Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Middle Ages: White slaves sold by Radhanite Jews to Muslims

Via Matthew

 
St. Adalbert freeing Slavic slaves (source). With the Christianization of Eastern Europe, the trade in fair-skinned women and boys came to an end.

The white slave trade played a key role in ending the Dark Ages—this seemingly unending downward spiral that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire. By the 8th century, the elites of Western Europe had run out of gold and possessed very little else that could be traded for luxury Oriental goods. It was at that point in time that the possibility arose of selling fellow Europeans into slavery, particularly Slavs from the lands between the Elbe and the Volga.

Yet this historical episode is relatively unknown. One reason was its semi-illegality. Involuntary servitude wasn’t unlawful in itself. In fact, most Europeans were bound by long-term ties of submission, like the serfs who farmed the land. This was an accepted part of life. Enslavement was even seen as a humane way of dealing with criminals, prisoners of war, and other people who would otherwise be killed. But this particular form of enslavement meant more than just inferior status. 
 
Some of its aspects contravened both secular law and Christian morality, notably castration, the breaking up of families, and the abandonment of individuals who were too old or too young. There was also the exporting of fellow Europeans to the Muslim world and the prohibition against letting them learn about the Christian faith. It was for this reason that the existing term for involuntary servitude—servus—was felt to be inappropriate. The ethnonym ‘Slav’ thus came to mean a particularly degraded kind of servant—a slave.
 

4 comments:

  1. Good stuff to know. Race hustlers (we know who they are) want to make you believe blacks were the only peoples enslaved. Another reason to diskile moose-lums

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    Replies
    1. I still haven't found a single reason to like them.:)

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  2. My mind is going. If I read this here forgive me for repeating it.

    The difference between an extremist Muslim and a moderate Muslim is:
    The extremist Muslim wants to kill us all. The moderate Muslim wants the extremist Muslims to kill us all.

    ReplyDelete