Capturing, buying, selling, and enslaving people has been done throughout human history, in every region and among every race. Before the transatlantic slave trade (1600's through 1800's), there was an earlier trade in persons.
From the time that Mohammed started a new religion in the 600's AD in the Middle East, slavery was commonly practiced in Muslim lands until the 20th century. As many as 1.5 million Europeans and Americans were enslaved.
Raids on Europe (ex: 100 captured in an Irish village) and piracy on the seas were typical methods of capture. Pirates from the Barbary Coast (North Africa) were justified by the Tripoli ambassador who said the Koran told Muslims to "make slaves of all they could take as prisoners."
They demanded blackmail payments from America and Europe as a purchase of peace, and originally we complied. But eventually President Thomas Jefferson refused, resulting in the Barbary Wars (image).
(cont'd tomorrow)
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