Black Sea Slave Trade

This episode pes into the history of the Black Sea slave trade - one of the longest-running and most complex trafficking networks in Eurasia. From ancient Greece and Rome to the Byzantine Empire, Italian maritime republics, and the Crimean Khanate, the Black Sea served as a crossroads for enslaved peoples bound for markets in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. We'll trace how the trade shifted over centuries - from Slavs and Finns to Circassians - and how politics, religion, and empire shaped who could be enslaved. The story ends with the gradual decline and abolition of the trade between the late 18th and early 20th centuries.