The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam

by (Historian) Simon Webb

Some actions and activities have been universally condemned throughout the whole of recorded history. We know of no society where theft and murder by individuals were regarded as acceptable. In the same way, the cheating of customers by merchants has always been viewed as reprehensible. Telling lies and having sexual relations with somebody else’s husband or wife have also been the subject of both legal prohibition and social disapproval throughout history. By contrast slavery, the ownership of human beings and their purchase and sale as though they were no more than domestic animals, has throughout almost the whole of history been seen as perfectly just and equitable and although restrictions have been placed upon the conditions of slavery, nobody until the last few centuries has seriously suggested that there might be something immoral or unethical about the idea of slavery in itself.