THE WHITE SLAVES HISTORY HIDES For centuries, Barbary pirates stalked the Mediterranean and Atlantic, striking without warning. Coastal towns from Italy to Iceland emptied as terrified residents fled inland. Historians now believe over 1 million white European Christians were seized between 1530 and 1780, sold in North African markets and forced into brutal labor in galleys, quarries and construction. The numbers rival early trans-Atlantic slavery, yet this chapter remains almost entirely missing from the history most people know. Source: OSU