Slavery in North Africa 1 - the Barbary Pirates

Recently I've discovered the amazing fact that 1.5 million Europeans were taken to Africa as slaves in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. These people were captured from ships and from coastal settlements by Barbary Pirates and then sold as slaves of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the people captured were from the Mediterranean countries, which opens up the possibility that some of my Sicilian ancestors may have had relatives enslaved in this way. There can't have been much more terrifying a sight than to see a Barbary pirate galleon bearing down upon you. I'm going to gradually post more about this period as I learn more and more about it. Here are some pictures of these galleons, quite different to the Pirates of the Caribbean type ship. They were powered by wind when there was some and by European galley slaves when there wasn't....