Slavery in Algeria

Since antiquity, Algeria was a center of the Trans-Saharan slave trade of enslaved Africans from Sub Saharan Africa across the Sahara desert to the Mediterranean world.

The oasis Ouargla in Algerian Sahara, which was strategically situated between the Niger River and the Mediterranean Sea, was a major trade hub of enslaved Africans from what the Arabs referred to as the bilad al-Sudan ("Land of the Blacks") south of the Sahara across the desert to be sold to the Southern and Eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

There is historical evidence of North African Muslim slave raids all along the Mediterranean coasts across Christian Europe.

[5] In the 15th century, Ethiopians sold slaves from western borderland areas (usually just outside the realm of the Emperor of Ethiopia) or Ennarea.

[8] Capturing merchant ships and enslaving or ransoming their crews provided the rulers of these nations with wealth and naval power.

According to Robert Davis, between 1 and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries.

The specific aim of this expedition, however, was to free Christian slaves and to stop the practice of enslaving Europeans.

'[10] However, despite British naval efforts, it has been difficult to assess the long-term impact of the Bombardment of Algiers, as the Dey reconstructed Algiers, replacing Christian slaves with Jewish labour, and the Barbary slave trade continued under subsequent Deys (see Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818)).

The Marechal Governeur General wrote to a local French official on 12 November 1857: "Slaves have been recently sold in certain markets of Algeria.

Black men and women brought in to Algeria to be sold must be immediately liberated without allowing the traders to claim any indemnity whatsoever".

[27] Slaves continued to apply for manumission from their Arab owners by the French authorities from the Emancipation Proclamation in 1848 until World War I.