Medieval Mediterranean Slavery

Originally published on September 23, 2020 (Episode 178)

Introduction

“Medieval Mediterranean slavery” may sound puzzling—surely there wasn’t slavery in the medieval Mediterranean? But indeed there was.

For hundreds of years, a slave trade existed throughout the medieval Mediterranean world, taking captives from the shores of the Black Sea to Egypt and Italy. The traders were from the Republics of Venice and Genoa, and from the Mamluk Sultanate.

“Late medieval slavery was not an afterthought or an aberration,” writes Hannah Barker. “It lay at the heart of Mediterranean society, politics, and religion. A complex of slavery, captivity, trade, and ransom tied disparate parts of the Mediterranean together.”

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About the Guest

Hannah Barker is Assistant Professor of History at Arizona State University. She specializes in the history of slavery, captivity, and trade in the medieval Mediterranean. Her book That Most Precious Merchandise: The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves, 1260–1500 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019) won the Paul E. Lovejoy Prize awarded by the Journal of Global Slavery in 2020.

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For Further Investigation

Hannah Barker has kindly provided the following list of resources and books, complete with her own descriptions.

• Hannah Barker, That Most Precious Merchandise: The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves, 1260–1500

• Teaching Medieval Slavery and Captivity Project — "this is a project that I’m leading to provide English translations of interesting primary sources and selected bibliographies to illustrate what kind of scholarship is already available on the topic of medieval slavery and captivity. The primary audience is teachers, but it’s also set up for browsing by the curious."

• Jeffrey Fynn-Paul, “Empire, Monotheism and Slavery in the Greater Mediterranean Region from Antiquity to the Early Modern Era,” Past and Present 205 (2009): 3–40. "He explains how the idea of slavery based on religious difference evolved over the medieval period."

• Debra Blumenthal, Enemies and Familiars: Slavery and Mastery in Fifteenth-Century Valencia (2009). "I see this book, along with Hershenzon’s, as parallel to mine but focused on the western Mediterranean."

• Daniel Hershenzon, The Captive Sea: Slavery, Communication, and Commerce in Early Modern Spain and the Mediterranean (2018) — see also our Episode 95 conversation with Hershenzon

• Christopher Brown, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism (2006). "This is a brilliant explanation of why the abolitionist movement emerged and succeeded at the precise moment it did."

• Eve Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism: Egypt, Great Britain, and the Mastery of the Sudan (2003) "This is also a brilliant book explaining how Ottoman and post-Ottoman elites saw slavery in the context of both colonialism and abolitionist pressure."

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Listen & Discuss

What did you find most surprising about medieval slavery? Add your reflections in the comments — and share this episode with a friend interested in the global history of slavery.

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