“It Was the Poles That Gave Me Most Pain”: Polish Slaves and Captives in the Crimea, 1475–1774
Year: 2021

This chapter examines the history of the trade in Polish slaves and captives in the Tatar and Ottoman Crimea in early modern times using hitherto unknown archival evidence and rare printed sources. Tatar predatory raids into Polish territory started in 1468 and ended in 1769. According to some estimates, the total number of captives seized in Poland between c.1500 and c.1700 could have been as many as a million; perhaps at least half of them were ethnic Poles. After capture Polish slaves of lowl