In ancient times were people taken from British shores and sold as slaves in Africa ?

Answer 1

yes they were. especially in roman times when slaves were bought and sold all over the empire, which of course included britain and parts of africa. it also happened in later times, the answers you got about algerian pirates attacking cornwall and baltimore in the 17th century are all correct.

Answer 2

The Romans did use Britons as slaves, though it is unlikely that many would have been traded as far south as Africa, however since the Romans did control parts of North Africa it may well have happened. More likely British slaves would have been kept in Britain, or taken to Gaul, Spain or Northern parts of Italy, down to Rome. The Romans, never totally subdued Britain, and traded with many southern tribes, though captives taken in battle were taken as slaves. Similarly the Vikings and Danes took captives and did trade them as slaves.

Answer 3

Yes.

"In June 1631 pirates from Algiers and armed troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, led by the notorious pirate captain Morat Rais, stormed ashore at the little harbour village of Baltimore in West Cork. They captured almost all the villagers and bore them away to a life of slavery in North Africa. The prisoners were destined for a variety of fates -- some would live out their days chained to the oars as galley slaves, while others would spend long years in the scented seclusion of the harem or within the walls of the Sultan's palace. The old city of Algiers, with its narrow streets, intense heat and lively trade, was a melting pot where the villagers would join slaves and freemen of many nationalities. Only two of them ever saw Ireland again.

The Sack of Baltimore was the most devastating invasion ever mounted by Islamist forces on Ireland or England."

Cornwall was another prime target.

According to WIkipedia:

"The Moors, starting in the 8th century, raided coastal areas of the Mediterranean and Northern European (including British and even as far north as Scandinavian) coastal areas and would carry away sometimes whole villages to the Moorish slave markets on the Barbary Coast. Nautical traders from the United States became targets, and frequent victims, of the Barbary pirates, as soon as that nation began trading with Europe and refused to pay the required tribute to the North African states.

In the 15th and 16th centuries slaves were imported from Europe to North Africa. Slave-taking persisted into the 19th century when Barbary pirates would capture ships and enslave the crew. In all, about 1.5 million Europeans were transported to the Barbary Coast. It was a period when Europe was preoccupied by sectarian wars and European navies were depleted. The trade was run by expelled Moors and the slaving expeditions were often captained by Europeans with North African crews. In the early 19th century, European powers started to take action to free Christian slaves. The first major action was the bombardment of Algiers in 1816."

Answer 4

There was raid's on British ships by 'Barbary pirates' when several People where taken to north Africa. Whether they where actually used as what we would understand as slaves is open to argument, one captive eventually made his way home and it transpired that he had married and was some sort of adviser to a sultan. Not the type of lifestyle usually associated with slavery.

Some right wing groups have tried to use this episode to excuse the slave trade which involved several million Africans, but whilst not diminishing what happened to the people taken from English ships, you cannot really compare the two.

Answer 5

The Romans took a few Brits away as slaves. They had control of the North of Africa, (roughly modern Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt), so your scenario may have happened.

Answer 6

Not sure about africa but white convicts were most certainly shipped off to Austrailia and Newfoundland, I assume some were sent to work in the colonies and some obviously escaped or were released thats why theres so many british and Irish sounding names in Australia. I'm sure european convicts were shipped off to far off places too, so I guess you could call it slavery but not like the African slaves who were literally coralled and put to work in cotton fields.

Answer 7

Well, yes, long ago...The Vikings would make raids on the English and sell some off to the Moors in Spain who'd then turn around and sell them to the Muslims in Africa and elsewhere.

Answer 8

Hardly . The other way round im afraid , Africa was the source of slaves not the customer, although the Romans used English slaves and may have used them in there colonies in Africa,

Answer 9

i think this is what u are talking about ... white gold ...

yes there was a white slave trade ....

Writer and journalist Giles Milton specializes in the history of travel and exploration. His latest literary adventure, White Gold, is the story of Thomas Pellow, a Cornish cabin boy who was captured at sea by a group of fanatical Islamic slave traders—the Barbary corsairs, taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Salè in Morocco and sold to the highest bidder. Pellow’s purchaser happened to be the tyrannical sultan of Morroco, Moulay Ismail, a man committed to building a vast imperial pleasure palace of unsurpassable splendour built entirely by Christian slave labour. After enduring long periods of torture Pellow converted to Islam and became the personal slave of the sultan for over two decades—including a stint as a soldier in the sultan’s army—before finally making a dramatic escape and return to Cornwall. The account is supported by the unpublished letters and manuscripts of slaves and the various ambassadors sent to free them. This is an excellently written account of the history of the white slave trade. Pellow’s story is an extraordinary one but the real interest lies in the picture Milton builds of life in the slave pens and especially of daily life at the court of the spectacularly barbaric Moulay Ismail.

Answer 10

Yes, the Romans took Celts into slavery and conceivable they could have been sold in Africa. Slavery has a long, long history..and everybody is involved in one way or another. The Vikings could have done it as well.