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Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that his great-grandmother was sold as a child as a slave in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
“We, the Johnson family, come from ancestry connected to slavery,” Johnson said.
His statement came in response to current British Prime Minister Andy Burnham saying that he was open to offering an official apology to the groups affected by the role that Britain historically played in the transatlantic slave trade.
In an article he wrote for the British newspaper Daily Mail, Johnson claimed that his great-grandmother, Circassian Hanifa Farida, was transported from the Caucasus region to Istanbul in the nineteenth century at a young age, before being sold as a slave.
Johnson said that this child was lucky, because a “kind-hearted Turkish woman” liked her and bought her, then took care of her education before later marrying her to her son.
After telling this story, the former British Prime Minister asked: “Does anyone really believe that the large, extensive and generally well-off Johnson family deserves any compensation that taxpayers might pay?”
He added: "Who are we going to demand compensation from in the first place? Why should Turkish taxpayers today pay the price for actions committed in Ottoman Istanbul under a completely different system of government?"
He continued: "You cannot expect the British to provide financial compensation for alleged crimes committed by this country in the distant past. If you do that, where will it end? Do not forget that at one time we occupied 171 countries out of 193 member states of the United Nations."
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Did slavery exist in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century?
Historians answer this question clearly: yes.
Slave markets existed in the Ottoman Empire, and slaves were transported to its lands during the nineteenth century through multiple trade networks from Africa, the Caucasus, and the northern Black Sea.
Historian Hakan Erdem, who specializes in the history of slavery in the Ottoman Empire, says that the story of the sale of Boris Johnson's great-grandmother in Istanbul as a child is considered "a fairly ordinary example."
Speaking to BBC Turkish, Erdem explained that the slave markets that operated in Istanbul and some other cities until 1846 witnessed the sale of slaves, both children and adults.
He added that the slave trade was not limited to official slave traders, but there were also private individuals who sold slaves.
Regarding the story of Boris Johnson's grandmother, Erdem indicated that it was possible, especially if the incident occurred after the official closure of the slave market.
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When talking about slavery, the scene of slaves being brought from Africa to work on British Caribbean plantations or on landowner plantations in the United States may come to mind.
But the situation in Anatolia was somewhat different.
Hakan Erdem, author of The End of Slavery in the Ottoman Empire 1800-1909, says that slavery in the Ottoman Empire was characterized by what he describes as “open slavery,” in which slaves were eventually integrated into broader society and included in the kinship networks of their masters.
He adds: "Slaves did not live as a separate class from the rest of society, as was the case in the United States before the Civil War."
Historian Ehud R. writes: Toledano, in his book The Ottoman Slave Trade 1840-1890, argued that slavery in the Islamic Ottoman system was, in principle, less cruel than in the West, and that slaves were often treated well.
He points out that domestic slaves were considered part of the family, and that slaves in affluent families often enjoyed better conditions than free people belonging to the poor classes.
However, historians emphasize that these differences do not eliminate the slavish character of this system.
Slaves were bought and sold, and they did not have the ability to live as free, independent individuals.
What jobs were assigned to slaves?
According to historians, enslaved women of African origin mostly worked as domestic servants within Ottoman society, while a number of women of Caucasian and Abyssinian origin were used as slave girls.
As for enslaved men of African and Abyssinian origin, they could work as rowers on ships or as part of their crews, and they were also employed as workers and servants.
In contrast, Circassian and Georgian women were often transferred to the harems of wealthy families and the upper classes. Some of them later rose to a prominent social status through marriage or emancipation, and some of them even became wives of senior state officials.
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How did the forced displacement of Circassians affect the slavery system?
The nineteenth century witnessed the Russian Caucasian War, which ended in 1864, and witnessed waves of mass migration from the Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire.
Hakan Erdam says that, unlike the Ottoman slavery system, Circassian society included a class of slaves inherited over generations, and most of its members worked in agriculture.
He adds: "When the Circassians immigrated with their slaves, the inhumane nature of the displacement conditions led to the influx of large numbers of slaves into the Ottoman market."
Erdam points out that the majority of these people were women, and that the prices of slaves fell sharply, adding: “It was not limited to Circassians of enslaved origins, but also began selling free people who had never been enslaved.”
Boris Johnson mentions in his article that his great-grandmother was transported by sea across the Black Sea during a ten-day trip, adding that the numbers of Circassians arriving were very large, which led to their prices falling from 100 pounds sterling to only five pounds.
The book by Ehud R. Toledano, “The Ottoman Slave Trade 1840-1890,” notes that agricultural slavery, which rarely appeared in the Ottoman Empire after the fifteenth century, reappeared with waves of migration coming from the Caucasus.
This is due to the government allowing the Circassians to bring their slaves with them to reclaim the lands that were granted to them for the purpose of settling there.
Erdam also mentions that the Ottoman lands sometimes witnessed disputes between Circassians of enslaved origins and their owners, which in some cases reached armed confrontations.
He says: "Circassian slaves, like other slaves in the empire, were looking forward to gaining their freedom after years of work, and they did not want to remain in a permanent state of slavery."
He adds that in 1861 the Ottoman Empire tried to reduce these tensions by restricting the ability of Circassians to sell their slaves.
He continued: "Indeed, it also sought to encourage Circassian slave owners to emancipate their slaves by offering them lands, and this policy has achieved great success."
When was slavery abolished in the Ottoman Empire?
Hakan Erdem asserts that slavery in the Ottoman Empire was not abolished at one specific date.
The historian says that dates such as 1846, when the slave market in Istanbul was closed, or 1857, when the African slave trade was banned, are sometimes presented as “dates of the abolition of slavery,” but he adds: “We have to distinguish between the slave trade and the legal status of slavery.”
Although these measures restricted the slave trade in some areas, they did not end the legal status of slavery.
According to Erdem, even after the white and Circassian slave trade was banned in 1909, some kept the slaves they owned, and slavery remained a legal category.
As for the actual end of the legal status of slavery, it was achieved during the era of the Republic, when Türkiye stopped recognizing slavery in 1926, in line with the decisions of the League of Nations.
Erdam points out that slaves were gradually integrating into Ottoman society, pointing out that the restrictions imposed on the slave trade practically led to a decline in the number of slaves over time.
He adds: "It can be said that slavery in the Ottoman Empire was not abolished by a single decree or law, but rather disappeared gradually."
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