The abolition of slavery in Malta

Abstract

A few years before the outbreak of the French Revolution, the Emperor of Morocco began to ransom Moslem slaves from Malta on a large scale. This throws a curious slide-light on the eighteenth century, the age of enlightenment, though it is doubtful whether there was any connection at all with such a peculiarly European climate of opinion: it is unlikely that similar ideas could have penetrated into Morocco which, with Ethiopia, then ranked among the most xenophobic countries of Africa. The first reference to an exchange of slaves between Malta and Morocco occurs in a letter of Grand Master Pinto, sent to his ambassador in Rome on 4 September 1769.