L’esclavage des femmes en Europe à l’époque moderne

Abstract

In this short essay I am trying to present two different aspects of the women’s slavery in Europe during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Firstly in the case of Andalucia and south of Portugal, especially thanks to the recent thesis of Aurelia Martin Casares and Julio Izquierdo Labrado, and also thanks to the work of Vicenta Cortes Alonso and the excellent work, unfortunately not published, of Albert N’Damba, an catholic priest of Congo. The main outcome of this works is the obvious preference of the owners of slaves for the women and the prices of women are higher than the prices of the men. The motive is the productive ability of women. Secondly, I improve my investigations in the record offices of the Inquisitions of Malta and Sicily to point out the part of the corsairs in the trade of the human, especially the women proceeding from Russia, Greece, Central Europe.

Keywords: esclavage, femmes, Andalousie, Mediterranée, exploitation sexuelle; slavery, women, Andalucia, Mediterranean, sexual working out.