White Slaves: 15 Years a Barbary Slave: The shocking abduction of the citizens of Baltimore, Ireland by the famous Dutch corsair and pirate Murad Reis and the horror of the Barbary slave trade.

June 1631 - Baltimore, Ireland"Malcolm woke up just before dawn broke over the cove. He heard a loud crash and climbed out of bed. He sniffed the air and smelled smoke. He was barely six years old, but he knew something bad was happening. He heard a knock at the door and went to open it. Standing on the threshold was a fierce-looking Turkish janissary wearing a long red tunic and a traditional bork with a jewelled ornament affixed to the forehead, brandishing a curved yatagan sabre. The huge man smiled at the awestruck boy, who remained frozen in place, too scared to move."In the summer of 1631, the famous Dutch corsair and pirate Murad Reis raided the quiet fishing village of Baltimore, Ireland, and abducted 109 men, women, and children. Locked in the hold of two fast-sailing xebecs, they endured a brutal thirty-eight-day voyage down the coast of France and Spain to Algiers, where they were sold into slavery. This is the true story of their adventures during that horrific voyage and their lives as slaves in Algiers until they were ransomed fifteen years later by the British Parliament. This is a harrowing tale of piracy, faith, and human resilience."KIDNAPPED BY PIRATES, SOLD INTO SLAVERY, THEY STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE"From the bestselling author of Playing Rudolf Hess, An Absolute Secret, Shipwrecked Lives, Kentucky Choirboy, and Remembrance Man comes this harrowing tale of piracy, faith, and human resilience about the white slave trade, which saw over a million European Christians forced into captivity in the Barbary States of North Africa between 1530 and 1780. Whole villages and towns in England, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, and even Iceland were depopulated by pirate slavers who captured men, women, and children and brought them to North Africa, where they were sold to the highest bidder. It is hard to believe, but today there are over 100 million descendants of white slaves living in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Their ancestors were among the 35,000 white slaves living in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli in the 17th century. Read more