Mike Bulgakov
G.O.A.T.
6. The Rock of Gibraltar
All About North Africa:
1. The Barbary Coast (not the one in San Francisco)
BBC History
In the first half of the 1600s, Barbary corsairs - pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa, authorised by their governments to attack the shipping of European countries - ranged all around Britain's shores.
Not content with attacking ships and sailors, the corsairs also sometimes raided coastal settlements, generally running their craft onto unguarded beaches, and creeping up on villages in the dark to snatch their victims and retreat before the alarm could be sounded. Almost all the inhabitants of the village of Baltimore, in Ireland, were taken in this way in 1631, and other attacks were launched against coastal villages in Devon, Cornwall, Iceland, France and Spain.
For the 250 years between 1530 and 1780, the figure could easily have been as high as 1,250,000 Europeans taken as slaves - this is only just over a tenth of the Africans taken as slaves to the Americas from 1500 to 1800, but a considerable figure nevertheless. European slaves in Barbary were generally from impoverished families, and had almost as little hope of buying back their freedom as the Africans taken to the Americas: most would end their days as slaves in North Africa, dying of starvation, disease, or maltreatment.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml
All About North Africa:
1. The Barbary Coast (not the one in San Francisco)
BBC History
In the first half of the 1600s, Barbary corsairs - pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa, authorised by their governments to attack the shipping of European countries - ranged all around Britain's shores.
Not content with attacking ships and sailors, the corsairs also sometimes raided coastal settlements, generally running their craft onto unguarded beaches, and creeping up on villages in the dark to snatch their victims and retreat before the alarm could be sounded. Almost all the inhabitants of the village of Baltimore, in Ireland, were taken in this way in 1631, and other attacks were launched against coastal villages in Devon, Cornwall, Iceland, France and Spain.
For the 250 years between 1530 and 1780, the figure could easily have been as high as 1,250,000 Europeans taken as slaves - this is only just over a tenth of the Africans taken as slaves to the Americas from 1500 to 1800, but a considerable figure nevertheless. European slaves in Barbary were generally from impoverished families, and had almost as little hope of buying back their freedom as the Africans taken to the Americas: most would end their days as slaves in North Africa, dying of starvation, disease, or maltreatment.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml
