Vikings
- Thread starter TeeDee
- Start date
It seems my family history has me at risk from barbary pirates in one generation and potentially pillaging England in another. Then again in another we were in Celtic or brythonic areas.
Hold on, were the modern swedish descended from viking too? I once read something I think that made me question where Vikings really came from. Were they from across Scandinavia? Danish, Norwegian, swedish and Finnish are from the Vikings? As in the original before everyone generally got involved. I should really Google it.
I only ask because I've traced my American ancestry back to a sailing from Gothenburg about 3 or 4 generations back. I assume they came from near gothenburg but if that city was the only jumping off point for migrating to America back then they could have been from anywhere. If their ancestors were Vikings it would be interesting to know. It is our familys third largest genetic marker after English/ Welsh and Scots / Irish. Possibly bigger than the Scots/ Irish tbh.
Sorry, I digress.
Hold on, were the modern swedish descended from viking too? I once read something I think that made me question where Vikings really came from. Were they from across Scandinavia? Danish, Norwegian, swedish and Finnish are from the Vikings? As in the original before everyone generally got involved. I should really Google it.
I only ask because I've traced my American ancestry back to a sailing from Gothenburg about 3 or 4 generations back. I assume they came from near gothenburg but if that city was the only jumping off point for migrating to America back then they could have been from anywhere. If their ancestors were Vikings it would be interesting to know. It is our familys third largest genetic marker after English/ Welsh and Scots / Irish. Possibly bigger than the Scots/ Irish tbh.
Sorry, I digress.
"
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
"
It was not Kumbaya that ended the raids. Barbary Pirates is not a PC subject as it involves arabs taking "white" slaves. Nowadays slavery just has a different name attached.
When Barbary Pirates where sunk, slavery was not really fashionable regardless of skin colour. It is actually the arab part that'll get you in trouble. Where did West Indian and later American plantation owners go to get their slaves; to north African arab and african slave traders who had run the trade for centuries. Not quite sure about this but officially slavery was abolished in some arab and north african countries in 50s and later. The practice did not end there.
Skin colour was actually part of the deal for Barbary Pirates, there was serious demand for "white" (in contrast to black african) female slaves for concubines in arab countries. I think the final nail in the Pirates' coffin was the threat to ever increasing trade in the Med and western Atlantic. For some reason that I don't know Britain and France did not deal a really decisive blow (that they could have done) but the US Navy and Marines were required to finish it.
A long time ago when I started to get interested in military history I read a lot about the larger and smaller wars in the 1800s and there often came across the Barbary Pirate problem. Not so long ago when having a casual discussion about slavery with some semi-acquaintances I took up the arabs' part in the whole slave trade I was called a lot of things like "islamophobic" (where I pointed the idiotic wrong usage of the word "phobic") I think I avoided being attacked by a harpy by walking away.
Skin colour was actually part of the deal for Barbary Pirates, there was serious demand for "white" (in contrast to black african) female slaves for concubines in arab countries. I think the final nail in the Pirates' coffin was the threat to ever increasing trade in the Med and western Atlantic. For some reason that I don't know Britain and France did not deal a really decisive blow (that they could have done) but the US Navy and Marines were required to finish it.
A long time ago when I started to get interested in military history I read a lot about the larger and smaller wars in the 1800s and there often came across the Barbary Pirate problem. Not so long ago when having a casual discussion about slavery with some semi-acquaintances I took up the arabs' part in the whole slave trade I was called a lot of things like "islamophobic" (where I pointed the idiotic wrong usage of the word "phobic") I think I avoided being attacked by a harpy by walking away.
Last edited:
