The Bitter Truth About The Arab Slave Trade In Africa

Slavery in Islamic Countries

This section discusses the differences between the treatment of black slaves in Islamic countries and European offshoot nations.

Differences in Treatment

• Black slaves had a higher mortality rate in transit to North Africa and the Middle East due to disease vulnerability.

• Black slaves were used for more menial tasks, leading to fewer children being born into slavery.

• Marriage and casual sex among slaves was suppressed, further reducing the number of children born into slavery.

• The widespread use of eunuchs in harems reduced the ability of African slave populations to reproduce.

Changes Over Time

This section discusses how changes over time impacted slavery in Islamic countries.

Reduction of European Slaves

• As European nations grew militarily stronger, they became better able to resist Islamic nations, resulting in a reduction of imported European slaves.

• Orders against white slave traffic from Russian-controlled Georgia and Circassia were issued by the Ottoman government as late as the 1850s.

• By the end of the 19th century, white slaves had virtually disappeared except in Arabia.

Abolition of Slavery

• The horrors of Atlantic voyages took a toll on lives amounting to about 10% of all slaves shipped to Western Hemisphere on British vessels.

• Death toll among those imported by Islamic countries was twice as high due to forced walks across vast burning sands.

• Widespread loss of life began with initial slave raids; negro villages were burned and their women and children taken on months-long terrible marches.

• The march from slave gathering areas across the Sahara desert to the Mediterranean Sea took about three months, and often only the strongest survived.

• Black slavery was not abolished in most Islamic countries until between the two world wars of the 20th century.

The African Slave Trade to the Islamic World

This section discusses the African slave trade to the Islamic world, including the treatment of slaves and their destinations.

Slavery in the Islamic World

• Women were more in demand than men and brought higher prices as domestic servants or concubines.

• Ethiopian women sold for higher prices than negro women, while white women from the Caucasus brought the highest prices.

• Castration was used to produce eunuchs who were widely used in harems. It was usually performed early and often crudely before reaching areas under effective control of the Ottoman Empire.

• Eunuchs brought far higher prices than other slaves.

• Dead and dying slaves were a common sight in the wake of a slave caravan.

Treatment of Slaves

• David Livingstone witnessed brutal incidents such as a woman having her child taken from her and its brains dashed out on a stone.

• Muhammad Ali, ruler of Egypt, was also shocked by the brutality of Arab slave raiders and traders.

• Domestic service was much more common in the Islamic world than plantation labor. Wealthy men often had harems with hundreds of women and substantial numbers of eunuchs to work there.

Slave Markets

• The prime destination for African slaves was Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire, where the largest and busiest slave market flourished until it was finally closed down in 1847.

• In other Islamic countries, however, slave markets remained open and public both to natives and foreigners.

• A British captain witnessed rows of girls from age 12 being exposed to examination by throngs of Arab slave dealers at a market in Zanzibar.

Conclusion

The treatment of slaves varied according to both geographical destinations and occupational destinations. While generally considered milder than in the Western Hemisphere, there was no organized anti-slavery movement in the Muslim countries.

Life of Slaves in the Ottoman Empire

The speaker discusses the lives of slaves in the Ottoman Empire and how little is known about their thoughts and feelings.

Lives of Slaves

• The lives of slaves in the Ottoman Empire are not well-known.

• Black women who had children sired by slave owners were sometimes allowed to keep them, but this was rare.

• Slaves were often deprived of a normal family life and made available without regard to their own feelings to their owners or whomever their owner might give, lend, or sell them.

• Eunuchs were also common among slaves in the Ottoman Empire.