By the end of the 15th century AD, the use of slaves in Italy dropped off considerably. The Turks had taken control of the Black Sea and closed it to Italian ships, so there were no more Carcissian and Tartar slaves, but Greek and Slavic slaves still came into Italy via Dalmatia, and also Moors and Ethiopians came into Europe from Africa. But the demand for slaves continued to decrease in Europe. Why? Because these slaves were very troublesome to control and also the prices of slaves soared as the supply shrank. Only the very rich could afford slaves now and they continued to buy them. But instead of using them for routine chores, they scoured the markets for “oddities.” To the late 15th century rich European, slaves were exotic animals to be displayed to other rich friends. Pope Pius II (1458-1464AD) often entertained his guests with a black slave musician. Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) parceled out Moorish slaves to his cardinals and friends. Duchesses in Mantua, Farrerra, and Milan trained black children to be pets and clowns for their courts. When the French invaded Italy and took Capua, they sold many women to Roman buyers. Into the 16th and 17th centuries, the Medici grand dukes made raids on the coasts of Africa and on Black Sea ports to capture slaves for their galleys and households in Tuscany, Italy. It was not until the early 1800’s did slavery end in Tuscany. By the early 1800’s, slavery had all but ended in Europe, but not across the Atlantic Ocean. Africans by the millions had been taken from the south of the Sahara and traded into slavery in the New World. It was in the New World that the infamous institution of slavery took on a new life and even crueler forms.
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