The Ottoman Empire is one of the largest and longest running Empires in history, spanning 623 years from 1299 to 1922; and 3 continents including the Balkans in South-Eastern Europe, Arabia and Central Asia, and coastal Northern Africa.

Like many great empires that came before it, the Ottoman Empire was based on slavery, but unlike most examples of slavery, in the Ottoman Empire, slaves were white.

Social life in the Ottoman empire was often centered around the bazaars and Turkish baths. Many people owned homes so the population was reasonably stable. Sometimes people of the same ethnic group or religion lived in their own quarters. Turbans and other headgear were an indication of rank and status in the Ottoman society.

Scattered data and reasonable extrapolations regarding the volume of the slave trade from Africa to the Ottoman Empire yield an estimated number of approximately 16,000 to 18,000 men and women who were being transported into the empire per annum during much of the nine- teenth century.

In fact it was estimated that twenty percent of the residence during the 16th century were slaves. The Ottomans tied their economy tightly to owning slaves. Since it was a large country, the vast work they needed required more workers. For this reason they needed slaves to help them with different tasks.

The law allowed the sultan to take one-fifth of the booty his soldiers collected in battle. While booty usually meant material things, the sultan considered human captives part of the spoils. The sultan made an elite corps of slave-soldiers out of these captives; they'd later become known as the Janissaries.

Besides planting and harvesting, there were numerous other types of labor required on plantations and farms. Enslaved people had to clear new land, dig ditches, cut and haul wood, slaughter livestock, and make repairs to buildings and tools.