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The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam
Explains the role of the newly independent United States in putting an end to the trade in European and American slaves.
Everybody knows about the transatlantic slave trade, which saw black Africans snatched from their homes, taken across the Atlantic Ocean and then sold into slavery. However, a century before Britain became involved in this terrible business, whole villages and towns in England, Ireland, Italy, Spain and other European countries were being depopulated by slavers, who transported the men, women and children to Africa where they were sold to the highest bidder. This is the forgotten slave trade; one which saw over a million Christians forced into captivity in the Muslim world.
Starting with the practice of slavery in the ancient world, Simon Webb traces the history of slavery in Europe, showing that the numbers involved were vast and that the victims were often treated far more cruelly than black slaves in America and the Caribbean. Castration, used very occasionally against black slaves taken across the Atlantic, was routinely carried out on an industrial scale on European boys who were exported to Africa and the Middle East. Most people are aware that the English city of Bristol was a major center for the transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century, but hardly anyone knows that 1,000 years earlier it had been an important staging-post for the transfer of English slaves to Africa.
Reading this book will forever change how you view the slave trade and show that many commonly held beliefs about this controversial subject are almost wholly inaccurate and mistaken.
Everybody knows about the transatlantic slave trade, which saw black Africans snatched from their homes, taken across the Atlantic Ocean and then sold into slavery. However, a century before Britain became involved in this terrible business, whole villages and towns in England, Ireland, Italy, Spain and other European countries were being depopulated by slavers, who transported the men, women and children to Africa where they were sold to the highest bidder. This is the forgotten slave trade; one which saw over a million Christians forced into captivity in the Muslim world.
Starting with the practice of slavery in the ancient world, Simon Webb traces the history of slavery in Europe, showing that the numbers involved were vast and that the victims were often treated far more cruelly than black slaves in America and the Caribbean. Castration, used very occasionally against black slaves taken across the Atlantic, was routinely carried out on an industrial scale on European boys who were exported to Africa and the Middle East. Most people are aware that the English city of Bristol was a major center for the transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century, but hardly anyone knows that 1,000 years earlier it had been an important staging-post for the transfer of English slaves to Africa.
Reading this book will forever change how you view the slave trade and show that many commonly held beliefs about this controversial subject are almost wholly inaccurate and mistaken.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published January 22, 2021
169 people are currently reading
484 people want to read
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January 19, 2022
Interesting and very readable.
Some of the points I took from the book:
Slavery has always been with us, on every continent. It was generally acceptable as long as your victim was not of your own religion.
The guilt and anguish which the British and Americans in particular have felt, should be shared more evenly across the globe. (They were, after all, the first nations to abolish it). It was a young, recently independent America, which took on the North African slave captors, the barbary corsairs, and ultimately defeated them, thus ending their trade. The British had been content to stave off the menace by paying them an annual fee to leave their people and shipping alone. (harassment of British competitors was fine of course).This was celebrated by James Thomson in his ‘Rule Britannia’of 1740 – “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves”.
Pope Gregory the Great ( c 540-604) was upset at the sight of Anglo Saxon youth being sold into slavery in Rome.
Ireland was a flourishing centre for the slave trade, Dublin being founded on it. St Patrick, who lived in the fifth century, was at one time a slave.
Many Slavic people were sold into slavery, hence the origin of the word ‘slave’. Slavs were prized
as slaves, particularly within the Ottoman (Moslem) Empire. Some rose to become viziers ( ‘prime ministers’) to the Sultan/Emperor, being more trusted than the Sultan’s own family and people.
Hungary was for many years part of the Ottoman Empire. The author suggests this added to the unease felt by the Hungarian population as migrants, many of them Moslem, sought entry to their country of late. A Serb population too was mindful of its one time vassalage to Moslem rulers. Was this a contributory factor to the atrocities in Kosovo?
Black Slavery, the author argues is relatively recent (18th century onwards?) and has been focused upon more in the last 60years with alterations to school curricula with more emphasis on the teaching of ‘black history’.
Arabic nations were some of the last to end slavery, particularly in the Middle East; 1961 in the case of Saudi Arabia.
Some of the points I took from the book:
Slavery has always been with us, on every continent. It was generally acceptable as long as your victim was not of your own religion.
The guilt and anguish which the British and Americans in particular have felt, should be shared more evenly across the globe. (They were, after all, the first nations to abolish it). It was a young, recently independent America, which took on the North African slave captors, the barbary corsairs, and ultimately defeated them, thus ending their trade. The British had been content to stave off the menace by paying them an annual fee to leave their people and shipping alone. (harassment of British competitors was fine of course).This was celebrated by James Thomson in his ‘Rule Britannia’of 1740 – “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves”.
Pope Gregory the Great ( c 540-604) was upset at the sight of Anglo Saxon youth being sold into slavery in Rome.
Ireland was a flourishing centre for the slave trade, Dublin being founded on it. St Patrick, who lived in the fifth century, was at one time a slave.
Many Slavic people were sold into slavery, hence the origin of the word ‘slave’. Slavs were prized
as slaves, particularly within the Ottoman (Moslem) Empire. Some rose to become viziers ( ‘prime ministers’) to the Sultan/Emperor, being more trusted than the Sultan’s own family and people.
Hungary was for many years part of the Ottoman Empire. The author suggests this added to the unease felt by the Hungarian population as migrants, many of them Moslem, sought entry to their country of late. A Serb population too was mindful of its one time vassalage to Moslem rulers. Was this a contributory factor to the atrocities in Kosovo?
Black Slavery, the author argues is relatively recent (18th century onwards?) and has been focused upon more in the last 60years with alterations to school curricula with more emphasis on the teaching of ‘black history’.
Arabic nations were some of the last to end slavery, particularly in the Middle East; 1961 in the case of Saudi Arabia.
Read
October 20, 2020This might, quite possibly, be the most important review I have ever written.
The book's title and premise seemed interesting, if a bit controversial.
I'm well aware that when people think of slavery it's almost exclusively the enslavement of Africans by white Europeans, unless of course, they're from certain parts of the globe, like myself, where the Ottoman slave trade comes to mind first.
I expected this book to be centered around Western Europeans, which it mostly was, but I won't lie and say I wasn't at least a bit "excited" (if one could ever say that about a slavery book) when I saw the fourth chapter was called "Mamluks and Janissaries". That suggested my region would definitely be mentioned. We tend to get overlooked in such matters so I was eager to read something that hits close to home.
Unfortunately, while the author did research other subjects in the book and provided sources for them, every mention of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Kosovo was clouded by un-sourced personal bias. In this day and age sources are readily available and it's easy to find not one, but hundreds of them to disprove the claims made in this book. But we'll come back to that later.
What I want to talk about now is the positives.
I think this book partially achieved what it set out to do. It didn't try to lessen the impact the slave trade had on black people today, but tried to shed light on other slave trades that happened and affected various people (mainly Europeans in this case) around the world.
The Algerian parts were very interesting and I do believe I learned a thing or two there. And even the English were slaves once, who would have thought?
The portrayal of Janissaries was mostly accurate but I wish the author added more details (not unlike the eunuchs in chapter three)...perhaps details that Dr Ivo Andrić, who was born in Bosnia and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961 for his novels about Bosnian Christian suffering, described in his book "The Bridge on the Drina"?
Further reading on this topic (mind you, link one has a bunch of information about Bosnians from the very moment they converted to Islam till the 90s when they fought together with UÇK, Al Kaida and Mujahideens which will be relevant later): John R. Schindler's book "Unholy Terror" and articles such as https://leejaywalker.wordpress.com/ta... and https://mightynose.wordpress.com/2013....
The writing style was easy to follow, even though it was extremely repetitive.
So where did it all go wrong? I'm about to show you.
"During the fighting in the 1990s between the countries which had once made up Yugoslavia, some of the worst atrocities were comitted by Slavs against Muslims. In July 1995, 8000 Muslims were slaughtered by a Serb militia who were determined to use ethnic cleansing to ensure that an area of Bosnia contained only Christian Slavs."
As if that wasn't enough, here's more (apologies that I didn't underline/highlight it, the important part starts with "It will be recalled that..." and ends with "...700 years ago") :
Now before I tackle this, it's important to note that these "poor" Bosnian and Albanian Muslims who suffered alleged ethnic cleansing were actually in the front lines of Nazi SS divisions during which time they murdered hundreds of thousands of Serbs and Jews from the Balkans. More here (also included, the role of Bosnians in 9/11 and the fact that Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo have the biggest number of ISIS fighters and the largest number of ISIS training camps in Europe): http://greyfalcon.us/Kosovo%20and%20B...
https://acdemocracy.org/al-qaedas-bal...
https://gordonswar.blogspot.com/2016/...
http://vostokian.com/isis-and-the-bal...
https://medium.com/@meiran.galis/the-...
https://global-politics.eu/balkan-cal...
Now back to the quotes above, I could've just stopped reading at the first quote, marked the book as "did not finish" and stayed quiet. But I am not going to stay quiet. Not when the author called my people genocidal, a claim which has been disproven time and time again thanks to many illogical contradictions and the sea of infomation that has come to light via certain foreign agencies, political and military personnel who fought against Serbs, witness interviews, written books, documentaries etc.
http://us.srebrenica-project.org/2019...
As for the figures well...the evidence given at The Hague war crimes tribunal casts serious doubt on the figure of "up to" 8,000 Bosnian Muslims massacred. That figure includes "up to" 5,000 who have been classified as missing. More than 2,000 bodies have been recovered in and around Srebrenica, and they include victims of the three years of intense fighting in the area. The math just doesn't support the scale of 8,000 killed.
There is evidence which suggests that Naser Orić, the Bosnian Muslim military leader in Srebrenica, was responsible for killing as many Serb civilians outside Srebrenica as the Bosnian Serb army was for massacring Bosnian Muslims inside the town.
Diana Johnstone, the author of "Fool's Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions" described everything from the fake genocide in Srebrenica to the whole propaganda regarding the Yugoslav wars. I highly recommend reading this: https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/...
Edward S. Herman - An American economist and media analyst with a specialty in political economy and the media wrote a book about The Srebrenica Massacre: Evidence, Context and Politics with Noam Chomsky explaining that Srebrenica was a political fraud. https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-sre...
Some Chomsky interviews: https://mobile.twitter.com/FriendsOfS...
https://mobile.twitter.com/FriendsOfS...
https://mobile.twitter.com/FriendsOfS...
Remember all the rape propaganda? The exact same number of 20, 000 women was used in both Bosnia and Kosovo. The journalist Mark Tran of The Guardian wrote an article where he mentioned 20,000 rapes allegedly committed by Serbs, ignoring the March 2000 Human Rights Watch assertion of 96 war-related rapes in 1998 through 1999, as cited in their report. https://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texi...
Shortly after, in August 2000, award-winning Guardian reporter Audrey Gillan’s “The Propaganda war,” cites her failure to uncover any evidence of mass rapes in Kosovo. http://sorryserbia.com/2015/kosovo-rape/
This article is the most detailed analysis of the "rape and politics" methodology which has been used against Serbs during the Yugoslav wars. http://sorryserbia.com/2013/fools-cru...
And even more on mass rapes & dead babies propaganda, from Iraq to Bosnia and Kosovo https://www.antiwar.com/orig/savich1....
Death camp where? Certainly not here. https://swprs.org/propaganda-in-the-w...
https://fpif.org/serb_demonization_as...
It gets even worse.
Starts with "Another and more recent..." ends right before the Endword.
The 90s wars. A French general publicly spoke about Germany wanting to destroy Serbs and Yugoslavia out of revenge and that they had an agenda to do so long before the wars even began.
“It should be noted that the dismemberment of Yugoslavia was an operation long prepared in Germany…
So, Berlin, at the time it was Bonn, thought that Serbian resistance contributed to German defeat in world wars. These people were to be punished…” Brigadier-General Pierre Marie Gallois
Link to his interview: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=e...
The BND is the German foreign intelligence service which, in cooperation with the CIA, finalised the destruction of Yugoslavia into "colonies". There's documents that got leaked as well as WikiLeaks files which testify that the BND was supplying terrorists in Bosnia & Kosovo with weapons during the wars. https://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_End_of...
http://www.parstimes.com/history/iran...
https://barenakedislam.com/2015/07/10...
https://adarapress.com/2020/01/07/how...
General MacKenzie, who participated in both wars in Bosnia and Kosovo on the opposite side of Serbs stated that they "bombed the wrong side". https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=y...
Former American General Douglas MacGregor said the same thing. "So we intervened against the Orthodox Serbs, Orthodox Christian Serbs, in Kosovo and put essentially a Muslim drug mafia in charge of that country and called it a great success for democracy."
And Russian support for Serbia helped start WW1? Did I just read that? Did You, dear reader, just read that? What the what???!!! No.
Soon after the assassination, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Ministry sent Friedrich von Wiesner to Sarajevo, to investigate whether the Serbian government was involved in the affair.
Wiesner said that there was no evidence, however, the Ultimatum was already written. Aka they wanted to attack Serbia no matter what.
As for the Russian help during the 90s, this book makes it sound as if we got the whole country backing us up, which wasn't true. The president at the time didn't define his support and the soldiers that did arrive did so on their own initiative because yes, they didn't want to watch their Slavic bretheren get slaughtered and have their holy land stolen from them.
In Bosnia all the way up to the 90s wars, Bosnian Serbs (Christians) were the majority, just as they were in Kosovo, as testified by the "Dečani muniment" from 1330, the Turkish census from 1445 and many leaders of the Catholic Church.
The Dečani muniment specified that Metohija and the surrounding areas belong to the Dečani manor (89 settlements, of which only three were inhabited by Albanians). There were 3,433 houses in those settlements, of which only 44 (1.8 percent) were Albanian.
Albanians only started to massively overrun Kosovo in the 18th century which can be seen in these statistics (which were created by the World Bank and OSCE, so they're reliable):
People have been aware of the situation in Kosovo since the beginning of the war until now, but many still don't know the terror, genocide and ethnic cleansing the Serbs have experienced from WW2 until 1998.
https://www.bidd.org.rs/kosovo-under-...
https://adarapress.com/2019/07/04/kos...
An Albanian Muslim president ordering the rape of Serbian women to create an "ethnically pure" Kosovo even went "viral".
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/01/wo...
Milošević's trial lasted four years, and they hadn't been able to prove anything during that long period. On the contrary, he laid out many goverment secrets and proved that the plan to destroy Yugoslavia was very real and named everyone who had a part in it. And so he ended up dead. There's a book about it by Robin de Ruiter called "Who killed Slobodan Milošević and Why".
“Milošević’s political goal was to preserve Kosovo within Serbia’s borders and to prevent Albanian majority to drive Serbian minority out of Kosovo. There was no incitement of nationalist hatred, nor has the ethnic cleansing been carried out. On the contrary, Milošević and Socialist Party members always stressed the advantages of multiethnicity for Serbia” She wrote.
To wrap this up, Serbs have suffered at the hands of "the most peaceful religion in the world", from Ottoman times, to the Balkan Wars, WW1, WW2, the 90s wars, the March pogrom in 2004 during which over 150 Serbian churches and monasteries were destroyed and they continue to suffer today, the few of those who still live in enclaves in Kosovo and face daily attacks on their homes and kidnappings of their children.
In the Forgotten Slave Trade the illegal NATO bombing of civilians, journalists, hospitals, schools, bridges, trains, power lines, water supplies and factories is "justified".
The links between the Ottomans and present-day Balkans could (SHOULD) have been presented differently. I was very disappointed with this book because of that. The author gives his subjective political opinion, which clashes with the genre of the book. It's simply unforgivable to lead those who have little to no prior knowledge of these events to the wrong conclusuion. However, this is an early copy so perhaps the final version is less all over the place? A girl can only hope.
For all of those reasons, I'm choosing not to rate this book on Goodreads. I don't want my personal feelings to get in the way of an honest rating.
And for anyone who'd like to inform themselves by watching documentaries, I'd recommend The Weight of Chains by Boris Malagurski and the Czech film Stolen Kosovo by Václav Dvořák. Both are free to watch on YouTube and have subtitles for parts that aren't in English.
Weight of Chains: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=waEYQ46...
Stolen Kosovo: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UWzf8Rk...
I'd still like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. And special thanks to Vesna (you know who you are) for helping me out with the sources and then some.
The book's title and premise seemed interesting, if a bit controversial.
I'm well aware that when people think of slavery it's almost exclusively the enslavement of Africans by white Europeans, unless of course, they're from certain parts of the globe, like myself, where the Ottoman slave trade comes to mind first.
I expected this book to be centered around Western Europeans, which it mostly was, but I won't lie and say I wasn't at least a bit "excited" (if one could ever say that about a slavery book) when I saw the fourth chapter was called "Mamluks and Janissaries". That suggested my region would definitely be mentioned. We tend to get overlooked in such matters so I was eager to read something that hits close to home.
Unfortunately, while the author did research other subjects in the book and provided sources for them, every mention of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Kosovo was clouded by un-sourced personal bias. In this day and age sources are readily available and it's easy to find not one, but hundreds of them to disprove the claims made in this book. But we'll come back to that later.
What I want to talk about now is the positives.
I think this book partially achieved what it set out to do. It didn't try to lessen the impact the slave trade had on black people today, but tried to shed light on other slave trades that happened and affected various people (mainly Europeans in this case) around the world.
The Algerian parts were very interesting and I do believe I learned a thing or two there. And even the English were slaves once, who would have thought?
The portrayal of Janissaries was mostly accurate but I wish the author added more details (not unlike the eunuchs in chapter three)...perhaps details that Dr Ivo Andrić, who was born in Bosnia and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961 for his novels about Bosnian Christian suffering, described in his book "The Bridge on the Drina"?
Further reading on this topic (mind you, link one has a bunch of information about Bosnians from the very moment they converted to Islam till the 90s when they fought together with UÇK, Al Kaida and Mujahideens which will be relevant later): John R. Schindler's book "Unholy Terror" and articles such as https://leejaywalker.wordpress.com/ta... and https://mightynose.wordpress.com/2013....
The writing style was easy to follow, even though it was extremely repetitive.
So where did it all go wrong? I'm about to show you.
"During the fighting in the 1990s between the countries which had once made up Yugoslavia, some of the worst atrocities were comitted by Slavs against Muslims. In July 1995, 8000 Muslims were slaughtered by a Serb militia who were determined to use ethnic cleansing to ensure that an area of Bosnia contained only Christian Slavs."
As if that wasn't enough, here's more (apologies that I didn't underline/highlight it, the important part starts with "It will be recalled that..." and ends with "...700 years ago") :
Now before I tackle this, it's important to note that these "poor" Bosnian and Albanian Muslims who suffered alleged ethnic cleansing were actually in the front lines of Nazi SS divisions during which time they murdered hundreds of thousands of Serbs and Jews from the Balkans. More here (also included, the role of Bosnians in 9/11 and the fact that Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo have the biggest number of ISIS fighters and the largest number of ISIS training camps in Europe): http://greyfalcon.us/Kosovo%20and%20B...
https://acdemocracy.org/al-qaedas-bal...
https://gordonswar.blogspot.com/2016/...
http://vostokian.com/isis-and-the-bal...
https://medium.com/@meiran.galis/the-...
https://global-politics.eu/balkan-cal...
Now back to the quotes above, I could've just stopped reading at the first quote, marked the book as "did not finish" and stayed quiet. But I am not going to stay quiet. Not when the author called my people genocidal, a claim which has been disproven time and time again thanks to many illogical contradictions and the sea of infomation that has come to light via certain foreign agencies, political and military personnel who fought against Serbs, witness interviews, written books, documentaries etc.
http://us.srebrenica-project.org/2019...
As for the figures well...the evidence given at The Hague war crimes tribunal casts serious doubt on the figure of "up to" 8,000 Bosnian Muslims massacred. That figure includes "up to" 5,000 who have been classified as missing. More than 2,000 bodies have been recovered in and around Srebrenica, and they include victims of the three years of intense fighting in the area. The math just doesn't support the scale of 8,000 killed.
There is evidence which suggests that Naser Orić, the Bosnian Muslim military leader in Srebrenica, was responsible for killing as many Serb civilians outside Srebrenica as the Bosnian Serb army was for massacring Bosnian Muslims inside the town.
Diana Johnstone, the author of "Fool's Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions" described everything from the fake genocide in Srebrenica to the whole propaganda regarding the Yugoslav wars. I highly recommend reading this: https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/...
Edward S. Herman - An American economist and media analyst with a specialty in political economy and the media wrote a book about The Srebrenica Massacre: Evidence, Context and Politics with Noam Chomsky explaining that Srebrenica was a political fraud. https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-sre...
Some Chomsky interviews: https://mobile.twitter.com/FriendsOfS...
https://mobile.twitter.com/FriendsOfS...
https://mobile.twitter.com/FriendsOfS...
Remember all the rape propaganda? The exact same number of 20, 000 women was used in both Bosnia and Kosovo. The journalist Mark Tran of The Guardian wrote an article where he mentioned 20,000 rapes allegedly committed by Serbs, ignoring the March 2000 Human Rights Watch assertion of 96 war-related rapes in 1998 through 1999, as cited in their report. https://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texi...
Shortly after, in August 2000, award-winning Guardian reporter Audrey Gillan’s “The Propaganda war,” cites her failure to uncover any evidence of mass rapes in Kosovo. http://sorryserbia.com/2015/kosovo-rape/
This article is the most detailed analysis of the "rape and politics" methodology which has been used against Serbs during the Yugoslav wars. http://sorryserbia.com/2013/fools-cru...
And even more on mass rapes & dead babies propaganda, from Iraq to Bosnia and Kosovo https://www.antiwar.com/orig/savich1....
Death camp where? Certainly not here. https://swprs.org/propaganda-in-the-w...
https://fpif.org/serb_demonization_as...
It gets even worse.
Starts with "Another and more recent..." ends right before the Endword.
The 90s wars. A French general publicly spoke about Germany wanting to destroy Serbs and Yugoslavia out of revenge and that they had an agenda to do so long before the wars even began.
“It should be noted that the dismemberment of Yugoslavia was an operation long prepared in Germany…
So, Berlin, at the time it was Bonn, thought that Serbian resistance contributed to German defeat in world wars. These people were to be punished…” Brigadier-General Pierre Marie Gallois
Link to his interview: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=e...
The BND is the German foreign intelligence service which, in cooperation with the CIA, finalised the destruction of Yugoslavia into "colonies". There's documents that got leaked as well as WikiLeaks files which testify that the BND was supplying terrorists in Bosnia & Kosovo with weapons during the wars. https://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_End_of...
http://www.parstimes.com/history/iran...
https://barenakedislam.com/2015/07/10...
https://adarapress.com/2020/01/07/how...
General MacKenzie, who participated in both wars in Bosnia and Kosovo on the opposite side of Serbs stated that they "bombed the wrong side". https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=y...
Former American General Douglas MacGregor said the same thing. "So we intervened against the Orthodox Serbs, Orthodox Christian Serbs, in Kosovo and put essentially a Muslim drug mafia in charge of that country and called it a great success for democracy."
And Russian support for Serbia helped start WW1? Did I just read that? Did You, dear reader, just read that? What the what???!!! No.
Soon after the assassination, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Ministry sent Friedrich von Wiesner to Sarajevo, to investigate whether the Serbian government was involved in the affair.
Wiesner said that there was no evidence, however, the Ultimatum was already written. Aka they wanted to attack Serbia no matter what.
As for the Russian help during the 90s, this book makes it sound as if we got the whole country backing us up, which wasn't true. The president at the time didn't define his support and the soldiers that did arrive did so on their own initiative because yes, they didn't want to watch their Slavic bretheren get slaughtered and have their holy land stolen from them.
In Bosnia all the way up to the 90s wars, Bosnian Serbs (Christians) were the majority, just as they were in Kosovo, as testified by the "Dečani muniment" from 1330, the Turkish census from 1445 and many leaders of the Catholic Church.
The Dečani muniment specified that Metohija and the surrounding areas belong to the Dečani manor (89 settlements, of which only three were inhabited by Albanians). There were 3,433 houses in those settlements, of which only 44 (1.8 percent) were Albanian.
Albanians only started to massively overrun Kosovo in the 18th century which can be seen in these statistics (which were created by the World Bank and OSCE, so they're reliable):
People have been aware of the situation in Kosovo since the beginning of the war until now, but many still don't know the terror, genocide and ethnic cleansing the Serbs have experienced from WW2 until 1998.
https://www.bidd.org.rs/kosovo-under-...
https://adarapress.com/2019/07/04/kos...
An Albanian Muslim president ordering the rape of Serbian women to create an "ethnically pure" Kosovo even went "viral".
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/01/wo...
Milošević's trial lasted four years, and they hadn't been able to prove anything during that long period. On the contrary, he laid out many goverment secrets and proved that the plan to destroy Yugoslavia was very real and named everyone who had a part in it. And so he ended up dead. There's a book about it by Robin de Ruiter called "Who killed Slobodan Milošević and Why".
“Milošević’s political goal was to preserve Kosovo within Serbia’s borders and to prevent Albanian majority to drive Serbian minority out of Kosovo. There was no incitement of nationalist hatred, nor has the ethnic cleansing been carried out. On the contrary, Milošević and Socialist Party members always stressed the advantages of multiethnicity for Serbia” She wrote.
To wrap this up, Serbs have suffered at the hands of "the most peaceful religion in the world", from Ottoman times, to the Balkan Wars, WW1, WW2, the 90s wars, the March pogrom in 2004 during which over 150 Serbian churches and monasteries were destroyed and they continue to suffer today, the few of those who still live in enclaves in Kosovo and face daily attacks on their homes and kidnappings of their children.
In the Forgotten Slave Trade the illegal NATO bombing of civilians, journalists, hospitals, schools, bridges, trains, power lines, water supplies and factories is "justified".
The links between the Ottomans and present-day Balkans could (SHOULD) have been presented differently. I was very disappointed with this book because of that. The author gives his subjective political opinion, which clashes with the genre of the book. It's simply unforgivable to lead those who have little to no prior knowledge of these events to the wrong conclusuion. However, this is an early copy so perhaps the final version is less all over the place? A girl can only hope.
For all of those reasons, I'm choosing not to rate this book on Goodreads. I don't want my personal feelings to get in the way of an honest rating.
And for anyone who'd like to inform themselves by watching documentaries, I'd recommend The Weight of Chains by Boris Malagurski and the Czech film Stolen Kosovo by Václav Dvořák. Both are free to watch on YouTube and have subtitles for parts that aren't in English.
Weight of Chains: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=waEYQ46...
Stolen Kosovo: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UWzf8Rk...
I'd still like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. And special thanks to Vesna (you know who you are) for helping me out with the sources and then some.
November 24, 2022
I could not recommend this book to anyone - it is appalling - the author seems to be quite surprised that others, aside from Africans were enslaved in large numbers at various times in history - quite how he can be so ignorant is hard to understand - that ancient Greece and Rome (and in fact most ancient civilizations) were slave based is hard to understand - did he never see films like 'The Robe', or 'Barabbas' or 'Ben Hur'? Even the Europeans seized by North African corsairs is hardly knew - his bibliography (a pretty poor one) includes one of the best recent books - Giles Milton's 'White and Gold'.
But what is really awful is his way of approaching the subject of 'white' slavery but attempting to claim a worse situation for White European slaves as against black African slaves. Perhaps his most egregious example is by eliding the discussion of castration of boy slaves in the 10th century AD with the Middle passage of African Slaves to America and saying they were lucky because they weren't castrated. I can't begin to say how wrong his attitude is and if you don't understand then read about what tortures run away slaves suffered or what happened to free black men in America when they were lynched. You don't establish the suffering of one group by diminishing the pain and sufferings of another.
Their is a distinct anti-Islam/Muslim tone to the whole book. I thought I had reached the depths of grotesqueries when he excused the racism and attacks of Hungarians in 2015 against refugees from the hell of the Syrian and other Middle East crises by saying we had to remember that Ottoman (Muslim armies) had invaded Hungary 500 years before but there was worse to come when a few pages later he excused the Srebrenica massacre on the same grounds. The lazy cliché of Balkan communities and their centuries old hatreds is a lazy lie - if you have any doubts read Giles Milton's books on the cities of Thessaloniki and Smyrna and see how peacefully Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities lived together until outsiders forced their own definitions and divisions on hatreds onto them and created nightmares.
Historic wrongs do not justify or cause current hate. People, powerful, rich people, with an agenda of their own who seek to profit from hate and division cause hate, violence, death and pogroms.
I cannot express how much I hated this book and I hope it is as little read as possible. Because of it I will not buy, read or even consult the authors many other books because I would be afraid of reading more ill informed prejudice and would not want to sully my eyes and brain or waste my time.
But what is really awful is his way of approaching the subject of 'white' slavery but attempting to claim a worse situation for White European slaves as against black African slaves. Perhaps his most egregious example is by eliding the discussion of castration of boy slaves in the 10th century AD with the Middle passage of African Slaves to America and saying they were lucky because they weren't castrated. I can't begin to say how wrong his attitude is and if you don't understand then read about what tortures run away slaves suffered or what happened to free black men in America when they were lynched. You don't establish the suffering of one group by diminishing the pain and sufferings of another.
Their is a distinct anti-Islam/Muslim tone to the whole book. I thought I had reached the depths of grotesqueries when he excused the racism and attacks of Hungarians in 2015 against refugees from the hell of the Syrian and other Middle East crises by saying we had to remember that Ottoman (Muslim armies) had invaded Hungary 500 years before but there was worse to come when a few pages later he excused the Srebrenica massacre on the same grounds. The lazy cliché of Balkan communities and their centuries old hatreds is a lazy lie - if you have any doubts read Giles Milton's books on the cities of Thessaloniki and Smyrna and see how peacefully Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities lived together until outsiders forced their own definitions and divisions on hatreds onto them and created nightmares.
Historic wrongs do not justify or cause current hate. People, powerful, rich people, with an agenda of their own who seek to profit from hate and division cause hate, violence, death and pogroms.
I cannot express how much I hated this book and I hope it is as little read as possible. Because of it I will not buy, read or even consult the authors many other books because I would be afraid of reading more ill informed prejudice and would not want to sully my eyes and brain or waste my time.
December 22, 2022
"In recent years the subject of slavery has become quite literally a question of black and white..."
The Forgotten Slave Trade was an interesting read. I would bet that a large majority of the people living in western societies have no idea about the history covered in these pages...
And despite having "Islam" in the book's subtitle, it is more of an examination of slavery as a global phenomenon.
Author Simon Webb has written a number of non-fiction books, ranging from academic works on education to popular history.
Simon Webb:
Webb opens the book with a well-written intro, getting the book off to a great start. I found the writing here to be very well done; for the most part. Although I'll opine that I felt the first ~half of the book had a better flow than the second half.
Despite the rather niche-sounding title, and its short length, the book is very informationally dense. Webb covers some broad-based history in these pages; the scope of which extends farther than its title implies. The book also contains many different historical illustrations, which was a nice touch. I've included a few of them here, to help bring some additional context.
As noted above, the writing here was very well done. The book summarizes large chunks of history in an effective and succinct manner. There are also many excellent quotes here. I'm including some of the more pertinent ones in this review; mainly for my own future reference.
Webb continues the quote at the start of this review, noting a common misconception around the discussion of slavery; namely, that it was an invention of white Europeans acted out against black Africans for racist motivations:
To the point above, and contrary to the central narrative around the topic, slavery was not an exclusive invention of white Europeans that was acted out solely against black Africans. Here the author speaks to the ubiquitous nature of slavery among almost all historical human civilizations:
In this quote, he notes how widespread historical European slavery was:
He compares the Atlantic slave trade with slavery in the Roman Empire here:
Paradoxically, despite actively employing military force to end the global practice of slavery, it is primarily the countries of western Europe and the United States that are left with the historical burden of guilt in their societies. This, despite the fact that the Islamic slave trade was much larger; in terms of mean numbers, the total duration, and the date at which it stopped:
Webb wraps up the writing in the book nicely with this quote:
***********************
The Forgotten Slave Trade was an eye-opening look into the global history of slavery. Likely, many on the "progressive" left will be partially (if not mostly) ignorant of the history told here...
4 stars.
The Forgotten Slave Trade was an interesting read. I would bet that a large majority of the people living in western societies have no idea about the history covered in these pages...
And despite having "Islam" in the book's subtitle, it is more of an examination of slavery as a global phenomenon.
Author Simon Webb has written a number of non-fiction books, ranging from academic works on education to popular history.
Simon Webb:
Webb opens the book with a well-written intro, getting the book off to a great start. I found the writing here to be very well done; for the most part. Although I'll opine that I felt the first ~half of the book had a better flow than the second half.
Despite the rather niche-sounding title, and its short length, the book is very informationally dense. Webb covers some broad-based history in these pages; the scope of which extends farther than its title implies. The book also contains many different historical illustrations, which was a nice touch. I've included a few of them here, to help bring some additional context.
As noted above, the writing here was very well done. The book summarizes large chunks of history in an effective and succinct manner. There are also many excellent quotes here. I'm including some of the more pertinent ones in this review; mainly for my own future reference.
Webb continues the quote at the start of this review, noting a common misconception around the discussion of slavery; namely, that it was an invention of white Europeans acted out against black Africans for racist motivations:
"...Upon hearing any mention of slavery, the mind of the average person in Britain or America turns unbidden, and as a matter of course, to the Atlantic slave trade, by means of which many black Africans were transported from their native continent to America and the islands of the Caribbean. For most of us, this is simply what slavery was; the historic mistreatment and exploitation of black people. It is widely accepted that anybody talking or writing about slavery must adopt this peculiar world-view and ensure that the central focus remains firmly upon black Africans. When we see a book in a library or bookshop called The Slave Trade, we have no doubt that when we open it, we shall be seeing graphic descriptions of the horrors of the so-called ‘Middle Passage’, which saw millions of men, women and children transported across the Atlantic Ocean in atrocious conditions. It is that grammatical feature, the definite article, which indicates what we are to expect. The word ‘the’ gives the game away..."
To the point above, and contrary to the central narrative around the topic, slavery was not an exclusive invention of white Europeans that was acted out solely against black Africans. Here the author speaks to the ubiquitous nature of slavery among almost all historical human civilizations:
"To understand the subject of this book, which is of course slavery, properly it will be necessary to bear in mind that across the world slavery has been an accepted and unremarkable institution for thousands of years. It has been widely practised throughout the whole of human history, right up to the present day. According to the United Nations, there are currently somewhere in the region of 25 million slaves in the world (UN News, 2019). It is notable that even in the earliest mentions of slavery, dating back 4,000 years, there is no suggestion of novelty about the practice, which indicates that by the time people began recording their history in permanent form, slavery was already a long-established tradition. It is clear that almost without exception, early civilizations regarded slavery as simply a convenient way of ordering societies which were, in the main, hierarchical..."
In this quote, he notes how widespread historical European slavery was:
"As late as the Norman Conquest in 1066, a tenth of the people in England were slaves and even 600 years later, slavers were routinely raiding the shores of the British Isles. This aspect of the country’s history has, in effect, been airbrushed away. A similar process has taken place in other European countries, where it is now felt tactful to avoid discussing slavery for fear of inflaming old divisions within the European Union and inciting racism against newcomers, many of whom are Muslim. It might help to set both the Atlantic slave trade and also the trade which saw Europeans being transported to Africa over the centuries in their proper perspective, if we look at the overall picture of slavery in history and examine its origins."
He compares the Atlantic slave trade with slavery in the Roman Empire here:
"It was in the Roman Empire that slavery reached such vast numbers as to dwarf the Atlantic slave trade and allow us to see it in its proper perspective. In the early years of the Roman Empire there were perhaps 10,000,000 slaves at any one time, which was between one-fifth and one-sixth of the entire population (D’Arms & Kopf, 1980). The same source suggests that more than half a million new slaves would have been needed every single year. If these numbers are accurate, and they are taken from the proceedings from an academic conference on Roman commerce, then the implications are startling. In the city of Rome alone, there were, during the reign of Trajan, an estimated 400,000 slaves, a third of the city’s population (Davison, 1992).
A quick calculation reveals something which may come as a shock to many readers. It has been estimated that in the three and a half centuries after Columbus first reached the Caribbean, between 8,000,000 and 11,500,000 black slaves were transported across the Atlantic Ocean before the end of this particular trade (Everett, 1997). This figure is sometimes adduced as evidence of the uniquely awful nature of the triangular trade; over 10,000,000 people snatched from their homes and carried off into involuntary servitude.
Let us now compare this with the situation at the time of the Roman Empire. The life expectancy of a slave in the Roman Empire was quite astonishingly low. Males could expect, on average, to live to the age of 17.2 years and females 17.9 (Harper, 1972). By way of comparison, the life expectancy of a slave on an American plantation in 1850 was 36 (Fogel & Engerman, 1974). Because life expectancy for Roman slaves was so low, it meant that the only way that a constant population could be maintained was not by relying upon natural increase, but rather by constantly seizing new land and capturing those living there. For this reason, it has been suggested that around half a million new slaves would need to have been seized every year (D’Arms & Kopf, 1980). This would amount to 12,500,000 people in just 25 years. The figure for the slaves transported in the course of the Atlantic slave trade indicate that this number were taken from Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean in 350 years. In short, the Roman slave trade in Europe and the Middle East was probably more than ten times as extensive as that which was carried out across the Atlantic, between Africa and the New World..."
Paradoxically, despite actively employing military force to end the global practice of slavery, it is primarily the countries of western Europe and the United States that are left with the historical burden of guilt in their societies. This, despite the fact that the Islamic slave trade was much larger; in terms of mean numbers, the total duration, and the date at which it stopped:
"We have in this book looked at slavery as it has been practised in many countries. It was observed in the Introduction that there is a common feeling that people in Britain should feel exceptionally ashamed of their country’s association with the slave trade and that this ties in with attempts to ‘decolonize’ the curricula of schools and universities. It is very interesting in this connection to examine the record of other countries and their own dealings with slavery and the slave trade. Just to remind readers, Britain and America led the world in abolishing the slave trade. Both countries made the importation of, or international trade in, slaves illegal in 1807. As soon as the Napoleonic Wars came to an end, Britain sent warships to West Africa to enforce this ban. The ownership of slaves lingered on in the British Empire until 1833 and in the United States for another 30 years after that. Since Britain is today constantly invited to feel guilty for taking so long to abandon the trade in and ownership of slaves, it is curious to see how long it took some other countries; countries which have escaped censure on these grounds.
We have looked in detail at the Ottoman Empire’s involvement in the slave trade. This was not ended by law until 1908, a century after the British halted the practice. In Morocco, slavery was not abolished until 1922 and slaves in Kuwait had to wait until 1949 to be freed. Astonishingly, it was to be 1961 before Saudi Arabia reluctantly freed all the slaves in the country, but it was by no means the last country in the world to do so. We saw earlier in this chapter that Oman was very enthusiastic about slavery, especially in Zanzibar. It was 1970 when slavery was finally brought to an end there. There was still one country which showed a marked reluctance to put an end to slavery and the slave trade and this was the African country of Mauritania, a Muslim state. In 1976, they became the last country in the world to accept that slavery was morally wrong and to abolish it. One cannot help but wonder why there have never been demands for the Muslim countries who hung onto slavery and the slave trade for so much longer than Britain, to admit their own culpability and perhaps issue some kind of mea culpa. After all, their own prosperity was founded upon the slave trade every bit as much as was that of Britain..."
Webb wraps up the writing in the book nicely with this quote:
"We have in this book traced the institution of slavery from ancient times, in various parts of the world, and found that it is the nearest thing to a universal custom or practice. Almost all cultures, on every continent, found the idea of human beings being owned and traded as commodities to be perfectly normal and acceptable. This was the case in Europe as in Africa, Asia as in the Americas. Slavery in Europe was found to be far more extensive and cruel than that associated with what we have now come to term ‘the’ slave trade; the transportation of black African slaves across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the islands of the Caribbean. This leaves us with something of a conundrum or puzzle. Why is it that today any mention of slavery is automatically assumed to be a question of racial exploitation of black people by white Europeans or Americans?"
***********************
The Forgotten Slave Trade was an eye-opening look into the global history of slavery. Likely, many on the "progressive" left will be partially (if not mostly) ignorant of the history told here...
4 stars.
December 6, 2020
This is an important book everyone should read about the history of slavery. Today, when mentioning the subject, we all think about the transportation of Africans over the Atlantic to America for free labor. What most don't know is that slavery has not been an "African thing"; Christians have long suffered from the slave trade. This book taught me so much, from the history of Islam to the settlement and success of the Ottoman Empire. Author Simon Webb also links many, if not most, of today or recent History to the slave trade so many Christians have suffered from for so many centuries. I could go on and on about the topics discussed and lessons learned but I will simply advise you to get yourself a copy of this novel and learn for yourself. The book includes meaningful illustrations and is divided into clear topics, which can help you navigate if you are interested in a particular geographical area or period.
Thank you very much Net Galley and publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you very much Net Galley and publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.
November 6, 2020
I loved the book. It's short and after finishing it you might want to read more on a specific topic, but I almost always say that with a book on a broad subject, like this one.
Despite Islam being named in the subtitle of the book, the book is not anti-Islamism and he makes a comparison between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity on the topic of slavery (in which none look good). I think this is a great book to put into context slavery as a wide phenomena.
In the west people know about black slavery, but not a lot about white slavery. As a white woman from the Balkans, I am familiar with white slaves taken by Ottomans. But I had no idea how many white people were enslaved from other parts of Europe.
It's a must read.
Despite Islam being named in the subtitle of the book, the book is not anti-Islamism and he makes a comparison between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity on the topic of slavery (in which none look good). I think this is a great book to put into context slavery as a wide phenomena.
In the west people know about black slavery, but not a lot about white slavery. As a white woman from the Balkans, I am familiar with white slaves taken by Ottomans. But I had no idea how many white people were enslaved from other parts of Europe.
It's a must read.
April 6, 2021
Just when we thought we knew everything about the historical trading of humans, along comes Simon Webb with this absolutely riveting book on the white slave trade! What an interesting book, and I completely agree with other reviews that this book should be included in the battery of publications on this subject. While it cannot mitigate the suffering and depravity suffered by Black slavery, it does provide another insight into the views and moral values of men who will do and sell anything to turn a profit. I would have no problem incorporating this book in a class lesson or as part of a curriculum on the slave trade. Very well done Simon. My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book, also Pen and Sword publishers who excel themselves on their choices.
Want to read
January 29, 2022Simon Webb’s excellent new work The Forgotten Slave Trade demonstrates how the story of Islam’s centuries-long trade in white slaves has been almost entirely removed from white people’s folk history. Historians and scholars may still be aware of it, but sadly, not the average educated white person. Webb reminds us that the enslavement of whites by Muslims occurred over hundreds of years, victimized millions, and was as brutal and cruel as the enslavement of blacks by European whites, if not more so.
Counter-Currents—Simon Webb’s The Forgotten Slave Trade by Spencer J. Quinn
Counter-Currents—Simon Webb’s The Forgotten Slave Trade by Spencer J. Quinn
June 5, 2021
From the author: “Just to remind readers, Britain and America led the world in abolishing the slave trade” (p. 165). As it has been said before, those who don’t understand history are likely to repeat it. This book is an important read, especially given the current political climate. Much of the information in this book is - regrettably- not taught in public schools thus leaving the general public with a lack of understanding of this important topic.
October 5, 2020
This book made for interesting reading, challenging the concept of 'The Slave Trade' as being solely the taking of black Africans as slaves. The author works through time, explaining that slavery was a far older concept, and showing many instances where white Europeans have been taken as slaves by Vikings, Romans and in particular by Moslems. This knowledge, he claims, has been subliminally suppressed from the teaching of history from the 1960s as the stories of black enslavement came to front and centre, and he was keen to redress the balance.
The author is very clear that taking of individuals from their homes to work for another for no remuneration and against their will is wrong, no matter how delightful the setting or what facilities offered are. However, he goes on to place slavery at the root of all major historical events - from the American revolution to the First World War, and indirectly this may have been so. As he states 'almost all cultures, on every continent, found the idea of human beings being owned and traded as commodities to be perfectly normal and acceptable', which is a sad indictment of the human race.
However, I was rather uncomfortable as I felt there was an underlying agenda in the book - to place Islam as the root of all this evil. He even justifies the retaliation of Balkan people to the arrival of Muslims as being based on their race memory of slaving raids in the past. Following that logic through, in Britain we should be most wary of any Italians or Scandinavians, since we too were enslaved by raiding parties of Vikings and invasions of Romans. The repeated return to blaming Islam for promoting slavery of non-Muslim people felt rather laboured.
The book was not brilliantly written - in parts it was a little 'Ladybird book-ish' and in parts repetitive. And on occasion I found it rather patronising: 'It is to be hoped that all these difficult and unfamiliar names will not bewilder or confuse readers'. Really? I think anyone who can work through this rather turgid writing can manage a few Turkish names.
A very interesting subject, but it didn't quite progress as I expected, with a lengthy detour into justifying America's role in the Barbary Wars, and I certainly felt it contained a hidden agenda. Interestingly it did not include anything about modern slavery - people brought over to work in sweat shops and as sex workers.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword History for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The author is very clear that taking of individuals from their homes to work for another for no remuneration and against their will is wrong, no matter how delightful the setting or what facilities offered are. However, he goes on to place slavery at the root of all major historical events - from the American revolution to the First World War, and indirectly this may have been so. As he states 'almost all cultures, on every continent, found the idea of human beings being owned and traded as commodities to be perfectly normal and acceptable', which is a sad indictment of the human race.
However, I was rather uncomfortable as I felt there was an underlying agenda in the book - to place Islam as the root of all this evil. He even justifies the retaliation of Balkan people to the arrival of Muslims as being based on their race memory of slaving raids in the past. Following that logic through, in Britain we should be most wary of any Italians or Scandinavians, since we too were enslaved by raiding parties of Vikings and invasions of Romans. The repeated return to blaming Islam for promoting slavery of non-Muslim people felt rather laboured.
The book was not brilliantly written - in parts it was a little 'Ladybird book-ish' and in parts repetitive. And on occasion I found it rather patronising: 'It is to be hoped that all these difficult and unfamiliar names will not bewilder or confuse readers'. Really? I think anyone who can work through this rather turgid writing can manage a few Turkish names.
A very interesting subject, but it didn't quite progress as I expected, with a lengthy detour into justifying America's role in the Barbary Wars, and I certainly felt it contained a hidden agenda. Interestingly it did not include anything about modern slavery - people brought over to work in sweat shops and as sex workers.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword History for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 5, 2021
We know about one aspect of the slave trade, as we have discussed and dissected it in our classrooms for decades. But there is another hidden aspect of the slave trade, one that has been altogether forgotten and dismissed by many.
Simon Webb goes into detail on this forgotten aspect of the slave trade, giving us the history and details that have been overlooked for so long.
I highly recommend this read. It was eye-opening, and very compelling as well. This is one that should be on everyone's list to read this year!
Simon Webb goes into detail on this forgotten aspect of the slave trade, giving us the history and details that have been overlooked for so long.
I highly recommend this read. It was eye-opening, and very compelling as well. This is one that should be on everyone's list to read this year!
August 4, 2022
I had known very little about slavery other than the trade in African slaves to the Americas. This book reminds readers of the enslavement of Christian Europeans, by the Romans, the vikings and the Muslims. Webb says that the numbers were as large or larger than the Triangle Trade, and continued after 1816 on the eastern coast of Africa, not patrolled as diligently as the western ports. Slavery exists today in Mauretania and we do nothing. Really interesting material written in a somewhat informal style. I used an e-book which is not as satisfying. Might be hard to find a hard copy.
April 6, 2025
Very fascinating book. Certainly, a history lesson in there in more than one spot. I am sure he offends some people with his take on slavery and why he wrote the book in the first place (see the "Endword" from the author). And the culture wars as they are put this topic into a spotlight since invariably history is being re-written by a certain few. It reminds me of when Obama tried to give us Christians a lecture about the Crusades when he failed to mention all the atrocious acts committed by the Muslem faith over the centuries up until this present day. The point of history to not let it happen again, not cover up or omit conveniently a narrative that is not conducive to your agenda. I thought the section about Thomas Jeferson and the first Barbary war (and the Tripoli pirates) was very interesting and something I had forgotten that we can learn from for every hostage situation confronted today.
October 9, 2020
The Forgotten Slave Trade is a broad and informative look at the 'Triangular Trade' of slaves between Europe and North Africa. As noted by Webb, this is a largely ignored and forgotten part of world history as slavery is explored through the lens of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Throughout the book, it's made clear that Webb is trying to dispel the notion that slavery is a uniquely European sin and for the most part he remains respectful of the push to highlight the ills of Imperialism while criticising the selectivity of which nations are frowned upon.
How informative is it?
Webb has managed to create an informative and detailed timeline of the Barbary slave trade along with that which preceded it and followed. He also did a great job of explaining the role of religion in conflicts between Christian Europe and the Islamic Middle East. The role of Islam in the Ottoman Empire and historic justifications for slavery and its practices was also well explained and the occasional links to recent conflicts was fascinating.
The scope of this book spans centuries and three continents, focusing on the roles of the Barbary corsairs, Ottoman Empire, Morocco and the response of European nations and the U.S. over time to the issues presented. I went into this book knowing virtually nothing about the Barbary slave trade other than that it happened and was surprised to learn about its prevalence and impact, especially the eventual U.S. involvement.
What didn’t I love?
•The book was at times under supported by evidence and could go for pages without citation. There were several instances where very old/questionable sources were used. At one point a Daily Mail article is used as a reference, a ‘News and Observer’ article at another. I understand that in some cases information may have been difficult to source, but I seriously doubt news articles and descriptions of culture from 1912 were the only available.
•The writing was at times repetitive and could do with editing, although it must be noted that I read an ARC copy and this issue may have been remedied. It could also be a bit dry and boring but I think that’s mainly because it’s a pretty dense and hardcore bit of history to write about.
•Several times throughout the book Webb made a point of comparing the treatment of European slaves in North Africa with black slaves, saying one was worse or equal in awful to the other. I felt these comparisons were unnecessary and made me a bit uncomfortable; the horrors of the Barbary slave trade stood alone just fine. Webb was trying to avoid by looking at slavery through the American/Imperial lens but fell into that trap himself.
Should you read it?
If you’re at all interested in a little-discussed history of slavery I think this text provides a great introduction. However, I did find some parts of the text lacked sufficient citation. Furthermore, I feel the political motivations behind it at times hampered this exploration by causing the author to unnecessarily compare slavery across the world and overstate the importance of slavery in historic and modern events.
Note: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I'd like to thank Simon Webb and Pen&Sword History for the opportunity.
How informative is it?
Webb has managed to create an informative and detailed timeline of the Barbary slave trade along with that which preceded it and followed. He also did a great job of explaining the role of religion in conflicts between Christian Europe and the Islamic Middle East. The role of Islam in the Ottoman Empire and historic justifications for slavery and its practices was also well explained and the occasional links to recent conflicts was fascinating.
The scope of this book spans centuries and three continents, focusing on the roles of the Barbary corsairs, Ottoman Empire, Morocco and the response of European nations and the U.S. over time to the issues presented. I went into this book knowing virtually nothing about the Barbary slave trade other than that it happened and was surprised to learn about its prevalence and impact, especially the eventual U.S. involvement.
What didn’t I love?
•The book was at times under supported by evidence and could go for pages without citation. There were several instances where very old/questionable sources were used. At one point a Daily Mail article is used as a reference, a ‘News and Observer’ article at another. I understand that in some cases information may have been difficult to source, but I seriously doubt news articles and descriptions of culture from 1912 were the only available.
•The writing was at times repetitive and could do with editing, although it must be noted that I read an ARC copy and this issue may have been remedied. It could also be a bit dry and boring but I think that’s mainly because it’s a pretty dense and hardcore bit of history to write about.
•Several times throughout the book Webb made a point of comparing the treatment of European slaves in North Africa with black slaves, saying one was worse or equal in awful to the other. I felt these comparisons were unnecessary and made me a bit uncomfortable; the horrors of the Barbary slave trade stood alone just fine. Webb was trying to avoid by looking at slavery through the American/Imperial lens but fell into that trap himself.
Should you read it?
If you’re at all interested in a little-discussed history of slavery I think this text provides a great introduction. However, I did find some parts of the text lacked sufficient citation. Furthermore, I feel the political motivations behind it at times hampered this exploration by causing the author to unnecessarily compare slavery across the world and overstate the importance of slavery in historic and modern events.
Note: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I'd like to thank Simon Webb and Pen&Sword History for the opportunity.
March 22, 2025
The Quiet History
Interesting learning more about this slave trade that, even as a 65 year old woman, I was never taught in school while living in Virginia
Interesting learning more about this slave trade that, even as a 65 year old woman, I was never taught in school while living in Virginia
September 24, 2020
*thank you Netgalley for sharing this book in exchange for a honest review
This book is well researched and provides a detailed outline of how early slavery transformed over time.
Slavery existed earlier in history. It was part of the European hierarchy. In addition, slave trade over international waters was normal during that era.
The practice of slave trade influenced trade system over water and ironically development of strong navy world wide.
I found this book to be very fascinating but it was "boring" to read at times. I felt like I was reading a timeline of historical information.
This piqued my interest in reading other books about slave trade around the world. 😊
Would I still recommend this book to friends? YES!
It was an informative book that reminds that reader that slavery existed long ago.
This book is well researched and provides a detailed outline of how early slavery transformed over time.
Slavery existed earlier in history. It was part of the European hierarchy. In addition, slave trade over international waters was normal during that era.
The practice of slave trade influenced trade system over water and ironically development of strong navy world wide.
I found this book to be very fascinating but it was "boring" to read at times. I felt like I was reading a timeline of historical information.
This piqued my interest in reading other books about slave trade around the world. 😊
Would I still recommend this book to friends? YES!
It was an informative book that reminds that reader that slavery existed long ago.
July 7, 2021
Thoroughly Enjoyable and Intriguing
The subject of this book was largely unknown to me at the outset. This book was very interesting and enlightening as to the history of slavery outside of what is commonly taught in modern schools. I found the author's writing style to be very entertaining and digestible.
The subject of this book was largely unknown to me at the outset. This book was very interesting and enlightening as to the history of slavery outside of what is commonly taught in modern schools. I found the author's writing style to be very entertaining and digestible.
January 27, 2023
A great insight into the history of slavery and in particular, the Arab slave trade of both Europeans and Africans. Another period of erased history. The only flaw the book has is the author’s tendency to waffle on a bit without being overly concise at times. But nevertheless, a worthwhile read.
February 7, 2024
Brief explanation of the effects of Islamic capture and enslavement of Europeans. It also acknowledges the absurdity that political correctness forbids the discussion of this topic as it is "Islamophobic".
September 3, 2020
This short but informative book gives a well-researched insight into the slave trade that isn’t the slave trade from Africa to the US and the Caribbean. It is true that the aforementioned slave trade is the one that is over-represented in schools, books ,and popular culture. This book wants to show the reader that slave trade is so much more, and a very old tradition, and white slavery has not gotten the attention it sadly deserves.
I knew quite a lot about the subject, but I realize that most people probably do know too little about this part of history. Naturally some things were news to me as well, and indeed, it is interesting to read about this subject in a compact book. The Arabs and Ottomans were some slave traders... I had also not realized the important role Bristol had in slave trade.
I appreciate that these more hidden aspects regarding slave trade are written about. I’ve never really understood why we try to hide and forget some parts of our history. How can we learn from our past mistakes if we are not willing to be open about them? If we only stick to what we learn in school or watch on TV our view of our world and it’s history is both narrow and misrepresented. I’m jubilant to see that there are authors out there writing about these subject, so thank you, Simon Webb!
I received a free advance reader copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I knew quite a lot about the subject, but I realize that most people probably do know too little about this part of history. Naturally some things were news to me as well, and indeed, it is interesting to read about this subject in a compact book. The Arabs and Ottomans were some slave traders... I had also not realized the important role Bristol had in slave trade.
I appreciate that these more hidden aspects regarding slave trade are written about. I’ve never really understood why we try to hide and forget some parts of our history. How can we learn from our past mistakes if we are not willing to be open about them? If we only stick to what we learn in school or watch on TV our view of our world and it’s history is both narrow and misrepresented. I’m jubilant to see that there are authors out there writing about these subject, so thank you, Simon Webb!
I received a free advance reader copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
January 23, 2023
I did hesitate before giving this book four stars.
My main problem with Simon’s book is Simon himself. When he is discussing history, he is a clear and engaging communicator of the long and complex origins and practice of slavery. However, far too often he strays into editorialising. He is at pains to say he has no wish to diminish or down play the horrific nature of the transatlantic slave trade, but then almost immediately undermines himself by making unnecessary comparisons - that this slave trade involved more people or that one was more barbaric in its use of castration or this other one continued long after the outlawing of the practice in the USA and Britain.
When he sticks to history the insights into the topic are fascinating. Although again not quite fascinating enough for the author apparently, as about two thirds of the way through the book he veers off onto the topic of Mediterranean piracy and never returns to the subject of the book until a late bit of ill-advised editorialising right at the end.
So, despite all that, it gets four stars for the times when it provides insights into an absorbing and often hidden aspect of world history. One that has motivated me to find other books on this subject, and perhaps a biography of the pirate warlord Jan Janszoon.
My main problem with Simon’s book is Simon himself. When he is discussing history, he is a clear and engaging communicator of the long and complex origins and practice of slavery. However, far too often he strays into editorialising. He is at pains to say he has no wish to diminish or down play the horrific nature of the transatlantic slave trade, but then almost immediately undermines himself by making unnecessary comparisons - that this slave trade involved more people or that one was more barbaric in its use of castration or this other one continued long after the outlawing of the practice in the USA and Britain.
When he sticks to history the insights into the topic are fascinating. Although again not quite fascinating enough for the author apparently, as about two thirds of the way through the book he veers off onto the topic of Mediterranean piracy and never returns to the subject of the book until a late bit of ill-advised editorialising right at the end.
So, despite all that, it gets four stars for the times when it provides insights into an absorbing and often hidden aspect of world history. One that has motivated me to find other books on this subject, and perhaps a biography of the pirate warlord Jan Janszoon.
March 24, 2021
Simon Webb’s “The Forgotten Slave Trade” is a must-read for anyone who is tiered of cancel-culture, “woke” culture, and history in general. Webb is meticulous in his writing and his citations demonstrating the horrid depths of slavery. Yes, I knew the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and sub-Saharan Africans kept slaves but the overall extent of slavery in the “old world” was a surprise to me.
European costal nations and the British Isles were ‘harvested’ for slaves for two thousand years. The Slavic nations were harvested – the word ‘slave’ comes from the word ‘sclavus’ (Rome’s word for Slavs) as far north as Russia. And the real horror of European slavery, the castration houses in Italy where pre-pubescent boys were turned into eunuchs for Muslim households. The death rate from this mutilation is estimated at 90%.
Nowhere in the world were slaves treated as disposable than in Africa and the near east and nowhere, except in the New World, did their population increase.
This is an important book, a necessary book, for everyone who wants to understand slavery and it’s continuing impact on the world. In fact the last country to free its slaves was Mauritania. The year? 1976!
European costal nations and the British Isles were ‘harvested’ for slaves for two thousand years. The Slavic nations were harvested – the word ‘slave’ comes from the word ‘sclavus’ (Rome’s word for Slavs) as far north as Russia. And the real horror of European slavery, the castration houses in Italy where pre-pubescent boys were turned into eunuchs for Muslim households. The death rate from this mutilation is estimated at 90%.
Nowhere in the world were slaves treated as disposable than in Africa and the near east and nowhere, except in the New World, did their population increase.
This is an important book, a necessary book, for everyone who wants to understand slavery and it’s continuing impact on the world. In fact the last country to free its slaves was Mauritania. The year? 1976!
September 24, 2022
This should be taught in schools
To start with my only negative point- I found sentences long and hard to concentrate, this may be due to my medication for epilepsy.
Onto the book...It was informative and eye opening and to be honest made me a little angry that our society is so dismissive of white slavery. I never knew how extensive white slavery was. Like the author wrote, I grew up with a guilt of what England had done to black slaves. I'm serious when I say this book belongs in every school library and should be taught in any lesson about slavery.
To the author I just want to say thank you for opening up my eyes.
To start with my only negative point- I found sentences long and hard to concentrate, this may be due to my medication for epilepsy.
Onto the book...It was informative and eye opening and to be honest made me a little angry that our society is so dismissive of white slavery. I never knew how extensive white slavery was. Like the author wrote, I grew up with a guilt of what England had done to black slaves. I'm serious when I say this book belongs in every school library and should be taught in any lesson about slavery.
To the author I just want to say thank you for opening up my eyes.
April 21, 2022
We hear a lot today about privilege but this eye-opening book may make you re-examine what privilege really is. It ought to remind everyone that, throughout history all over the world, slavery has have been the normal condition and not the exception.
Anyone educated sufficiently to read this review should count themselves truly fortunate. Your ancestors almost certainly suffered a life of hard labor and/or depravity.
Anyone educated sufficiently to read this review should count themselves truly fortunate. Your ancestors almost certainly suffered a life of hard labor and/or depravity.
May 1, 2022
good read
Very good basic information that can be added to with other works. To really understand slavery one needs to explore beyond the info given here. Very well worth the time to read.
Very good basic information that can be added to with other works. To really understand slavery one needs to explore beyond the info given here. Very well worth the time to read.
November 6, 2022
very informative read.
I learned a great deal about slavery throughout the world that I was never taught in school. One thing that this book has sparked my interest in, is why the Bible never condemned slavery, for all of it’s evil and suffering.
I learned a great deal about slavery throughout the world that I was never taught in school. One thing that this book has sparked my interest in, is why the Bible never condemned slavery, for all of it’s evil and suffering.
December 16, 2021
Outstanding summary of world history in the last millennium focusing on the wars and battles connected to the international and ubiquitous slave trade.
May 26, 2022
You wuz kangs. We wuz slaves.
July 9, 2022
Enlightening
This book is an excellent overview of slavery worldwide throughout history. I have not seen a work that covers this subject as well as this book does.
This book is an excellent overview of slavery worldwide throughout history. I have not seen a work that covers this subject as well as this book does.
April 22, 2024
This book delves into the past and brings to the readers mind episodes of long forgotten history.
Millions of White people were enslaved.
Millions of White people were enslaved.
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