From The 16th-19th Century, African Slave Ships Captured 1 Million Europeans
When most people learn about the slave trade in school, we are taught about the shameful history of Africans brought to Great Britain and the United States. But few history classes talk about the fact that the Barbary Pirates conducted their own slave trade, and it was just the opposite. F
rom the 16th to the 19th Century, Barbary Pirates from the North Coast of Africa captured European slaves on ships and by raiding coastal towns from Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland and even southwest Britain. It is estimated that 1 million Europeans were captured and sold as slaves. In the early part of the 19th Century, the United States and Great Britain teamed up to fight during the First and Second Barbary Wars in order to stop these pirates from capturing people and forcing them into slavery.
