Pirates & Privateers: Books for Adults~Pirate Captives

Captives and Corsairs: France and Slavery in the Early Modern Mediterranean
by Gillian Weiss
Stanford University, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8047-7000-2, US $65.00

For 300 years, Barbary corsairs preyed on French ships and raided France’s Mediterranean coast. Tens of thousands of people ended up as slaves in Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Salé. The only way to escape this servitude was to convert to Islam, die, or buy freedom. Redemption and ransom payments came from several sources in France – victims’ families, local cities, Catholic orders, and the State – beginning in the mid-16th century. Liberating the slaves was seen as an act of Christian charity, but after 1830, it became “a method of state building and, eventually, a rationale for imperial expansion.” (2)

France suffered the loss of valuable seamen, merchants, and others, but reclaiming these victims proved problematic because of perceived and real North African “contagions,” such as “plague, sodomy, and Islam.” Repatriation provided the monarchy with a means of acquiring additional territory and citizens, not only from the victims themselves but also from those regions often in conflict with France.

This book looks at this problem and the resulting solutions in eight chapters.

Mediterranean Slavery
Salvation with the State
Manumission and Absolute Monarchy
Bombarding Barbary
Emancipation in an Age of Enlightenment
Liberation and Empire from the Revolution to Napoleon
North African Servitude in Black and White
The Conquest of Algiers

Weiss examines a wide variety of source material: administrative correspondence, religious printings, newspapers, philosophical treatises, novels, plays, paintings, unpublished letters, and slave narratives. In doing so, she challenges accepted standards about the emergence of France as both a nation and a colonial power. The author also examines the evolving definition of what constitutes slavery, from forced servitude with no regard to a person’s skin color to one in which color plays a key role.

The text is well documented with extensive chapter notes and a bibliography in excess of fifty pages. In addition to an index and illustrations throughout the text, appendices detail “Slave Numbers” and “Religious Redemptions and Processions.”

Much of our exposure to the Barbary corsairs and their victims comes from accounts written by English and American captives or historians concerned primarily with them. This book is a fresh and stimulating examination of the topic from the perspective of France and its captives. This provides readers with illuminating pieces of information not often mentioned in other works on the subject, such as the processions of returned slaves. Weiss skillfully demonstrates how the nation of France evolves and how the perspectives of French people change over time.

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From Captives to Consuls
Three Sailors in Barbary and Their Self-Making Across the Early American Republic, 1770-1840
by Brett Goodin
Johns Hopkins, 2020, ISBN 978-1-4214-3897-9, US $49.00

The early days of a fledgling nation are a time of birth and rebirth, a time to establish both the identity of one’s nation and an individual. Such is the case when the United States sheds its colonial yoke and emerges into a world where national character and liberty are relatively new concepts. It is also a time when the definition of manliness and intrusions into society’s hierarchical elite begin to evolve. Freedom, however, comes with consequences, one of which involves the hazards of maritime trade. Before the revolution, American sailors are protected by British treaties. After the war, seamen find themselves fair game for the corsairs who prowl the Mediterranean in search of slaves because the United States hasdn’t paid annual tributes to safeguard their citizens. Three such Americans are Richard O’Brien (1758-1824), James Cathcart (1767-1843), and James Riley (1777-1840), who find themselves in this predicament. During their servitude, they have to learn to adapt and redefine themselves in order to survive. Each is eventually ransomed and publishes a narrative about his time and suffering in Algiers. From Captives to Consuls examines their experiences and writings to showcase how adaptation and reanalysis allows them to weather captivity, as well as to subsist once they return home to a country where nationhood, masculinity, and liberty continue to change.

From Captives to Consuls, the most recent title in the Studies in Early American Economics and Society series, is divided into six chapters that explore these men’s abilities to adapt during the evolution of these three key concepts.

Introduction: Victims of American Independence
1. Farmers, Privateers, and Prisoners of the Revolution
2. Diaries of Barbary Orientalism and American Masculinity in Algiers
3. Captivity in Correspondence
4. From Captives to Consuls and Coup-Makers
5. Accidentally Useful and Interesting to the World
6. Sailing the Inland Sea
Conclusion: Opportunities of Empire

Goodin examines their lives before, during, and after captivity, as well as their narratives. He shares snippets from their correspondence, diaries, and government reports, and, when history is scarce, he supplements these with examples from other captivity narratives. He also incorporates maps and pictures into the text and includes an Essay on Sources, endnotes, and an index.

This is not an exploration of maritime history or piracy; rather, it is an insightful and scholarly analysis of what it means to be a self-made American at a time when the nation and its place in the world are being defined. These three sailors who are sold into slavery serve as the anchor that allows Goodin to accomplish this. O’Brien and Cathcart are taken when their ships are captured, but Riley becomes a slave after the ship he commands wrecks on the African coast. After their releases, they become authors, diplomats, and politicians. Goodin deftly demonstrates how these men, time and again, overcome adversity to their benefit, showing others that it is possible to better themselves contrary to the prior belief that they must remain in the station of life into which they are born.

The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam
by Simon Webb
Pen & Sword, 2021, ISBN 978-1-52679-709-4, US $26.95 / UK £14.99

Mention “slavery” and most people immediately think white masters and black slaves. The former exploits the latter by uprooting Africans from their homelands, transporting them across the Atlantic, and selling them in Caribbean and American slave markets. These forced laborers are also abused and mistreated, considered property rather than human beings. What Webb brings to light is the fact that this concept of slavery – black versus white – is relatively modern. He concurs that this is a horrendous practice, but to suggest that only Africans suffer and endure forced servitude and horrendous indignities is misleading and is an example of “cultural erasure.” His goal is to correct this misinterpretation of history.

The book’s primary emphasis is on people of the British Isles, including Ireland, who find themselves victims of slavery. Webb also mentions other countries and people from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East throughout history, as well as Western nations’ attempts to bring an end to Barbary slavery. He does point out that slavery remains prevalent even today; according to a 2019 report by the United Nations, around 25,000,000 people are still enslaved.

This volume delves into the history of slavery, concubines and eunuchs, Mamluks and Janissaries, galley slaves, and Barbary corsairs and pirates (including the Salé Rovers). In addition, he discusses European nations’ tendencies to pay tribute rather than engage in military action to stop this abhorrent practice. The upstart United States defies that tradition and helps to end Barbary slavery against Western countries – a forerunner of what Webb sees as the Americans’ tendency to serve as the “world’s policeman.” The book also contains a list of references, an index, and twenty black-&-white illustrations.

No one knows when the first slaves appear in England, but it is considered a normal state of affairs even before Anglo-Saxon times. The Vikings come not only to plunder monasteries and towns, but they also seek slaves for themselves and for people in other regions of the world. Slave raids are particularly prevalent in the 16th and 17th centuries. Cornwall is visited on more than one occasion, losing sixty dragged from a church in 1625 and 240 adults and children two decades later. All are destined for the slave markets of North Africa; only a few ever make it back to their home villages. One Scots woman who does not is Helen Gloag; she becomes a gift to the sultan of Morocco and eventually is elevated to empress of the sultanate.

In tracing the history of slavery, Webb shows that it is a universal practice. The earliest documented mention dates back 4,000 years. Two early examples involve Joseph of the Bible, whose brothers sell him, and a boy named Patrick, who becomes an English slave and eventually a Christian missionary (better known today as Ireland’s Saint Patrick). Initially, slaves are victims of war, where winners enslave losers, but in time, religion plays a role in who can be a slave. Muslims can own slaves, but only if those slaves are not of the Islamic faith. This is a guiding principle behind the Barbary corsairs preying on ships and lands outside of their own. Any captive who converts to Islam is freed. For example, Samson Rowlie converts and becomes the Treasurer of Algiers, while Jan Janszoon becomes the Admiral of the Salé Rovers and conducts numerous raids, as far away as Iceland.

Several organizations help arrange ransoms for the captives, enabling them to return home. Of the 109 residents of Baltimore, Ireland taken in 1630, only three women are ransomed. When King William III arranges the release of all enslaved English and Irish in 1689, one of the men who goes home to Ireland is Richard Joyce, who had been sold to a goldsmith. He takes with him a design for a ring that he later produces. Today, it is an early example of the Claddagh Ring.

As I read the introduction, I question whether I really want to review a book that some readers may see as controversial, or even tantamount to heresy. A librarian – which I was for two decades – is trained to provide resources that present topics from all sides of the coin and to allow readers to decide what is wrong or right for themselves. Webb’s research is spot on and his sources are qualitative.

Nor is this a dry treatise on the history of slavery. It’s highly readable and, at times, illuminating. In no way does he minimize or ignore what happens to Africans who become victims of the triangle trade. His primary goals are to show that slavery doesn’t encompass this one period and that Europeans are also victims. He succeeds in meeting these goals, while providing the framework for why and how this comes about. His narrative incorporates numerous points and counterpoints that certainly lend themselves to generating discussion. The Forgotten Slave Trade is a worthy and well-researched resource for anyone seeking a more complete picture of the history of slavery. It’s equally important to remember that it is but one volume to be consulted when delving into this controversial subject.

Prisoners of the Bashaw
The Nineteen-Month Captivity of American Sailors in Tripoli, 1803-1805
by Frederick C. Leiner
Westholme, 2022, ISBN 978-1-59416-386-9, US $35.00
Also available in other formats

The last day of October 1803, finds USS Philadelphia sailing near the coast of Tripoli where lookouts spot a xebec heading for the harbor. With orders to prevent such an occurrence, Captain William Bainbridge intervenes. There’s just one problem: the navigator has no chart that accurately depicts the coastline. Although shots are fired, the xebec reaches its destination and Bainbridge issues the command to return to station. Instead, Philadelphia runs aground. His attempts to dislodge the frigate fail; she is stuck fast on the reef at such an angle that the gun ports of her gun deck touch water. When Tripolitan corsairs see this, they hurriedly surround Philadelphia and fire on her.

After being bombarded for four hours and seeing more enemy vessels approaching, Bainbridge consults with his officers. He sees only two options: blow up the ship or surrender. The seamen clamor for him to fight, but he and his lieutenants concur there is no way to successfully defend the frigate with their guns out of commission. Rather than consign the 307 men aboard to death, he orders the Stars and Stripes hauled down. In doing so, he becomes the only commander to twice surrender during the six years of the United States Navy’s existence.

Although orders are given to mitigate the loss, including the flooding of the frigate so it will be of no use to the Tripolitans, not all of these commands are successfully carried out. Bainbridge also forgets to destroy information vital to national security. After the corsairs swarm over the gunwale, he, his officers, and his men become prisoners, but only the officers are treated as such. The majority of men are treated as slaves even though Tripoli and the United States are at war, a war instigated by the bashaw because he fails to receive the tribute he deems his right. The Philadelphians’ captivity will last for nineteen months and not all will survive.

What sets this book apart from other volumes dealing with the Barbary Wars and this particular event is that Leiner shines a spotlight on the captives. He contrasts the living conditions of the officers to those that the rank and file experience. He shares excerpts from their own letters and remembrances that speak to or hint at the physical and mental effects of their captivity and enslavement. Leiner also discusses diplomatic efforts, both American and European; how the navy deals with the captured frigate; the ways in which popular culture integrates this historic episode; and what happens to the various participants after the Philadelphians are freed.

Thorny questions, sometimes glossed over in other accounts, are raised as well. One examines the differences in brutal exploitation of people by different cultures, as well as the ethical paradox of white Christians captured far from home and enslaved versus the seizure and bondage Africans experience in America. A second question addresses paying ransoms. As Leiner writes in the introduction: “The loss of the Philadelphia . . . is sometimes employed as proof of a core precept of principle and policy: the United States does not pay ransom for hostages. This bold statement is wrong historically and sometimes has caused tragic results. As the story of the American prisoners in Tripoli shows, history is not so tidy, and the lessons are not so clear.” (xii)

Illustrations and maps provide readers with an opportunity to understand where these events occur and to meet some of the individuals involved in them either directly or indirectly. The book also includes endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.

Although other books cover these events of the Barbary Wars, this is the first to do so from the captives’ perspectives. The firsthand accounts provide vivid glimpses into what they do, how they survive, and what they suffer. History remembers only a few captives, such as Bainbridge, David Porter, and Daniel Patterson. Prisoners of the Bashaw changes this, making it a worthy addition to history collections.