Tea at Trianon: White Slavery

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, December 11, 2009

White Slavery

I am presently reading The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed so I found this article to be of interest (Via Joshua Snyder). Gordon-Reed's book is rich in historical detail; I am enjoying it, although by attributing slavery to the "doctrine of white supremacy" the impression is given that the only slavery in the world existed in North America, specifically in the United States, where whites enslaved Africans. However, it must be pointed out that over the course of several centuries the Ottomans enslaved millions of white Europeans. As is demonstrated in a book review of Frederick Quinn's The Sum of All Heresies:

The image of the Turks as a mortal threat to Europe was enhanced not just by the Ottoman conquest but also by their role as a maritime power and even more so by their piracy. Quinn draws the reader's attention to a little-known aspect of the emerging slave trade. It is accepted almost as an axiom that slaves in modern Europe were all non-European. But in the early modern era there were just as many European slaves - victims of Mediterranean pirates - in the hands of Muslims as there were blacks, if not more.

In fact, there were several million European slaves. It is not surprising then that the image of European slaves was firmly imbedded in the European image of the Muslim Orient. It became a popular subject of artwork. One such piece, presented in this book, represents the Ottoman Turks on horseback and a European couple, a man and woman, being dragged by a rope as powerless slaves.

Seamus said...: Barbara Chase-Ribaud, who wrote the novel "Sally Hemings" in 1979, followed it in 1986 with "Valide: A Novel of the Harem," a fictionalized account (based on the legend of Aimee Dubuc de Rivery) of a woman from French Louisiana who is captured and enslaved by Barbary pirates, and ends up in the harem of the Turkish sultan, where she becomes the mother of Sultan Mahmoud II.; December 11, 2009 at 10:33:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, that is based on the story of Aimee Dubuc de Rivery who was from Martinique and a cousin of the Empress Josephine. Aimee, who was captured by pirates and sold into a the harem of the sultan, is known to history as the French Sultana.; December 11, 2009 at 10:40:00 AM EST
Julygirl said...: Growing up in the Southern USA many years ago, the term "White Slavery" related to the abducting of young white women into prostitution in many cases being taken across state lines. It had nothing to do with slavery in the common use of the term. The term was used as a threat by concerned parents of teenage girls regarding staying out late at night...."You could be picked up by white slavers!"; December 11, 2009 at 5:02:00 PM EST
Nancy Reyes said...: white slavery to Islam goes back to it's earliest days. The Vikings sold thousands of slaves before their conversion, and raids on ships and coasts by Muslim pirates was common in the middle ages:among those captured were Cervantes and Vincent dePaul.

The history of slave taking from Africa should include Arab raids on East Africa, which was bloodier and longer than the western slave trade.

of course, if you want white slavery, just look at the "indentured servants" and petty criminals sent to the US and Australia as cheap labor...; December 11, 2009 at 6:51:00 PM EST
Iosue Andreas Sartorius said...: Thanks for the link.; December 12, 2009 at 2:36:00 AM EST