Since I found out my ancient matriarchal dna originated in the Caucasus mountains, from my research I found out something most interesting, which was the long habit of buying women from these mountains on account of their exceptional beauty. In such a way this rare dna was, at least to a minimal degree, dispersed into the Middle East, along the Silk Road, into Turkey, Eastern Europe and Italy. This is a subject not known of by most people; this sometimes to be regarded as mythical white slavery, and yet this is something that continued long after other types of slavery were abolished. Often these women would be the prized possessions of a powerful and wealthy mans harem.
1790
Kentish Gazette
The Circassian Slave
At the taking of Belgrade, the late marshal Laudohn was struck with the appearance of a poor little Circassian slave girl, about ten years old, but very pretty, for which he determined to have her baptised and to treat her as his own. In his will he bequeathed her 2,000 florins, to be paid to her one she has reached he age of 24 years. Since his death, this affectionate child, whose name is Teekla, has wept and lamented almost incessantly.
1819
Drakards Stamford News
The Persian ambassador, with his fair Circassian slave, has arrived at Berkeley Square, in a cavalcade consisting of four carriages, having entered the town by Westminster bridge. His excellency and his fair companion rode in the first carriage, with the blinds to the side windows drawn down. The last carriage was an open landau in which were the black eunuchs. His distinguished guests at his house on Charles Street, Berkeley Square, were however not to be permitted a peep of the Circassian. She occupied the apartments in the rear of his house, so that hundreds of curious people lounging in front of the house were likewise not able to see her. She is aid to possess a cultivated mind and to be a perfect mistress of music. The doors of her room are constantly guarded by two black eunuchs, who have sabres by their sides. They are her only attendants, being selected to dress and undress her.
On the well known principle of British law, the moment a slave, whether black or white, sets foot on British land, he or she becomes free and cannot be confined nor kept in a degraded state by any lordly master. In line with this, we hear that a solicitor of eminence is applying for a Habeas Corpus to bring forward this Circassian slave, who is in the suite of the Persian ambassador, to learn from her own lips whether she consents to the confinement in which she is kept or would she prefer the birthright which is the liberty of all. Ambassadors have extraordinary privileges, but they cannot keep a human being in slavery.
Star (London)
At last, the face so many had wished to set eyes upon, of the beautiful Circassian slave owned by the visiting Persian ambassador, was on account of it having been drawn by a 'lady of distinction', who'd spent time with her, being shared with the readership of The Lady's Magazine, this having been gifted to the lady proprietor of the house they'd been stung in, and thereafter shared with the press. This art, accompanied with anecdotes of the fair Circassian, was a whole length coloured portrait of the celebrated female in the costume of her country.
1826
Saunders News Letter
Turkish women are allowed a greater degree of freedom than is permitted to other ladies of India and Persia. The wives of higher class are allowed to go out and visit one another, either unveiled or with a small veil over their faces. Although the opulent Turks keep a number of women they prefer usually to have only one wife. The remainder are Georgian and Circassian slaves, who dress finely like the wife and live as well as her too., but they are in every other respect subject to her authority.
1828
London Evening Standard
It is well known to orientalists that the Caliph Mamoon, the son of Haroun al Rashid, was born of a negress slave, which was back from the time that Haroun and his wife Zobeide had played at chess, a game they were fond of. Upon Zobeide losing, he compelled her to strip herself perfectly naked before him, in the daylight, and to walk around the inner courtyard of the palace. When Haroun after losing a game she had the chance to now forfeit him, which she did thus: instead of him spending that night with her or with one of the ladies from his harem of 700 Circassian, Egyptian, Arabian, Taterian, Persian and Greek slaves, he was to instead spend the night with the ugliest negress slave that carried wood and water into the kitchen. He obeyed, and the produce of that night was Mamoon, the pride of the house of Abbas, a munificent patron of learning and talent.
Lancaster Gazette
News from Paris has confirmed the fall of Anapa to the Russians, after a siege of 40 days, a place of great importance. It was this fort which the Turks set up to establish communications with the Musulman portion of the Caucasus. It has been a great place of commerce, being a grand mart for Georgian and Circassian slaves.
1830
Hampshire Advertiser
A Russian vessel of the Black Sea arrived at Constantinople, having on board 70 Circassian beautiful slaves, which were instantly bought up by the Turkish grandees, at the rate of 7,000 piastres each. The Turks were very much surprised, it being generally thought that after the fall of Anapa, it would not be in their power anymore to furnish their harems with the fair slaves of Circassia.
1833
Reading Mercury
The manner of purchasing Circassian slaves is described in the plain and unaffected narrative of a German merchant, who talks of the girls being introduced to him one after another. A Circassian maiden, 18 years old, was the first who presented herself. She advanced towards him, bowed down and kissed his hand. By order of her master she walked backwards and forwards, to show her shape and the easiness of he gait and carriage. When she took off her veil she displayed a bust of the most attractive beauty. She rubbed her cheeks with a wet napkin to prove that she had not used art to heighten her complexion, and she opened her inviting lips to show a set of teeth of pearly whiteness. He was permitted to feel her pulse so he may be convinced of the good state of her health and constitution. The price of this girl was 4,000 piastres.
1834
Murrays Descriptive Geography as published in the Exeter & Plymouth Gazette
In regard to Persian women of class, it was the way that upon marriage the bridegroom would establish his own private harem, full of 'Georgian and Circassian slaves', negotiating with the brides family as to how to go about this.
1837
Northern Whig
The military tribe of the Mamelukes owns its origin to Mingrelian and Circassian slaves, in the eleventh century, who had settled in Egypt. Their name is a corruption of the Arabic word memalik, slave. They were not known as a separate body until the time of Genghis Khan, who while conquering the greatest part of Asia, carried vast numbers of the inhabitants into captivity. Malek Salah, who was the sultan of Egypt, deemed it prudent to increase his forces, and so bought 12,000 of them from the great Tartar warrior, instructed them in military exercises and formed them into a military corps. They soon exhibited a spirit of subordination, assassinating his successor, Turan Shah, and in 1254 they appointed one of their own men as sultan of Egypt, the dominion of which lasted for three centuries. During this period they made some important conquests, and in 1249 they drove the Franks entirely out of the East. Selim the 1st, the Ottoman sultan, put an end to their kingdom, after taking Cairo by storm in 1517.
1838
Chester Chronicle
Song of the Circassian Slave
Sadly reclining, Circassia's daughter, In an arbour was mourning her fate;- The tear drops shining, Bedew'd with water Cheeks that were blooming so lovely of late. Swift as a fountain Glides from the mountain, The crystal bright dims each orb of light;- Sweetly reposing, Those eye lids, closing, Shall find relief in the slumbers of night.
Through the grove ringing, Melody making, Telling a tale of love to his rose, Shrillily singing, On the night breaking, The Bulbul's note soothes the maidens repose. Visions are smiling, Dreams are beguiling, Lulling to rest the woes of her breast;- Gaily appearing, Happy and cheering, They chase from her heart the griefs that oppressed.
1840
Evening Mail
In the harem of the daughter of the Day of Algiers, who was married to Kaid Ismail, a woman died, and when visited by the Greek lady whose job it was to inspect dead bodies, she was found to be barred with blows and burnt in several places. She was a Circassian slave. The mistress of the house, on detecting her to be in an intrigue with her husband, had caused her to be slowly beaten to death, and to be tormented with burning oil, awarding 15 piasters per day to those Arabs who carried out the torture. To the authorities she coolly answered that she was as much mistress of her slaves as of her own goods. And though it was known what she had done, she was still respected for being the daughter of a pasha.
1841
Dublin Morning Register
An Austrian man, Baron Welzlar of Blankenstern, has converted to Islam in Istanbul, for which he had received the name Achmet Bey. Rajaal Bey, his sponsor, gave him presents to celebrate this of a Circassian slave and a horse.
Dublin Evening Mail
An extraordinary demand has been made in Constantinople by the Russian chargé d'affaies, who requires that all the recently imported Circassian slaves be delivered to him. The yesserdjees, or slave merchants, are accordingly summoned to the Porte, where all of them declared that the ladies in question were their relations, daughters, sisters, etc. They had not the least objection though to those who wished to be free being liberated. But such a boon these ladies did not desire, for their ambition was to get married in Turkey. The Russians were accordingly persuaded to abandon their claim. To those who are acquainted with domestic slavery in Turkey, nothing is more preposterous than to equate this with the negro traffic.
1844
Evening Mail
The foreign powers make a great boast of their zeal for the abolition of the slave trade and yet allow the Turks to sell and buy white women for their harems. During the month of January, the Pasha of Trebizond forwarded to Constantinople a cargo, consisting of 230 Circassian slaves, mostly young women, intended for the sultans harem. This traffic is a direct violation of the treaties of Adrianople. It is expected that the Russian ambassador will protect against this act, particularly as there are several Russian subjects among those slaves.
Morning Chronicle
Preparations are taking pace in Alexandria for the nuptials of Said Pasha, who is about to marry a young Circassian slave girl, brought up by his mother, and for whom he has a great attachment, a thing quite rare here amongst the Turks.
1845
Morning Chronicle
Abdullah Pacha is the great monopoliser of the Circassian slave trade, and some of the choicest of his stock have been sent to Riza Pasha and other members of the government, a means by which to profit politically from their beauty.
Derbyshire Courier
A tragic love story from White's 'Three Years in Constantinople'.
A love adventure, ending fatally for both parties, occurred during the summer of 1842, and was the general topic of conversation at Pera, even among the Turks. The Turks sought to defend their system off punishment, while dissatisfied by the way in which it had been effected, and the more so because both parties were Moslems and there existed no proof of flagrant culpability. Their judge and executioner was Mohammed Ali, governor of Tophane, a man of low extraction, being the son of a shopkeeper at Galata, by which he was little qualified for his position, having gained it by courting his superiors, underhand intrigues and lavish distribution of presents, as well as for as a child having been a favourite of the sultan. He had amassed considerable fortune, for which he had the most sumptuous home in the city. Among his dependants was a Circassian girl, of more than ordinary beauty, and a Turkish youth who held the position of valet or pipe bearer. On hearing that this young Turk would freely talk with the ladies of the establishment, when accompanying them on their trips out by boat or carriage, and that he especially liked to spend time with the Circassian, the Pasha gave him a warning, saying he was forbidden to talk to any of the inmates of the harem. But as he and the Circassian were indeed lovers, they kept on secretly communing with one another, and it chanced that, on one afternoon, as the Pasha was strolling through a part of the harem which overlooked the garden, he saw his female slave leaning against the trellis work of the window conversing with someone on the other side. Upon seeing this, Mohammed Ali hid behind the door curtain listening, by which he came to realise that this girl was in love with the youthful Turk. The sequel is horrible. Drawing his sword and suddenly rushing forward, before she could speak or flee, the Pasha seized he by the hair and with one stroke of his Khorassan blade nearly severed her body. Death, with its excruciating agonies, soon ensued, and at nightfall her body was disposed of in the neighbouring Bosphorus. On hearing the girls unhappy shrieks, and understanding some miserable fate had befallen her, the youth ran from the house and hurried down the hill of Beshiktash to the palace of Rita Pasha, his masters friend and patron. Falling to his knees, he told his story, reminding Riza that he was friends with his own father, a begging for his intercession and protection. So Riza said to remain in the palace and sent a note to Mohammed Ali, asking for the offender to be pardoned, as a personal favour and as a mark of respect to the boys father. A favourable reply came back and the lad was reinstated and for three or four days all was fine. The pasha, smiling and soft tongued, made no reference to past events and treated his servant as if all was normal. Upon the fourth evening, however, as the Pasha was seated in his garden, opposite to the window of that awful event, he was seen to compress his lips and finger his rosary with more rapidity. His handsome, usually serene contenance became clouded. Upon fixing a stern look on his attendant, he made him walk up the alley to pluck a flower from one of the carnation plants placed under the fateful window. The youth bowed and turned his back to obey. In that one moment the Pasha gave a signal to his cavasses, three or four of these men stepping forward, and before even the smoke curling from the pasha's lips had vanished all was over, a bright blade glittering in the evening sunbeams, his headless body rolling upon the shell strewn walk. As the head fell, Mohammed Ali rose, mounted his horse and proceeded to sunset prayers with the Mevlevy dervishes at Beshiktash.
Evening Mail
Everyone knows that the Circassians are in the habit of selling their sons and daughters to the Turks. The Russian government, with motives which would feign believe to be philanthropic, has endeavoured to abolish this traffic and has even stationed cruisers to suppress it. But as slavery in Turkey is not the same as in the West Indies, the Circassians themselves resist these preventative measures. Count Woronzoff has, in consequence, resolved to change the system, proposing a free trade in Circassian slaves, but in which there will be a compromise, in which may be discovered the cunning which characterises Russian policy in the East. Thus the Circassians are to enjoy the liberty of selling their children to the Turks, but the merchants must embark them for Constantinople, not as slaves, but as free passengers, having a passport from the Russian authorities. The Circassian slaves, when they arrive at Constantinople, may then, if they wish, claim the protection of the Russian ambassador. When we consider that some of these slaves have reached the highest stations in the Ottoman Empire, one may consider that by this Russia will gain a powerful element of propaganda.
Salisbury Journal
It is a matter of surprise to many in Alexandria, that whilst such urgent measures are taken by the British government for the suppression of the slave trade on the western coast of Africa, this ignominious commerce is allowed to be carried on with perfect impunity in the Levant. There have lately been several extensive shipments of Nubian slaves made in this port on board Greek and Turkish vessels bound for Smyrna and Constantinople. And from Constantinople there are frequent arrivals here of Circassian slaves, and no objection whatever to this trade is made by the European consuls.
1846
London Daily News
A steamer, the Duke of Cornwall, has arrived from Trebizond, an incident having occurred during her passage, which throws some light upon the ways of the Black Sea. For she brought with her to Constantinople a Polish subject of Prussia who was liberated from slavery by the exertions of Mr Stevens, the vice consul at Samsoun. This poor fellow had been the servant of a Prussian colonist in Circassia, who had emigrated from Berlin to that land to form a nursery of rare trees and plants in one of the fruitful villages of the Caucasus. The Pole, assisted by two Russian deserters, worked on the land of the Prussian botanist, and had been doing this work for three years, when a band of Circassians made a swoop upon the little farm and carried away the three workers and three horses with them. The naturalist had no one anymore to do his work and the three men were turned into slaves. They were sold to a Circassian slave merchant, who shipped them for sale at Samsoun. On reaching the port, the Pole escaped from his Circassian guard, and asked for the protection of our countryman, Mr Stevens, who undertook this humane task with promptness and energy. He declared the Polish slave emancipated, placed him under the protection of the British flag and defied the violent reclamations and menaces of the Circassian slave captain. As soon as the steamer came into Samsoun from Trebizond, the liberated slave was handed over to Captain Mills. The two Russians did not themselves ask for the intercession of their Russian consul, on account of being deserters. Russian soldiers desert in their hundreds from the forts on the Abasian coast, where they had been enduring malaria, bad diet, and the proximity of Circassiann rifles, preferring to embrace serfage in the Caucasian vales. If they had now asked for help from their countrymen they would do so at risk of being shot or knouted to death. Mr Stevens had himself risked much to help the Pole, for which in revenge the Circassians may have been picked him off with a rifle as he cantered along the beach, which would be normal behaviour for those wild mountaineers. They feel perfectly legitimate in their trading of slaves and someone would have just paid a heavy price for that valuable merchandise.
Morning Post
The trade in Circassian slaves has been annually dwindling for some years. The importation to Turkey last year did not amount to more than a thousand women and children. The decline is partly owing to the Russian blockade of the Circassian coast, but not only, there being two other causes which operate equally, one being hat reforms in Constantinople have compelled their dignitaries to economise. obliging them to reduce their taste for these voluptuous and expensive exotics. The consequence is that those now imported are few and ugly, so that the officers of the seraglio, who on the arrival of every fresh batch from Circassia, are expected to have the pick and refusal of them, no longer think it worth their while to visit them. The Circassians, on the other hand, on account of these changes, begin to feel a disinclination to continue their trade.
London Evening Standard
Lord Palmerstone has sent a note to the Porte, demanding the abolition of slavery in the Ottoman Empire. When Lord Ponsonby had been a similar measure had been proposed, but that project had been abandoned. Previous to this even there had been agreements between the British government and the Mussulman chiefs of Arab tribes to suppress slavery. And yet who were those 'chiefs', but the leaders of wandering marauders, who for a few pieces of gold would cut the throat of the Sheikh of Mecca. And arguing the case against slavery on the grounds of justice and humanity is equally futile. The entire domestic situation in Turkey is founded upon slavery. The sultans mother was a slave, and so was his wife. The Mohammedan law emphatically forbids his majesty to marry any other than a slave. Europeans tend to believe of the Ottoman domestic situation that which they read in story books while children, in which Blue Beard seems to be the common type of a Turkish husband. Whereas actually a Turkish woman has so much of independence that she can separate from her husband on the slightest complaint, for which, due to her capriciousness, the Turk prefers to marry a Circassian or Georgian slave, who looks up to him as her whole stay and protector. This is much more preferable to him than taking on one of his own countrywomen, for which he would be encumbered by her meddling relations and officious friends. It must also be remembered that the moment a slave marries she becomes free. No one born of Mohammedan parents can be a slave or even act in the capacity of a servant. It is in consequence of the need for servants that negro slaves are imported from Tunis, Egypt and Tripoli, who are employed to do the menial tasks of the household. There are at the moment many instances of negro slaves rising to some of the highest offices in the state. Ibrahim Pasha, governor of the Dardanelles was a negro slave, and the present pasha of Varna was another. As far as white male slaves are concerned, Kosrew Pasha, the Grand Seraskier, was slave to Hussein Pasha, and Halil Pasha, the sultans brother in law, and is now governor of Trebizond was slave to Kosrew! The Turkish mother, who is denied the blessing of children, generally adopts one or more little Circassian slaves, whom she cherishes as if they were her own offspring. The wife of Sarim Effendi, the late ambassador at London, has adopted two young Circassian slaves. One can see therefore that Lord Palmerston's note strikes at the vital principles of the social system of the Turks, outraging the sacred privacy of their homes, wounding their affections, and rousing a spirit of indignation to see the religion of their country attacked with such open determination. if this proposal is implemented it will turn against England every man in the Ottoman Empire, from the sultan to the peasant. Turkey will risk all in defence of her household gods. It is hoped that Lord Palmerston will withdraw his measure.
1847
Monmouthshire Merlin
Prince Woronzow has accorded to the Circassians certain advantages, allowing the chiefs to continue sending their female Circassian slaves to Turkey. Since then though the Russian generals had become more exacting, demanding that the Circassian chiefs surrender up to them Russian and Polish deserters, several hundred of whom had dispersed through he Caucasus mountains, which the chiefs would not agree to. When the Russians then captured a Turkish vessel near Pitzounda, laden with 60 female Circassians, the mountaineers lost all patience and revolted.
1848
Manchester Courier
In parliament, Mr Urquhart gave, or rather inflicted on everyone, one of his most tiresome speeches, in concern of the general intent to suppress the slave trade in Mussulman countries, which he said would alienate our country from the goodwill of those nations sp interfered with. For this, Mr Urquhart has become as much a nuisance as T C Anstey, who decants on the difference between slavery in the east and slavery in the west, one of his remarks being about the breeding of sultans from Circassian slaves.
1849
Newry Examiner
Circassian slaves; in a moral point of view, all slave traffic is of course odious and reprehensible, but that of Circassia differed from other commerce of the kind. in so far that all parties benefited by and were consenting to the contract. The Turk obtained from the Caucasus far handsomer and healthier wives than those born in the harem, and the Circassian beauties were delighted too exchange the poverty and toil of their fathers mountain huts for the luxuries of the seraglio, of whose wonders and delights their ears were regaled from childhood upwards with the most glowing description. The trade, though greatly impeded and very hazardous, still goes on. Small Turkish craft cautiously creep up to the coast, avoiding the Russian cruisers, enter creeks and inlets, and are dragged by the Circassians high and dry upon the beach, there to remain till the negotiation for their live cargoes is completed, and operation that generally takes a few weeks. The women sold are the daughters of serfs and freemen. Whilst the sale goes on, the ships are anything but secure. It is a small matter to have escaped the Russian frigates and steamers. Each of the Kreposts possessed a little squadron of row boats, manned by Cossacks, who pull along the coast in search of Turkish vessels. If they detect one, they land in the night and endeavour to set fire to it, before the mountaineers can come to the assistance of the crew. The Turks, who live in terror of these Cossack coast guards, resort to every possible expedient to hide their boats, covering them with dry leaves and boughs, and tying fir branches to the masts, so that the scouts will think them to be trees. If they are captured in the sea by the cruisers, the crew are sent to hard labour in Siberia, and the Circassian girls are married to Cossacks, or divided as handmaidens among the Russian staff officers. From 30 to 40 slaves compose he usual cargo of these boats, which is so small that the poor creatures are almost packed like herrings in a barrel. But they patiently endure the misery of the voyage, in anticipation of the honeyed existence of the harem. It is calculated that one vessel out of six is taken or lost. In the winter of 1843-4, 28 ships left the shores of Asia Minor for that of Caucasia. 23 safely returned, three were burned by the Russians, and two swallowed by the waves.
Illustrated London News
Some of the women of Constantinople, the Circassian slaves, or wives (the terms are nearly synonymous), are very beautiful. The lustre of their large, floating, gazelle-like eyes is very remarkable and even coquettish.
Elgin Courier
Treatment of slaves in the east. Slavery still exists in Turkey, but with none of its blacker elements. Its type is much like that of ancient scripture times. The slave, instead of being a soulless chattel, is really a member of his masters family. He is neither despised nor degraded. He possesses his rights and his privileges, and had many facilities for elevating his social condition. His compulsory term of service is only seven years, and when he leaves his master, the latter is bound to set upon him a peculium. He is subjected to no such task work as is imposed upon the American slave; since his business is not field labour, but attention to the personal wants of his master. Slaves in Turkey frequently rise to the highest places of trust and dignity, and become seraskiers and even viziers. The son in law of the late sultan was originally a Georgian slave. Circassian slaves are now comparatively rare, not however on account of any unwillingness of the Circassian parents to entrust their children to Turkish control, but because the Russians prevent as much as possible their exportation from the Black Sea ports. The few that, in spite of all obstacles, find their way to Constantinople, are near exposed to public sale, but are to be purchased only at a few private houses in the suburb of Tophane. There is even no longer a market for black African slaves. It was abolished by the late sultan and will never again by tolerated.
1850
Leicestershire Mercury
Prices of Circassian slaves: As a general rule the price of a young white woman may be taken at from three to four times the price of a black. But in the Circassian the common price is greatly enhanced by personal beauty or by superior Turkish accomplishments, and recently as much as 20,000 piastres had often been paid for a young female. Boys now and then fetch still higher prices. According to Mr White the maximum price in 1844-45 was 45,000 piastres or rather more than £400, but such a price could only be paid by the very greatest and richest in the land. I was told that some of the Circassians purchased for Abdul Mejid's harem, by his own mother, who had herself been a bought slave, cost more than 60,000 piastres a piece.
Lincolnshire Chronicle
Accounts from the Levant state that the Circassian slave markets at Constantinople continue with unabated success and activity.
1853
Evening Post
Sarim Pasha, the governor of Trebizond, has lost his position, owing to actions of the Russian Consul there, in concern of a complaint to do with Circassian slaves which he'd refused to investigate. Trebizond is one of those ports in the Black Sea where Circassian and Georgian slaves are frequently landed. In the Russian territories the seizing and selling of slaves has long been put a stop to. Parents, however, who wish to send their daughters to Constantinople are still allowed to do so, under the pretence of sending them to relatives there, and under the guardianship of proper people. In this case each individual is furnished with a passport. It happens, however, that occasional bands of marauders from Lazistan or the coasts of Circassia, land in Mingrelia and pounce upon the villages, carrying off the girls and children into slavery, in order to convey them to Constantinople, where they find a ready sale at high prices. These expeditions being performed in small boats, they were obliged to put in at the ports of the Black Sea for food and water. The Russian Consuls there do their utmost to destroy this illegal traffic. A number of the slaves, having arrived a short time ago without passports, The Russian consul claimed them as Russian subjects. But the Pasha turned a deaf ear to these representations and allowed the slave dealers to depart with their cargo, whereupon the consul lowered his flag and wrote to prince Menschikoff, whose influence at the port was sufficient to deprive the pasha of his position.
Dublin Evening Post
A tragic event has taken place. Kiamil Pasha, formerly of Egypt, son in law of the celebrated Mehemet Ali, has murdered in the most atrocious manner a beautiful female Circassian slave of great accomplishments. His wife was absent at the time, for which he tried to take advantage of the girl in a sexual manner. The resistance she gave to this so frustrated and angered him that he seized a dagger and stabbed her in nine places. This matter they have tried to keep secret, but the brothers of the girl have declared they will drag this event into the light and obtain redress, or according to the Circassian laws they will themselves take vengeance.
Evening Mail
Said Pasha, heir apparent to the governorship of Egypt, 35 years old, who had hitherto been childless, was shortly expecting to become a father by his Circassian slave, whom he had bought in Constantinople at a great price. In anticipation, he had brought out from England an English nurse to rear the expected child. Ismail Pasha, one of Said's sons, himself had a French nurse for his own children.
1854
Aberdeen Herald
The Earl of Clarendon has expressed a strong opinion against the trade carried on in slaves between Circassia and Turkey; for which the matter reached parliament, and a dispatch has come from Admiral Dundas, stating that orders have been given to the officers commanding there queens ships on the coast off Circassia and Georgia to disrupt the traffic.
Bath Chronicle
One of the results of the restored freedom of the Circassian coast and of the navigation of the Black Sea is the renewal of the trade in Circassian slaves on a scale unknown in late years. The people of Circassia seem eager to dispose of their young women for the Turkish market, and the Austrians have no scruple in conveying this novel kind of merchandise in their vessels.
London Evening Standard
On looking at the details surrounding the Circassian slaves, it has been witnessed that 900 to a thousand of these poor souls are ready to be embarked for Constantinople. The British steamer Phoebe had already left the previous day with 42 of these women on board and 60 boys, their ages varying from 3 to 20. And it is not true that their parents accompany them to find them a home with rich men. The slaves are kidnapped, and brought down from the mountains by speculators, who sell them to other speculators. one being a disgraced Turkish officer, Faik Bey, who come here to profit in this way. Several of these girls are Christian Georgians.
1856
Glasgow Herald
As Lascelles Wraxall has written about, during his week in Constantinople, the area of Tophane was the headquarters of the 'Tcherkess' who bring their pretty daughters for same to Istanbul. These 'free sons' of the Caucasus could be seen at any time in the streets and coffee houses of Tophane and always had a supply of their 'fair wares' on hand. It has been calculated that about 500 Circassian and Georgian women reimported annually into Constantinople. But the trade has fallen away considerably lately, for the Turks are losing their taste for these mountain girls, describing the Circassians as obstinate, extravagant and sulky, and the Georgians as stolid (boring) and awkward. A curious race of men are these Circassians. On the one hand they defend their liberty to the mast drop of blood, and on the other hand they carry their own daughters to the slave market. A friend of Lascelles's happened to go with a Circassian slave dealer back to his quarters, whereon entering into a small and comfortable apartment there was a girl, not more than 13 at most, with light hair and classical features. She played carelessly with a watermelon, while giving kind glances to her visitor. For it is the desire of such girls to be bought and to make their fortunes. Feeling uncomfortable the friend left the apartment, for which the girl uttered some regret and he was pursued by the Circassian man. He was persuaded into a coffee house and while in there asked the price for the girl, which was 6,000 piastres. He said he would consider the matter and in this way was at last able to escape.
Dundee Advertiser
The sultan of Constantinople gifted 75 Circassian female slaves to an old man of Mecca.
Morning Post
There had of late been a large number of Circassians going about the streets of Constantinople, a considerable portion of whom are slave dealers, charged with the disposal of numerous parcels of Circassian girls that have for some time been pouring into the market. With the Russians taking over the coast, for which it was deemed the traffic in white slaves would soon be over, the Circassians had redoubled their efforts to introduce into Turkey as many of their women as possible before the opportunity to keep doing so ended. In consequence, never in human history was white flesh as cheap as it was at this moment. There was an absolute glut in the market. In former times, a good middling Circassian girl was thought very cheap at £100, but at the present moment she may be had for £5! With such low prices, lower classes of purchasers had come into the market. Formerly a Circassian girl was pretty sure of being bought into a good family, where not only good treatment, but often rank and fortune awaited her. But at present low rates she may be taken by any huckster who'd never thought of keeping a slave before. Another evil was that the temptation to possess a Circassian girl was so great in the minds of the Turks that many who could not afford to keep several slaves were sending their current black slaves back to market in order to make room for a newly purchased white girl. In consequence, many black women, after being as many as 8 or 10 years in the same hands, were lately consigned to the broker for disposal, not a few of whom were in a state quite unfit for being sold. Many of them were pregnant by their masters, some eve having been slaves of pachas and men of rank The question arises, so many black slaves having been carnally used by their masters, and yet it being so rare to see a 'mulatto', what became of such offspring, and the answer is infanticide. There was hardly a family in Istanbul where such infanticide was not practised, simply as a matter of course, without the least remorse or dread.
Man of Ross & General Advertiser
Four Circassian slaves who had been brought to Constantinople escaped from the steamer and took refuge at the English Embassy at Pera. The dealers pursued them there and demanded that they be handed over. Their request was refused and they were told the slaves would be immediately returned to their homes. On being sent with an escort to the port to be embarked, only for the dealers, along with other Circassians, to attack the guards. A scuffle ensued and the police got involved and the dealers were arrested. It is said these assailants were to be sent to Circassia in irons, with a prohibition against them even returning to Constantinople. As for there four girls, it was not yet known what to do with them.
1857
Brighton Gazette
In Turkey since a year back there has been a firman forbidding the sale of white slaves (which although issued continued to be ignored). As long as there was no law prohibiting the sale of white slaves, everyone of a certain position followed the custom requiring that the harems of great men be adorned with these expensive items of luxury. It had been hitherto a common thing for rich men to buy young children of 7 to 8 years, to educate them in their harems, so that they may be given as wives to their sons.
The Hull Advertiser
In regard to the Georgian and Circassian slave trade with Turkey, a dispatch states there is but slight prospect, in any way, of abating it. This arises from the eagerness of the Georgians and Circassians to sell their children into slavery. Those children are trained from their earliest infancy to regard their being sold as slaves to wealthy Turks as a sure road to social elevation. The Turks themselves seek from such Georgian and Circassian slaves the gratification of their sensual passions. Therefore those slaves are not given to hard work, but are rather treated with indulgence.
1858
Belfast Newsletter & Taunton Courrier
Oriental Wanderings
Having had a successful medical career of more than 20 years, in which he visited every corner of the globe, Professor Holloway, while on his way home, was at Constantinople, where in an audience with the sultan, he was requested to help a favoured odalisque of the imperial harem, whom the Turkish doctors had pronounced to be incurable. She was a Circassian slave of surpassing beauty, resembling in both form and face young Nourmahal as described in the Tale Of Lalla Rookh; The Light of the Harem, by Thomas Moore. She had dyspepsia, aggravated no doubt by the boredom of a sequestered and monotonous life. Within a month, Professor Holloway's great medicines, along with daily exercise in the gardens of the seraglio, led to a complete cure, for which the professor received an autographed letter from the sultan thanking him in the warmest terms, for restoring to health the light of his harem.
The Circassian Nourmahal illustration from the book of Lalla Rookh
Another article reports that certain Circassian slave merchants, who were proceeding to Constantinople to sell some young women, were refused passports by the Russian consulate at Trebizond, in consequence of a promise the sultan had made to forbid the sale of white slaves. In response the slave merchants took up arms and threatened to burn the consuls house. To help the inhabitants of the Russian embassy defend themselves, they were joined by the Consuls of England and Greece, all in arms, to the number of 300 people.
A Young English Lady In The Egyptian Harems
In eastern travel women have a greater advantage over the men, due to women being able to penetrate within the iron doors of the harem and disclosing the secrets of that prison house which contains the fairest of the fair, the most perfect specimens of the Caucasus, the creme de la creme of female beauty. Of tis privilege a young travelling girl of 17, the authoress of 'Wanderings in the Land of Ham', availed herself. This young lady started from Paris in 1856 with her mother, an invalid brother, a man and a maidservant, on an Egyptian tour in search of health for the invalid brother. Anonymously, in her writing, she signed herself the 'Daughter of Japhet'. Twice she visited the harems of men of rank, Kourachid Pasha and Ismail Pasha. It was in Ismail's harem that the Circassians were encountered. two princesses who had been bought as slaves when they were 14 or 15 years old. They were both under 20 and one of them was very lovely, with large, dark, soft, melting eyes, shaded by long black eyelashes. a well formed nose and mouth, pearly white teeth, and an exquisite complexion, perfectly realising all one could ever conceive of a Circassian beauty. The other princess was younger, and her features were equally faultless, but she lacked the sparkling animation of the elder, and she had a sad story, having had two lovely children, both perished in but one night, no rare occurrence in a Turkish harem, but she had never recovered from the shock. She was Ismail's favourite, for the time being, and anyway there was no jealousy between these wives.
1860
Leeds Times
An English doctor for long in the Near East, shares that one of the most cultivated Turks he had ever known, a man occupying one of the highest positions in the Ottoman Empire and as well acquainted with other nations as with his own, disregarded the usual delights of the harem in favour of the one among them who ensured his happiness and who he had selected for his wife. She was a beautiful Circassian slave, for whom he had paid a high price. He had taught her various languages, so that she readily spoke Turkish, Arabic and Persian. She hd visited the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and he had taught to her the ways of Islam. She loved to be spoilt with beautiful gifts, for which at different times he adorned her with diamond necklaces, diamond bracelets, diamond anklets, and even a diamond girdle for her waist. She was a tender and loving wife and mother. Although the doctor longed to set eyes upon this lady, this was never permitted, even though he and the Turk had a long illustrious friendship.