Next we shall have not only black but also white Americans claiming compensation: https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/the-land-of-the-free-criminal-transportation-to-america. From any compensation envisaged one must deduct the cost of maintaining the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron between 1808 and 1867. Thousands of sailors perished, mainly due to fever. Some 150,000 slaves were liberated in what has been described as "the most expensive international humanitarian intervention in modern history". Slave-traders purchased Africans already enslaved by fellow Africans, which introduces a further dimension into this complex issue. Released slaves from coastal areas were returned to their place of origin or to Freetown, while those from far inland, who had little chance of getting home alive, often opted to enlist in the Royal Navy or one of the West India Regiments. This whole matter needs to be approached in a comprehensive manner. Included must be the seizure of slaves from the British Isles by North African slave-traders from what was then part of the Ottoman Empire. Their raids occurred mainly in the 17th century and chiefly upon towns and villages along the coasts of south-west England, Wales, and Ireland. Along the northern seaboard of the Mediterranean, the raids continued well into the 19th century , depopulating the region of millions of its inhabitants and hindering development. The slave-raids ceased with the European colonial subjugation of North Africa, beginning in 1830. South-eastern Europe, as far north as the 'borderlands' latterly known as the Ukraine, was also subjected to seizure of quotas of slaves by the Ottoman authorities. However, by far the greatest number of slaves taken in recent centuries was seized by the Arabs, operating mainly in East Africa.
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