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The Forgotten: Europe’s Hidden History of Slavery

A Silenced Chapter of History

Across Europe’s forests, rivers, and coastal towns, millions of people — men, women, and children — were stolen from their homes and sold into slavery. While much attention is given to the transatlantic slave trade, centuries of European enslavement remain largely absent from mainstream education.

The perpetrators ranged from Vikings and Slavic raiders to Barbary pirates and Ottoman-affiliated forces, and the victims came from diverse regions, including Scandinavia, the British Isles, Eastern Europe, and the Baltics. Yet their stories are scattered, erased by time, and seldom told.

Vikings and the Volga Trade

The Vikings, famed for exploration, conquest, and trade, also trafficked humans. Along the Volga trade route, a critical corridor linking Northern Europe to the Islamic world, the Rus transported captives to the markets of the Abbasid Caliphate and Byzantine Empire.

Some captives, called saqaliba, were Slavic people from Northern and Eastern Europe. Ibn Fadlan, an Arab traveler in the 920s, recorded Viking merchants bartering for these captives, treating human lives as commodities alongside furs and amber. Male slaves often faced the horrors of castration, ensuring their value as eunuchs in Middle Eastern markets — a brutal practice few survived.

Historians estimate that millions of Europeans were taken over centuries, their names and stories largely lost.

Barbary Pirates and the Mediterranean Slave Trade

From the 15th to the 18th centuries, Barbary pirates raided the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, capturing sailors, villagers, and travelers. Historian Robert C. Davis estimates that between 1530 and 1780, 1 to 1.25 million Europeans were enslaved by North African corsairs. At any one time in the 17th century, around 35,000 Christian slaves were held in cities like Algiers and Tunis.

To maintain these numbers, raiders captured an estimated 8,500 new slaves each year over a century. Entire coastal towns were abandoned due to the fear of raids, from Italy and Spain to Cornwall and Ireland. The infamous Sack of Baltimore in 1631 saw nearly an entire Irish village carried off by Algerian corsairs.

Crimean Tatar Raids and Ottoman Enslavement

In Eastern Europe, the Crimean Tatars, allies of the Ottoman Empire, conducted large-scale raids in present-day Ukraine, Poland, and Russia. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, historians estimate up to two million Slavs were taken and sold through Ottoman-controlled ports like Kaffa and Constantinople.

Many captives perished during forced marches; survivors were absorbed into Ottoman households, labor systems, or military units such as the Janissaries — elite soldiers often recruited as Christian boys and converted to Islam.

Scandinavia’s Slave Markets

Archaeological sites such as Trelleborg (“slave castle”) and Hedeby show thriving northern markets where people were traded alongside furs, iron, and other goods. Viking-age society depended heavily on thralls, who farmed land, built ships, and served households — often dying without record.

Historian Ruth Mazo Karras, in Slavery and Society in Medieval Scandinavia, notes that slavery was so embedded in early northern Europe that the English word “slave” derives from “Slav,” reflecting the people often targeted in these trades.

Why Is This History Forgotten?

Even today, these centuries of European enslavement are largely absent from curricula. The transatlantic slave trade rightly dominates attention, but the enslavement of Europeans — by Vikings, Islamic states, and even other Europeans — rarely appears in textbooks.

Numbers remain debated. Some historians question the estimates, noting sparse records and potential exaggeration. Yet the scale of human suffering is undeniable, shaping economies, altering cultures, and leaving deep, often invisible scars.

Remembering these stories matters. They remind us that slavery is not confined to one people or era, and that historical narratives are often selective, influenced by discomfort or cultural

Sources

Davis, R.C. Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500–1800. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Karras, Ruth Mazo. Slavery and Society in Medieval Scandinavia. Yale University Press, 1988.
Logan, F. Donald. The Vikings in History. Routledge, 2013.
BBC – When Europeans Were Slaves
Ohio State University – White Slavery Research
Volga Bulgarian Slave Trade – Wikipedia