| Summary/Abstract |
In March 1877, the British searched a ship named The Rokeby and discovered eight Abyssinian child slaves on board. It is argued that, hitherto frustrated by the constant evasion of their attempts to supress the slave trade, they used the event to bring pressure on local government officials and merchants of Bushehr to cease their collusion and involvement. The result was a decline in the trade at least in the coast around Bushehr. There having been hitherto no specific studies of the Abyssinian slave trade to Iran, the case has also been taken as an opportunity to discuss it from its country of origin through Mecca and Jeddah, then in Ottoman territory, and to the Gulf ports of Iran, which allows an indicative comparison of Ottoman and Iranian policies of suppression. Rare insight has been provided into the experiences of the slaves themselves by the first-hand accounts of their journeys from Abyssinia given to the British.
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