The story of _The Haunted Library_ reached its sixth chapter, and I couldn't help but be struck by the significance of albinism in the narrative. In the 11th century, albinos were seen as cursed, in the 18th century they were viewed as witches, and it wasn't until the Industrial Revolution that they were no longer persecuted to the point of death in Europe and America.
However, in real-life history, there are no records of albinism. The primary records from the past century date back to the age of exploration, when European adventurers stumbled upon a group of people with albinism in Africa, who were so pale that they looked whiter than people from Northern Europe. It wasn't until the 19th century that albinism began to be studied systematically.
Despite the lack of records in Western civilization, the threat against people with albinism persists in some parts of Africa, where certain traditional healers believe that individuals with albinism possess magical properties that can lead to their mistreatment, such as the theft of their bodies or even murder.
It's worth noting that similar superstitions have not been entirely eradicated in European history. Medieval Europeans, for instance, were known to harbor strange and arcane beliefs.
Appendix: Apart from albinism, there also exists 'melanism', a condition characterized by hyperpigmentation. A classic example of a melanistic animal is the black chicken. However, mutations leading to melanism are relatively rare in animals, and virtually non-existent in humans, meaning it's unlikely that one would ever encounter a person with melanistic bones.