Swedish slave trade

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The Swedish slave trade mainly occurred in the early history of Sweden when the trade of thralls (Old Norse: þræll) was one of the pillars of the Norse economy. During the raids, the Vikings often captured and enslaved militarily weaker peoples they encountered, but took the most slaves in raids of the British Isles, and Slavs in Eastern Europe. This slave trade lasted from the 8th through the 11th centuries. Slavery itself was abolished in Sweden in 1335. A smaller trade of African slaves happened during the 17th and 18th centuries,^[1] around the time Swedish overseas colonies were established in North America (New Sweden; 1638–1655) and in Africa (lasting between 1650 and 1663). Similarly to other European powers, slavery was banned in the motherland while being legal in the colonies. Consequently, slavery remained legal on the sole Swedish Caribbean colony of Saint Barthélemy from 1784 until 1847.

The slaves from Western Europe during the Viking era were mainly Franks, Anglo-Saxons, and Celts. Many Irish slaves were used in expeditions for the colonization of Iceland.^[2] The Norse also took Baltic, Slavic and Latin slaves. The Vikings kept some slaves as servants and sold most captives in the Byzantine or Islamic markets. Vikings navigated the "Highway of the Slaves" through the Aegean Sea and into Black Sea ports first established by Archaic Greeks, shoreline crossroads for human trafficking.^[3] The Persian traveler Ibn Rustah described how Vikings, the Varangians or Rus, terrorized and enslaved the Slavs taken in their raids along the Volga River. These slaves were trafficked to the Middle East via the Bukhara slave trade. Thralldom was outlawed in 1335 by Magnus IV of Sweden for thralls "born by Christian parents" in Västergötland and Värend, being the last parts where it had remained legal.^[4] This however, was only applicable within the borders of Sweden, which opened up for later slave trade in the colonies. Similarly to other European countries, slavery was later to be revived in Swedish territories outside of the European motherland.

In the 17th century, Swedish citizens become involved with the Atlantic slave trade. Between 1784 and 1878, Sweden maintained possession of a colony in the Caribbean. The Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy functioned as a duty-free port and became a major destination center for slave ships. Slaves were brought in tax free by foreign vessels and the Swedish Crown made a profit by collecting an export tax when slaves were shipped out. Sweden was also a major supplier of iron for chains used in the slave trade.^[5] Slavery was legislated in Saint-Barthélemy under the Ordinance concerning the Police of Slaves and free Coloured People^[6] dated 30 July 1787, original^[7] in French dated 30 June 1787.

In the early 19th century, Sweden signed treaties with the United Kingdom^[8][9] and France to abolish the slave trade.^[10] In 1847, slavery was abolished in all parts of Sweden by including her colony, on the basis of a decision taken in 1846.^[11] The last legally owned slaves in the Swedish colony of Saint-Barthélemy were bought and freed by the Swedish state on 9 October 1847.^[12]