Nigel Farage has highlighted how African traders took white slaves from Europe in the 1500s, stressing that "it wasn't just Britain" responsible for the slave trade.
He went on to discuss the Barbary pirates, who were muslim traders operating off the coast of North Africa.
Mr Farage pointed out that the group were known for kidnapping and "taking white European slaves".
He said: "Have you heard of the Barbary Pirates? No of course you haven’t. You won’t be taught this in school, or anywhere else.
"These were slave traders that came from North African countries. Countries like Algeria, Libya, as we know them today.
"Between 1500 and 1800, which incidentally is exactly the same time period that people like Sir Henry Tulse made money out of slavery.
"During that period of time, they were, from Sicily, all the way up to Cornwall, Wales, the west coast of Ireland, they were taking slaves.Taking white European slaves.
"A recent study from the University of Ohio, is suggesting as many as 1.25 million people were taken against their will and put into slavery in North Africa."
Continuing, Mr Farage called for "balance" on the topic of slavery, saying: "Nobody is pretending that the way people lived 300 years ago, that the social laws that they adopted, that the way they behaved around the rest of the world are things that we approve of.
"But they are things that happened.
"We probably wouldn’t think bringing back public execution was a very popular idea either.
"But you can’t change history.
"The worst thing here, slavery has been painted out to be uniquely something that white people did to black people.
"In this country, from the Archbishop of Canterbury downwards, you would think we’re the only country in the history of the world that ever engaged in the slave trade.
"I just think, the argument needs a little bit more balance."
Lambeth Town Hall
Yui Mok
