Slave Markets

This section of my homesite is dedicated to the Slave Market, and the buying of slaves in general in the Old World (ie Europe, Asia and Africa only.) It complements the Coffles section, which shows ways of transporting slaves.

Due to its historical and cultural influence, I've written a dedicated page about the slave market in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, including my own photographs and some contemporary descriptions.

Paintings and Drawings

"Selling slaves in Rome" by J.L. Gerome (1886)

"Slave Market" by Gerome, 1866
J.L. Gerome painted the Slave Market in 1866. Describing a similar scene in Cairo, W.J. Muller wrote: [more...]

"Inspecting the New Arrivals" by Giulio Rosati

"The Babylonian Marriage Market" by Edwin Long
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, writing about Babylon: "In every village once a year all the girls of marriageable age used to be collected together in one place, while the men stood round them in a circle; an auctioneer then called each one in turn to stand up and offered her for sale, beginning with the best-looking and going on to the second best as soon as the first had been sold for a good price." [more...]

"Slave girl for sale" by Jose Jimenez Aranda, 1892
In the Museum of Malaga. With a Greek inscription but a vaguely oriental carpet, this shares the "Greek Slave's" ambiguity between the Ancient and Orientalist worlds. Is she being exposed for sale during the Greek wars of independence from the Ottomans, or is she instead waiting to be bought in an Ancient Greek marketplace? [more...]

"Purchase of a slave" (1857) by J.L. Gerome

"The White Slave" (1894) by Ernest Normand
A Greek merchant offers a European slave girl to an Egyptian Pharaoh?

"Naked Slave with Tambourine" by Frank Buchser, 1880
Buchser visited Morocco several times before his visit of 1880, and painted general street scenes as well as this slave being displayed for sale. The Arabic inscription on the wall to her right reads "To be sold".

"Picking the Favourite" by Giulio Rosati

"Slave Market in Constantinople" by William Allan
A rather melodramatic depiction from 1838, in contract to Allom's engraving of the same place from the same time. [more...]

"The Nuruosmaniye Mosque and the Slave Market" by
This picture is used in my Constantinople Slave Market and general slave markets pages.

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