The Ottoman Empire through the Lens of the American Civil War: Slavery and the 1890s’ Armenian Massacres in Comparative Perspective

Speaker: Owen Miller (Postdoctoral Fellow, Union College)

In the 1890s, a series of massacres targeted Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Two American Civil War veterans living in Istanbul reported on the killings, both comparing it to the violence against African Americans in their native country. One, a former Confederate general, thought reports of the Armenian killings were overblown, while the other, a former Union army soldier sounded the alarms, as tens of thousands were murdered. Dr. Owen Miller will examine these competing claims and discuss some of the underlying patterns behind mass violence against African Americans in the US and against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

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