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teriboop's review
4.0
Dr. Davis brings the slavery experience in the early modern area to life in Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters. Davis' main argument posits that this period of Mediterranean captivity was compelled by religious vengeance and is less about economics. He often compares this slavery experience to the transatlantic slave trade with the Americas that was based on economics. However, I believe he tends to contradict himself as he delves into the ransoming process in detail. Where religious and political implications were important reasonings for the flourishing of slavery during the early modern period, those implications were used as barter between Christian and Muslim pirates and corsairs. Ransoming in this bartering system brings economics to the forefront. You can't dismiss the economic impact on slaves and their families who worked to gather large sums of money in exchange for freedom. One could call this religious economy.
I do think that this book is an important contribution to Mediterranean historiography. It is broken into three parts. The first concentrates on what the author calls white slavery, trying to separate this religious-based slavery from the African slave experience. Christians were enslaved by Muslims and Muslims were enslaved by Christians. This section describes white slaves and provides quantifiable data on the slave population, as well as how slaves were captured. Also detailed is the slave experience once captured on slave vessels. He compares this experience to the African slave experience on the middle passage of the transatlantic slave trade. The second session moves into the slave experience once sold to a master. Although most lived in horrible conditions there were those that had some amount of freedom and were able to focus on a skill or trade that they experienced prior to their captivity. Davis covers the good, the bad, and the ugly in this section. Section three concentrates on Italy, the area that Davis centers the whole book around. In this section, the author concentrates on the process of ransoming Italian captives held by Muslim corsairs and pirates. Davis wraps up this section and the book discussing the release of captives in Italy. Many freed slaves would be paraded through town causing a spectacle among the locals. Memorialization is also briefly discussed.
Overall, I thought this was a good book that gives the reader a detailed picture of the slave experience in early modern Mediterranean history. The descriptions were at times quite vivid and the comparison to African slavery in the Americas gives the reader a clear understanding of slavery in the Mediterranean.
I do think that this book is an important contribution to Mediterranean historiography. It is broken into three parts. The first concentrates on what the author calls white slavery, trying to separate this religious-based slavery from the African slave experience. Christians were enslaved by Muslims and Muslims were enslaved by Christians. This section describes white slaves and provides quantifiable data on the slave population, as well as how slaves were captured. Also detailed is the slave experience once captured on slave vessels. He compares this experience to the African slave experience on the middle passage of the transatlantic slave trade. The second session moves into the slave experience once sold to a master. Although most lived in horrible conditions there were those that had some amount of freedom and were able to focus on a skill or trade that they experienced prior to their captivity. Davis covers the good, the bad, and the ugly in this section. Section three concentrates on Italy, the area that Davis centers the whole book around. In this section, the author concentrates on the process of ransoming Italian captives held by Muslim corsairs and pirates. Davis wraps up this section and the book discussing the release of captives in Italy. Many freed slaves would be paraded through town causing a spectacle among the locals. Memorialization is also briefly discussed.
Overall, I thought this was a good book that gives the reader a detailed picture of the slave experience in early modern Mediterranean history. The descriptions were at times quite vivid and the comparison to African slavery in the Americas gives the reader a clear understanding of slavery in the Mediterranean.
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