The Galeotti: rowing out of the Barbary Coast September 25, 2010
Posted by Beachcombing in : Modern
It’s been a bad week in the seventeenth century. There you were, a French pilgrim, just minding your own business, lounging around on a Catalan cutter and, bang, Barbary pirates overrun the ship. Next thing you know you are being shunted on board their vessel kicking and screaming and being told that you are to be [...]
Numbers and the white slave trade August 25, 2010
Posted by Beachcombing in : Modern
Numbers are hobgoblins in history, especially prior to the beginning of grown-up records in the late nineteenth century. How many people lived in Roman Britain? Well, in the last forty years estimates have ranged from a couple of hundred thousand to six million. How many died in the early modern witch hunts? About five thousand or [...]
