Most Americans are unaware of white slavery, imposed by the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), on the Slavic nations of Eastern Europe from 1453 to the late 19th century. And to some degree imposed by the Arabs in North Africa on
Western Europeans. Author Linda Keres Carter, of Serbian descent, addresses it in her book
The Tudjina, Mirrors in Black & White.
Keres-Carter says in her book that an estimated 3.5 million boys were stolen from Serbia alone during the 500-year occupation by the Ottomans--above and beyond the adults enslaved.
She says she found herself gravitating to African Americans when she grew up in Chicago, because she recognized a kindred history and struggle with Blacks. "Over in Serbia we were going through 500 years of terroristic rule. The testimony of a Serb against a Turk was inadmissable in court... . We had no rights they were bound to respect." She says, "If a Serb and a Turk passed in the road, the Serb was to get out of the road and let the Turk pass."
Keres-Carter uses the spirit voices of her Serbian ancestors to tell the story of a fictional Serbian girl, who learns to navigate American oppression, which so clearly mirrors Serbian history.
