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White Slaves
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History; Posted on: 2007-10-04 20:39:26 [ Printer friendly / Instant flyer ]
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The forgotten slaves
White Slavery and Indentured Servitude in the Age of Imperialism, Part 1
by Dan Snow, The One Show (BBC), October 4, 2007
The thousands of shipwrecks off Devon and Cornwell are a tragic legacy of this formidable coastline.
But did the treacherous sea once save a village from a fate worse than death? Dan goes to find out.
A few years ago, the remains of a mysterious ship were discovered just off Salcombe in Devon, along with a huge hoard of treasure. This treasure links the ship to a time, 400 years ago, when people were taken from villages all along the south coast of Britain—to be sold into slavery.
The treasure is now kept at the British Museum and looked after by curator, Venetia Porter. “It includes over 400 gold coins—two dated the 17th century, which allows us to date the wreck,” Venetia tells Dan, “It’s from Morocco, so to find something like this on the seabed off the coast of Devon is pretty remarkable.”
So the question is, what was it doing off the coast of Devon? Dan heads to Salcombe to find out.
Salcombe today is a peaceful holiday town, but it was very different picture 400 years ago. Back then, pirates from North Africa’s Barbary Coast were making daring raids all along Britain’s southern shores—and they weren’t just stealing loot.
Coastal communities like Salcombe lived in fear of the Barbary pirates—with good reason. In 1631, almost the whole of the village of Baltimore in Ireland was captured and shipped off to Africa and sold into slavery.
Read On
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News Source: BBC- The One Show
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