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One interesting historical tidbit it that Caucasians were also enslaved in the Middle East. Fishing towns along the south coast of England lived in fear of sla
by willvarfar 8y ago
One interesting historical tidbit it that Caucasians were also enslaved in the Middle East.
Fishing towns along the south coast of England lived in fear of slavers raiding and the book Robinson Crusoe begins with the protagonist being enslaved.
I don't want to join in some pissing fight about who suffered most - all slavery is aborrent and causes generations of pain. But I think it an interesting and often overlooked dimension that the Europeans who started using slaves in the new world were from a society used to being preyed upon and enslaved by others.
- sorokod 8y agoYou may be interested in looking up the etymology for "slave".
- paganel 8y agoThe Italian town of Genoa built most of its wealth in the 13th-14th centuries by buying Slavs captured by the Tartars on the north shores of the Black Sea and shipping them south to Pera (now part of modern Istanbul) where they would be re-sold with an added profit.
- sorokod 8y agoAh, interesting. More here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_medieval_Europe https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_medieval_Europe
- Ygg2 8y agoRoot of "slave" is "Slavonic" or captive. On the other hand, root of Slavic or Slavonic people is captive.
- inawarminister 8y agoIsn't it glory, e.g. Slava Ukraina?
- sorokod 8y agoI have some Russian. How is root of Slavic or Slavonic people is captive. ?
- BadassFractal 8y agoDoesn't look like the "slave" as etymology theory is confirmed: >>> Medieval Latin, from Late Latin Sclavus, from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos), probably from the Greek verb σκυλάω (skuláō), a variant of σκυλεύω (skuleúō, “to get the spoils of war”).[1] The origin of σκλάβος has been disputed historically. Modern etymologists accept that it refers to the spoils of war, as it makes sense morphologically, but there is an obsolete theory that the word comes from plural Σλαβῆνοι (Slabênoi), from Proto-Slavic slověne (plural; the singular form Proto-Slavic slověninъ is derived from it), although this theory requires unexplained and unattested phonetic irregularities. It is argued that that the originally the term referred to Slavs (Old Slavonic словѣнинъ, словѣне), who were often enslaved during the early Middle Ages, and that the originally ethnic term came to have a more general social meaning, possibly around the 9th or 10th century when it appeared in German texts - but nowadays it is commonly regarded that it was only old German propaganda pseudo-etymology.
- mirimir 8y agoStephenson's Jack Shaftoe, for example.