# What is "white slavery"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 18, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-white-slavery/622323 "2012-05-18T15:13:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-white-slavery/622323/21 "2012-05-20T15:32:24Z")
intersting, both those raids were by the same guy, a Dutch captain who became a captain in the Algerian “navy”. Someone had one good idea and decided to try it over again. The trouble with pulling this sort of stuff in the mediterranean was that it then made any wandering Turk or African boat fair game for europeans determined to clean up the seas. I suspect the local rulers were pretty cautious about proviking wars when there was a ceent naval power that could strike back. Even back in Roman times, teaching the pirates a lesson was a common exercise. The US even did so too in the arly 1800’s, all the way “to the shores of Tripoli”. But this was just plain and simple slavery, which had happened for centuries. The conquistadors were not above something similar in the Americas, but the locals did not make good slaves so they turned to aAfrica for field workers. However, “white slavery” by the early 1900’s came to mean the abduction of white girls who would disappear into parts unknown to be ravished by swarthy, evil types. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-white-slavery/622323/22 "2012-05-20T21:31:17Z")
Interesting. I was researching pirates in the Carribean for an upcoming visit and accidently came across research done by a Robert Davis, Professor of History at Ohio State University, which puts the estimate of White slaves taken out of Europe up until the 1800s at between one to one and a quarter million, much larger than had been commonly believed. The name of his book is _White Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800._ ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-white-slavery/622323/23 "2012-05-20T21:50:38Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > The name of his book is _White Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800._ Typo nitpick: to avoid any queries about conflation of race and religion, I’ll just point out that the actual title is [_Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters_](http://books.google.com/books/about/Christian_Slaves_Muslim_Masters.html?id=5q9zcB3JS40C). Although, as some other scholars have pointed out, corsair slave raids extended to the coastlines of Africa and West Asia as well as Europe and took lots of non-whites and non-Christians too, so it’s a bit hard to sort out the demographics. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-white-slavery/622323/24 "2012-05-21T03:38:32Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Typo nitpick: to avoid any queries about conflation of race and religion, I’ll just point out that the actual title is [_Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters_](http://books.google.com/books/about/Christian_Slaves_Muslim_Masters.html?id=5q9zcB3JS40C). > > Although, as some other scholars have pointed out, corsair slave raids extended to the coastlines of Africa and West Asia as well as Europe and took lots of non-whites and non-Christians too, so it’s a bit hard to sort out the demographics. Thanks for the heads up on my short-term memory glitch, **Kimstu.** Ugh on me. I do agree that the term as used in the Twentieth Century USA was a reference in general to White women and children and fear of _the other_ and as such, in a more enlightened society, certainly seems outdated and exclusionary. I have seen the word used here in a joking manner which appears to be acknowledgement that White people aren’t the only people who participate in message boards. Those pirates of the Mediterranean businessmen, though - they were equal-opportunity slavers! I think I’ll check out the book when it comes out in Kindle and see what’s there to learn. I’m curious to know if they had a preference. Afterthought: Laughing. Maybe Christians would make good slaves. All that forgiveness and reward in heaven focus. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-white-slavery/622323/25 "2012-05-21T04:28:12Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > There was a hysteria of the time (around the 1920’s/1930’s with movies and such, apparently it became a popular theme) that bad foreigners, especially menacing orientals, but possibly also Turks, Arabs, and East Indian rajah’s, were kidnapping innocent white girls to sell as sex slaves back home. This also played up the menacing oriental bad guy thing (Ming the Merciless?) as tensions were leading up to WWII, and the fact that oriental people and cultures seemed more mysterious and less understandable than the more familiar European cultures. Girls were warned they could be drugged and wake up on a ship to parts unknown to be ravaged by who-knows… FWIW, Ming the Merciless was an alien from the planet Mongo. Were you maybe thinking of Fu Manchu? ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-white-slavery/622323/26 "2012-05-21T04:50:33Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > What? Are you saying 40% of the females in Ireland were taken as white slaves? > > Gonna need a cite before I believe that one. Yeah, I can see where I may not have provided sufficient separation between my sentences to differentiate. What I was saying is that “for example” some entire Irish villages were depopulated by Barbary coastal raids. Then I was saying that in total throughout the period of these slave raids some 1.5m people from all over Europe (not just Ireland) were taken as slaves in this fashion. Or, essentially what **Kimstu** said. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-white-slavery/622323/27 "2012-05-21T05:09:11Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > FWIW, Ming the Merciless was an alien from the planet Mongo. Were you maybe thinking of Fu Manchu? [Ming](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kvlu5vVlMx1qauqdqo1_500.jpg) may have been from Mongo, but he looked an awful lot like [Fu Manchu](http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/fu-manchu.jpg), right down to the moustache. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-white-slavery/622323.md?page=1)