Johnson. Using the Mann Act, federal prosecutors convicted Johnson of transporting his white girlfriend across state lines.[82] During the first half of the 20th century, authorities disproportionately prosecuted women who were poor and/or racial/ethnic minorities using the Mann Act.[83][84][85]
An attempt was made to introduce a similar law into the UK between 1910 and 1913 as the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912.Arthur Lee would state in theHouse of Commons:"the United Kingdom, and particularly England, is increasingly becoming a clearing-house and depot and dispatch centre of the white slave traffic, and the headquarters of the foreign agents engaged in the most expensive and lucrative phase of the business."[86]South America was stated as the main destination for the trafficked girls.The Spectator commented that "the Bill has been blocked by a member [alluding toFrederick Handel Booth] or members who, for various reasons consider that it is not a measure which ought to be placed upon the statute book" as it would affect the liberty of the individual.[87]
I propose to consider the subject of White Slavery in Algiers, or perhaps is might be more appropriately called, White Slavery in the Barbary States. As Algiers was its chief seat, it seems to have acquired a current name for the place. This I shall not disturb; though I shall speak of white slavery, or the slavery of Christians, throughout the Barbary States.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Among the concubines of a prince of Morocco were two slaves of the age of fifteen, one of English, and the other of French extraction. – Lampiere's Tour, p. 147. There is an account of "One Mrs. Shaw, an Irishwoman," in words hardly polite enough to be quoted. She was swept into the harem of Muley Shmael, who "forced her to turn moor";"but soon after, having taken a dislike to her, he gave her to a soldier". – Braithwaite's Morocco, p. 191.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)[...] those who remained faithful to their old religions and lived as protected persons under Muslim rule could not, if free, be legally enslaved unless they had violated the terms of being a protected subject, the contract governing their status, as for example by rebelling against Muslim rule or helping the enemies of the Muslim state or, according to some authorities, by withholding payment of the agricultural or yearly tax, the taxes due from protected people to the Muslim state.