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centuries, blackmailing foreign
nations wishing to trade in African
ports and sail unmolested through
Mediterranean waters. They
demanded tribute money, seized
ships, and held crews for ransom or
sold them into slavery.
During the late 1500s and early
1600s, around 35,000 European
Christian slaves were held, many in
Tripoli, Tunis, and various
Moroccan towns, but mostly in
Algiers. These were predominantly
mariners, taken with their ships, but
many were fishermen and villagers
taken from coastal areas. Although
the British captives were numerous,
many more were taken from lands
closer to Africa, these being Spain
and Italy in particular. It is said that
the coasts of Valencia, Andalusia,
Calabria, and Sicily were raided so
frequently that there was eventually
no one left to capture.
Some European coastal areas
eventually became depopulated and
the people impoverished, and the
destruction in some parts of Europe
was devastating. Many struggled to
get enough money together to pay
ransoms and get people home,
though payment was frequently
not honored.
In the 16th–19th centuries it
is believed that between 1,000,000
and 1,250,000 Europeans were
taken, which although small by
comparison with the Atlantic slave
trade to the Americas, was
considerable nonetheless.
In the waters off the Devon coast
of England, at Salcombe, is the wreck
of a pirate ship or
xebec
, containing
the largest haul of Islamic gold
discovered in British waters. Some
coins had been halved, presumably
so that the booty could be divided
equally between the crew.
North Africa
22
White slaves in Barbary
were generally from poor
families and, like the
Africans taken to the
Americas, had little hope of
buying back their freedom: most
would end their days dying of
starvation, disease, or
maltreatment.