The Swedish slave trade mainly occurred in the early

history of Sweden The history of Sweden can be traced back to the melting of the Northern polar ice cap. From as early as 12000 BC, humans have inhabited this area. Throughout the Stone Age, between 8000 BC and 6000 BC, early inhabitants used sto ...

when the trade of '' thralls'' (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: ''þræll'') was one of the pillars of the Norse economy from the 9th to the 11th century, and ended with the widespread adoption of Christianity in Sweden. Slavery was a deeply entrenched institution in Viking society which was hierarchical, and the lowest social class consisted of thralls and slaves, which made up the main source of hard labor in Norse society. Slavery itself was abolished in Sweden in 1335 by king

Magnus Eriksson Magnus Eriksson (April or May 1316 – 1 December 1374) was King of Sweden from 1319 to 1364, King of Norway as Magnus VII from 1319 to 1355, and ruler of Scania from 1332 to 1360. By adversaries he has been called ''Magnus Smek'' (). Medi ...

. During the raids, the Vikings often captured and enslaved militarily weaker peoples they encountered through raids or conquests across Europe. This slave trade lasted from the 8th through the 11th centuries. A smaller trade of African slaves happened during the 17th and 18th centuries as part of the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

,Harrison, Dick (2007). ''Slaveri - en världshistoria om ofrihet: 1500-1800''. Historiska media. (In Swedish). around the time Swedish overseas colonies were established in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

(

New Sweden New Sweden () was a colony of the Swedish Empire between 1638 and 1655 along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a g ...

; 1638–1655) and in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

(lasting between 1650 and 1663). Similarly to other European powers, slavery was banned in the motherland while being legal in the colonies. Consequently, slavery remained legal on the sole Swedish Caribbean colony of Saint Barthélemy from 1784 until 1847. The Viking Age was a period of widespread upheaval and disruption throughout the northern world. Viking raiders sought captives, many of whom were captured and held in camps where they were ransomed, exploited and enslaved. The slaves from Western Europe during the Viking era were mainly

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

, and

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

. Many Irish slaves were used in expeditions for the colonization of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. The Norse also took Baltic, Slavic in Northeastern and Eastern Europe, Latin slaves from Southern Europe, and Moorish slaves from Al-Andalus and North Africa. Vikings navigated the "Highway of the Slaves" through the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

and into

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

ports first established by Archaic Greeks, shoreline crossroads for human trafficking. The Persian traveler Ibn Rustah described how Vikings, the

Varangians The Varangians ( ; ; ; , or )Varangian
," Online Etymology Dictionary were

Rus, terrorized and enslaved the

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

taken in their raids along the

Volga River The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

. These slaves were trafficked to the Middle East via the Bukhara slave trade. Thralldom was outlawed in 1335 by Magnus IV of Sweden for thralls "born by Christian parents" in

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Vä ...

and Värend, being the last parts where it had remained legal.Träldom
Nordisk familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 30. Tromsdalstind - Urakami /159-160, 1920. (In Swedish). This however, was only applicable within the borders of Sweden, which opened up for later slave trade in the colonies. Similarly to other European countries, slavery was later to be revived in Swedish territories outside of the European motherland. In the

17th century The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCI), to December 31, 1700 (MDCC). It falls into the early modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized ...

, starting from 1650, Swedish citizens become involved with the

. Sweden set up trading stations along the West African coast with bases on the Swedish Gold Coast, which today belongs to Ghana. In 1663, the Swedish Gold Coast was taken over by the Denmark and became part of the Danish Gold Coast. During its dozen years of activity, the Swedish African company transported around 2,000 slaves. However, the Swedish establishments in West Africa declined after a few years, while the Danish ones continued until 1850. Between 1784 and 1878, Sweden maintained possession of a colony in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. The Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy functioned as a duty-free port and became a major destination center for

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting Slavery, slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea ( ...

s. Slaves were brought in tax free by foreign vessels and the Swedish Crown made a profit by collecting an export tax when slaves were shipped out. Sweden was also a major supplier of iron for chains used in the slave trade. Slavery was legislated in Saint-Barthélemy under the ''Ordinance concerning the Police of Slaves and free Coloured People'' dated 30 July 1787, original in French dated 30 June 1787. In the autumn of 1786, the Swedish West India Company was established on the island. In the early 19th century, Sweden signed treaties with the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

to abolish the slave trade. In 1847, slavery was abolished in all parts of Sweden by including her colony, on the basis of a decision taken in 1846. The last legally owned slaves in the Swedish colony of Saint-Barthélemy were bought and freed by the Swedish state on 9 October 1847.

Migration period: Semi legend

Early Swedish history is not well documented and the sources are subjected to much scrutiny, especially since the trustworthiness of the Icelandic sagas is in doubt, since the Swedish monarchs mentioned by foreign sources do not correlate with the monarchs mentioned by Icelandic Sagas. During the Semi Legendary period, a slave revolt is mentioned by the Sagas taking place in Sweden. Its authenticity is unknown. According to the Icelandic sagas, a slave revolt led by the slave Tunne resulted in the Swedish king Ongentheow being deposed and forced to flee to the

Danes (Germanic tribe) The Danes were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting southern Scandinavia, including the area now comprising Denmark proper, northern and eastern England, and the Scanian provinces of modern-day southern Sweden, during the Nordic Iron Age and the Vi ...

. The Swedish king Ongentheow, sometimes identified with Angan-Tys in the

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

, appear to be another version of the name Týs öttungr. Tunne was described as the slave responsible for the guard of the royal treasury and weaponry. Tunne was probably named Eofor as both names mean boar and kennings was frequently used in old Norse and old English. Tunne could have been from the Northlands, as the name Tunne has only been found on Runestones in the Swedish Northlands. The Swedish weaponry was indeed guarded by a slave, as mentioned by the Roman historian

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

. According to the saga, Tunne proclaimed himself king of Svitjod, the slaves taking the weapons from the royal weaponry, forced the royals and nobles to retrieve their ancestor's swords and helmets from their graves in

Gamla Uppsala Gamla Uppsala (, ''Old Uppsala'') is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 17,973 inhabitants in 2016. As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political c ...

to fight the slaves, while Tunne used the weapons from the royal weaponry to defeat the Swedish army in eight battles. The victories of the Tunnes rebels resulted in so many losses for the Swedish king that he was forced to promise the Danish king tribute to ensure his continued support. The mounds from 500 AD lack weapons, after archaeological examination, supporting the story that weapons were taken from the grave

tumulus A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

during the rebellion. With the help of Danish soldiers, the slave uprising was eventually crushed. Tunne, however, killed king Ongenthow before the end of the uprising. In the Icelandic sagas, however, Ongenthow was killed by a boar. In Beowulf, he was killed by the warrior Eofor (who may be identical with Tunne). Eofor slew Ongenthow with his sword with a stab to the head that penetrated Ongenthows helmet. Eofor brought the helmet of Ongenthow to the geats, where he was given protection and rewarded for slaying their rival king. As a reward, Eofor was given the Geatish king

Hygelac Hygelac (; ; ; or ''Hugilaicus''; died 516 or 521) was a king of the Geats according to the poem ''Beowulf''. It is Hygelac's presence in the poem which has allowed scholars to tentatively date the setting of the poem as well as to infer tha ...

's daughter in marriage. Eofor in all likelihood killed Ongenthow, however it is not certain that Eofor and Tunni was the same person.

Swedish slavery and slave trade during the Middle Ages

Tasks for slaves in Sweden were helping with agricultural output for males and females, with women additionally serving as concubines or domestic servants. Thralls could have some social mobility in Norse society, as for example Olav Tyggvason, who went from captured slave of Estonians to king of Norway.

Background

Slavery was common in the Viking age period, and one of the main reasons for the

Viking expansion Viking expansion was the historical movement which led Norsemen, Norse explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship as Vikings, to sail most of the North Atlantic, reaching south as far as North Africa and east as fa ...

was the search for slaves in other countries. One of the reasons

Kievan Rus Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russ ...

came to be was that Scandinavian settlers established themselves and traded with captured slaves. During the eighth to tenth centuries, slaves from Eastern Europe and the Baltic Sea were traded to elite households in Byzantium and the Islamic world via the Dnieper and Volga river systems, the Carolingian Empire and Venice. Arabic merchants from the Caspian Sea and Byzantine merchants from the Black Sea bought their goods to the trade markets in Rus, where they met the Viking traders and warriors known as

Varangians The Varangians ( ; ; ; , or )Varangian
," Online Etymology Dictionary were

Korpela, J. (2018). Slaves from the North: Finns and Karelians in the East European Slave Trade, 900–1600. Nederländerna: Brill. 242 However, both Christians and Muslims approved of enslaving Pagans, who came to be a preferred target of the slave trade in the Middle Ages, and Pagan war captives were sold by Pagan enemies into the slave trade.

The Viking slave trade

The Vikings trafficked European slaves captured in Viking raids in Europe in the East in two destinations from present day Russia via the Volga trade route; one to Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate in the Middle East via the Caspian Sea, the Samanid slave trade and Iran; and one to the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

and the Mediterranean via

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

and the Black Sea slave trade. Until the 9th-century, the Vikings trafficked Baltic and Finnic European slaves from the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

in the Northeastern Europe via the Wisla or the Donau rivers South East through Europe to the Black Sea.Korpela, Jukka Jari (2018). Slaves from the North – Finns and Karelians in the East European Slave Trade, 900–1600. Studies in Global Slavery, Band: 5. Nederländerna: Brill. p. 35 The Viking slave route was redirected in the 9th-century, and until the 11th-century the Vikings trafficked European slaves from the

via Ladoga,

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

and the Msta river via the Route from the Varangians to the Greeks to the

via the Black Sea slave trade, or to the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

via the Caspian Sea (and the Bukhara slave trade) via the Volga trade route. People taken captive during the Viking raids across Europe could be sold to Moorish Spain via the Dublin slave trade or transported to Hedeby or Brännö and from there via the Volga trade route to present day Russia, where slaves and furs were sold to Muslim merchants in exchange for Arab silver ''

dirham The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Moroccan dirham, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates dirham, United Arab Emirates and Armenian dram, Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivisi ...

'' and

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

, which have been found in

Birka Birka (''Birca'' in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö, Ekerö, Björkö (lit. "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of Continent ...

, Wollin and

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

; initially this trade route between Europe and the Abbasid Caliphate passed via the Khazar Kaghanate, but from the early 10th-century onward it went via Volga Bulgaria and from there by caravan to

Khwarazm Khwarazm (; ; , ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, on the south by th ...

, to the Samanid slave market in Central Asia and finally via Iran to the Abbasid Caliphate. Archbishop

Rimbert Saint Rimbert (or Rembert) (''c.'' 830 - 11 June 888 in Bremen) was archbishop of Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, Hamburg-Bremen, in the northern part of the East Francia, Kingdom of East Frankia from 865 until his death in 888. He most famously wr ...

of Bremen (d. 888) reported that he witnessed a "large throng of captured Christians being hauled away" in the Viking port of Hedeby in Denmark, one of whom was a woman who sang psalms to identify herself as a Christian nun, and who the bishop was able to free by exchanging his horse for her freedom. This trade was the source of the Arab ''

'' silver hoards found in Scandinavia and functioned from at least 786 until 1009, when such coins have been found there, and it would have been so lucrative that it contributed to the continuing Viking raids across Eastern Europe, which was used by the Vikings as a slave supply source for this trade with the Islamic world. Among such hoards can be mentioned the Spillings Hoard and the Sundveda Hoard. One of the only accounts describing Norse slave practices in detail and first person is the Arabic merchant Ibn Fadlan meeting Volga Vikings. Describing Swedish

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

using the Volga trade route using Saqaliba or Slavic slaves as translators when trading. There he describes the Norse ship burials only known in Norse society before the Viking expansion in 800 AD into present day Russia and Ukraine and that a slave girl was sacrificed to follow her master. Norse burials found in Sweden and Norway indicate that slaves were sacrificed in Sweden to follow their masters to the afterlife. However, Swedish archaeology shows that mostly male slaves were killed to follow their master into the afterlife and not females. Sacrificed female slaves have however been found sacrificed in Norway, where a woman found in the grave showed signs of having her throat slit in a similar manner to the execution described by Ibn Fadlan. During the 11th-century, the Viking nations of Denmark, Norway and Sweden became Christian, which made it impossible for them to continue to conduct slave raids toward Christian Europe, and consequently Viking slave raiding across Europe declined. The establishment of

likely also decreased the number of slaves taken in raids and limited it to the local market for slaves in Sweden, according to Lena Björkman.

Abolition

Slavery in Sweden appear to have gradually phased out during the 13th-century. The Christian church did not approve of the enslavement of Christians. Giving freedom to a slave was seen as a holy act, giving the nobleman more of a chance to reach heaven, and it appeared to have become a custom to free slaves by will, gradually decreased the number of slaves. Since there were by the 13th-century fewer Pagan lands were Christians could legitimately acquire new slaves, there were no way to increase the number of slaves. There was no

serfdom Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed du ...

in Sweden, and consequently all farmers, rich and poor were free. While poorer farmers probably did not have the financial option as rich noblemen had, this possibly means that farmers or freemen were the last to free their slaves In parallel with the increasing manumission-wills of slaves during the 13th-century, different parts of Sweden started to ban slavery within their counties, while it remained legal in others. The last document mentioning a slave in Sweden is a will from 1310, which manumitted the male slave Karelus. Thralldom was finally outlawed by King Magnus IV of Sweden in 1335. In practice, the 1335 was the abolition of slavery in the Counties of

and Värend, but since slavery had already been prohibited in the rest of the counties before, the 1335 ban in the only two counties were slavery remained legal, also meant the final abolition of slavery in Sweden as a whole.Dick Harrison (2006). Slaveri: Forntiden till renässansen. Lund: Historiska media. ISBN 91-85057-81-9. p. 46 In reality, there would have been very few slaves left in Sweden by the time of its final abolition, and it is seen as likely that all had already been manumitted by that point.

Swedish slavery and slave trade in the early modern period

Trading stations in Africa

In 1650, Sweden established trading stations along the

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

n coast, with bases in an area called the Swedish Gold Coast which was later a part of the

n Gold Coast, and which is today part of

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

were competing for positions as regional powers during this period, and the Danes followed the Swedes to Africa, setting up stations a couple of years later. In 1663, the Swedish Gold Coast was taken over by the Danish colonial power and became part of the

Danish Gold Coast The Danish Gold Coast ( or ''Dansk Guinea'') comprised the colonies that Denmark–Norway controlled in Africa as a part of the Gold Coast (region), Gold Coast (roughly present-day southeast Ghana), which is on the Gulf of Guinea. It was coloni ...

. There is no historical documentation that shows that slaves were ever traded in the trading stations during their 13-year Swedish possession. Swedish trading stations reappeared in the 18th century, when Sweden established a colonial presence in the

Slavery in the Barbary Coast

There were over 1,500 Swedish slaves in the

Barbary Coast The Barbary Coast (also Barbary, Berbery, or Berber Coast) were the coastal regions of central and western North Africa, more specifically, the Maghreb and the Ottoman borderlands consisting of the regencies in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, a ...

as victims of the Barbary slave trade. Many would never see their homeland again. The Turks also frequently castrated their slaves. The Ottomans also bought black sex slaves from the Swedes. No slave raids was ever conducted by corsairs towards the coasts of

. However, Swedish and Finnish ships (

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

was a part of Sweden) were attacked by corsairs in the sea outside of Western Europe and in the Mediterranean. On 20 November 1662 the Lord High Treasurer of Sweden,

Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie (15 October 1622 – 26 April 1686) was a Swedish Empire, Swedish statesman and military man. He became a member of the Privy Council of Sweden, Swedish Privy Council in 1647 and came to be the holder of three ...

received a letter of appeal from eight Swedish sailors who had been abducted by corsairs at sea and was being held in slavery in Algiers. The Swede Johan Gabriel Sparfwenfeldt, who visited Algiers and Tunis in 1691, described empathically how he had met and spoken to many Swedish slaves who asked him for help to be bought free and return to "their homes, to their children, their parents and the land of their home", and listed 23 names of the Swedes then held as slaves. Sweden attempted to protect their ships by use of insurrance against slavery, convoys, international treaties and by maintaining friendly contact with the corsairs. The captives were also bought free by their relatives. This did not only apply to slaves from rich families: many poor women are known to have collected money to buy their husbands and sons free. When the young sailor Erik Persson Ångerman was enslaved in Algiers after having taken captured from the ship ''Wibus'' from Stockholm on 10 May 1725, he sent a letter to his wife Maria Olssdotter via his colleague Petter Wallberg (who had been bought free and was returning to Sweden) and told her he "sat in hard slavery" in Algiers.Östlund, J. (2014). Saltets pris: svenska slavar i Nordafrika och handeln i Medelhavet 1650-1770. Sverige: Nordic Academic Press. p. 60-61 Maria Olssdotter had no funds to buy his freedom, but appealed to the king via the governor of

Gävle Gävle ( ; ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 79,004 inhabitants in 2020, which makes it the List of cities in Sweden, 13th-most-populated city in Sweden. I ...

for money to be gathered in the churches for the purchase of her enslaved husband, and her application was approved; this was not an unusual case, as many poor women are known to have done the same. Almost all Swedes and Finns who were captured by the corsairs at sea were sailors. Between about 500 and 1000 Swedish citizens were enslaved by the corsairs between 1650 and 1763. One of the Swedish victims of the Barbary slave trade was Marcus Berg (1714-1761). Sweden together with, the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

and

Kingdom of Sicily The Kingdom of Sicily (; ; ) was a state that existed in Sicily and the southern Italian peninsula, Italian Peninsula as well as, for a time, in Kingdom of Africa, Northern Africa, from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was ...

, would intervene in 1801 to free Swedish, American and Sicilian slaves from the Barbary Coast. In the

First Barbary War The First Barbary War (1801–1805), also known as the Tripolitan War and the Barbary Coast War, was a conflict during the 1801–1815 Barbary Wars, in which the United States fought against Ottoman Tripolitania. Tripolitania had declared war ...

three Swedish ship would partake to free Swedish slaves.

Slave trade under King Gustav III

In 1771,

Gustav III Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he saw ...

became the King of Sweden. He wanted Sweden to re-establish itself as a European "Great Power". Overseas colonies were a symbol of power and prestige at that time, so he decided to acquire colonies for Sweden. Denmark-Norway received large revenues from its colonies in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

, so in 1784, Gustav acquired the West Indian island of Saint-Barthélemy from

. On 23 August 1784, the king informed the Privy Council that Sweden now owned an island in the West Indies. This apparently came as a surprise for many of the Councilors. The first report concerning the island came from Simon Bérard, Swedish consul-general in L'Orient, the only town. He reported that: According to Bérard, there was no possibility of agriculture because of the poor soil. The island's one desirable feature was a good harbor. Bérard recommended that the island be made a free port. At that time, France had trouble providing sufficient slaves to its colonies in the area. Sweden could try to export a certain number of slaves to the French colonies in the region each year. If Saint-Barthélemy was a success, Sweden could later expand its colonial empire to more islands in the area. Gustav also knew that the leading slave trading nations in Europe made large amounts of money from it. In the autumn of 1786, the Swedish West India Company was established on the island. Gustav told investors that they could expect big profits in the future. Anyone who could afford it was allowed to buy shares, but Gustav kept 10 per cent of the shares for himself, which made him the largest shareholder. The king received one-quarter of all profits of the company and the other shareholders three quarters, even though the king owned only 10 per cent of the company. On 31 October of the same year, a privilege letter was made for the West India Company. The company was granted the right to trade slaves between Africa and the West Indies. Paragraph 14 in the letter states: "The Company is free to operate slave trade in

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

and the African coast, where such is permitted." On 12 March 1790, a new custom tax and constitution were introduced to the island. Both were designed to make Saint-Barthélemy into a haven for slave traders. The new laws gave astonishing opportunities for traders from all over the world. There was no duty on slaves imported from Africa to Saint-Barthélemy: "Free import of slaves and trade with black slaves or so called new Negroes from Africa is granted to all nations without having to pay any charge at the unload." People from all over the Caribbean came to buy slaves. The government charged a small export duty on slaves sold from Saint-Barthélemy to foreign colonies. This duty was halved for slaves imported from Africa on Swedish ships, generating increased profits for the West India Company and other Swedish traders. The new constitution stated: "Freedom for all on Saint Bartholomew living and arriving to arm and send out ships and shipments to Africa to buy slaves on the places thus is permitted for all nations. That way a new branch for the Swedish trade in Africa and the Coast of

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

should arise." In 1813, Sweden was awarded control of

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...

, a nearby French colony temporarily under British occupation. In 1814, though, with the fall of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, Sweden gave the island back to France. One of the few African slaves bought to actual Sweden proper were Gustav Badin. He was taken to Sweden from the Danish Caribbean and gifted to the queen, Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, as a child. Badin were taught to read and write and instructed in religion but was otherwise allowed to live as he pleased, free from corporal punishment otherwise customary for children at the time, in order to test the ideas about the

Noble savage In Western anthropology, Western philosophy, philosophy, and European literature, literature, the Myth of the Noble savage refers to a stock character who is uncorrupted by civilization. As such, the "noble" savage symbolizes the innate goodness a ...

of the time. Badin was baptised, married, and had a long career as a trusted member of the court.

Abolition

In 1788, the British Committee for the Abolition of Slavery sent a Swedish opponent of the slave trade, Anders Sparrman, to Gustav III. The committee feared that other nations would expand their trade if Britain stopped its own. They sent books about the issue and a letter, in which the king was encouraged to hinder his subjects to participate in this disgraceful trade. In the response letter, delivered through Sparrman, he wrote that no one in the country had participated in the slave trade and that he would do all that he could to keep them from doing so. During the early 19th century, movements against slavery became stronger, especially in Britain. Slave trade was outlawed in Britain in 1807, and in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1808, after which other countries started to follow suit. Sweden made the slave trade illegal as part of the Treaty of Stockholm with Britain in 1813, but allowed slavery until 9 October 1847. During the 19th century, the

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom that was responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. Historically, its titular head was the Lord High Admiral of the ...

patrolled the African coast to catch illegal slave traders. The Swedish vessel Diana was intercepted by the British authorities close to the coast of Africa while engaged in carrying slaves from Africa to Saint Bartholomew during this period. The case was taken to court in order to test if the slave trade could be considered contrary to the general law of nations. However, the vessel was returned to the Swedish owners on the ground that Sweden had not prohibited the trade and tolerated it in practice. Once the slave trade became a hot issue, the Swedish government abandoned the slave trade in the Caribbean, but did not initially outlaw slavery. The West Indian colony became financial burdens. The island of Guadeloupe was returned to France in 1814, in return for a compensation in the sum of 24 million francs. A Guadeloupe Fund was established in Sweden for the benefit of the Swedish Crown Prince and Regent Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, a French national and former Marshal of France under

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. He and his heirs were paid 300,000 riksdaler per year up until 1983 in compensation for their loss of prestige in France when Sweden joined

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

against

in the

Napoleonic War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

. In Saint Bartholomew, the Swedish government bought the remaining slaves to give them freedom. According to Herman Lindqvist in

Aftonbladet (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish language, Swedish daily tabloid newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lar ...

(8 October 2006), 523 slaves were bought free for 80 riksdaler per slave. Exactly how many slaves were brought to the New World on Swedish ships is not known, since most of the archives documents have not been investigated, and many of them are by now not accessible because of their bad preservation. Nevertheless, some data, mostly concerning the former Swedish island Saint-Barthélemy, is now available online.Mémoire St Barth : "Répertoire" des expéditions négrières Saint-Barthélemy (Suède)
/ref>

In popular culture

Johan Vilde is a Comic series awarded with best comic book of the year in Sweden 1976. It contains several comics that depict the life of Johan Vilde that by unfortunate circumstances winds up as a Swedish slave. During the height of the Swedish slave trade in Africa. Vilde falls overboard of his Swedish ship and winds up in an African tribe that takes care of him. They become his foster family. Then a rival more warlike tribe with the help of European guns defeats them and sells him and his foster family into slavery in the Swedish slave fort of Christina. The Swedes misstake Vilde for an albino African and decides to sell him even thou he looks white. The plot then continues and revolves around Swedish slave traders.

References

External links

Mémoire St Barth , History of St Barthélemy (archives & history of slavery, slave trade and their abolition)
Comité de Liaison et d'Application des Sources Historiques. * McAlinden, Tom (2007)
Sweden's slave trade
Network Europe, Radio Broadcast, 30 March 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Slave Trade Former Swedish colonies 18th century in Sweden Economic history of Sweden Political history of Sweden

17th century in Sweden Viking Age slavery

Migration period: Semi legend

Swedish slavery and slave trade during the Middle Ages

Background

The Viking slave trade

Abolition

Swedish slavery and slave trade in the early modern period

Trading stations in Africa

Slavery in the Barbary Coast

Slave trade under King Gustav III

Abolition

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading

External links