I'm reading the Count of Monte Cristo. The bulk of the story so far is set in either Italy or France between about 1815 and 1840. In the story, the Count always travels with an entourage of servants and several slaves. One of the slaves is an "Arabian" and the other is a Greek woman.
How did a Greek woman become a slave? How did an Arabian man? It was my understanding that European slaves were almost universally Africans. Or was there a whole second slave trade in the "Orient" where Europeans could be enslaved? The Count does mention that he acquired both slaves in the East.
Second question: I think slavery was abolished in France in 1840. What were the slave's options if the Count brought them to France? Could they just leave the Count? Was there any concept of asylum for foreign slaves brought the France? Did France recognize the "property" of foreign visitors?
EDIT: I've since looked into this on my own a little and it seems the "Greek" slave is probably Turkish (though the two phrases were probably interchangeable?) and the Turks had loads of slaves into the 19th century. So the girl was a slave in Turkey and probably not a slave at all in France, though the Count sure likes telling everyone that she is.
It'd still like to know what the options would be for a woman in the Greek slave's position would be. If she walked away from the Count, could she stay in France?
And just a few years earlier, France did allow slavery under Napoleon? Is that right?
Keep reading and it will explain how the Greek woman became his slave (unless you're reading an abridged version, then I don't know).
Also, I don't think this is a spoiler, but Dumas does address the slave question. At one point someone says to the the Count something along the lines of "all people on French soil are free" to which he responds "who will tell them [his slaves] that they are free?"