The History Chap
The Barbary Pirates and
England’s White Slaves
Fri, Feb 24, 2023
[Chris Green does a good job of giving a conventional overview of the history of the Muslim Barbary pirates that enslaved (an estimated 1.2 million) European sailors and coastal peoples, including Icelanders, until finally stopped by superior European firepower:
“Did you know that at the same time that the British were involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, White Britons were being sold into slavery in Africa?
For over 200 years, from the reign of James I right up until George III, Muslim pirates from the abducted thousands of British sailors and sold them in the slave markets on the Barbary Coast in North Africa.
They even landed in Cornwall raiding coastal villages and taking men, women and children into captivity.
It is a fascinating and little known story from British history.”
–KATANA]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PfxXh_3O5k
Published on Fri, Feb 24, 2023
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Introduction
The Barbary Pirates & England’s White Slaves
The History Chap
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Feb 24, 2023 #britishhistory #forgottenhistory
The little known story of the Barbary pirates and England’s White Slaves.
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Did you know that at the same time that the British were involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, white Britons were being sold into slavery in Africa?
For over 200 years, from the reign of James I right up until George III, Muslim pirates from the abducted thousands of British sailors and sold them in the slave markets on the Barbary Coast in North Africa.
They even landed in Cornwall raiding coastal villages and taking men, women and children into captivity.
It is a fascinating and little known story from British history.
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https://www.thehistorychap.com
For a period of 200 years, English merchant and fishing vessels were regularly attacked by the Barbary pirates and thousands of sailors sold in the slave markets of North Africa – most never to return home.
Exactly how many? Poor record keeping means we cannot be sure.
But here is one example. In 1616, the Admiralty reported that 466 vessels with their crews had been seized in the previous 7 years.
In 1625, a petition was presented to parliament from 2,000 wives of captured sailors requesting assistance to pay ransoms for the return of their loved ones.
Meanwhile the mayor of Poole in Dorset, reported 27 ships and 200 sailors had been seized off the Dorset coast in a 10 day period.
There were reports of deserted boats drifting off Sussex and raids on Kings Lynn in Norfolk.
But, it was the South West peninsular that bore the brunt of these pirate activities.
In 1625 fishing vessels from Looe, Penzanze and Mousehole were found floating abandoned.
In August 1625, the Barbary Corsairs boldly landed in St. Michael’s Bay in Cornwall, raiding local settlements and carrying off 60 men, women, and children into slavery.
In the late 1620’s the Barbary pirates audaciously seized the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel and used it as a base for their operations for the next 7 years
It was from Lundy that they raided Iceland in the summer of 1647, carrying off over 400 inhabitants.
It was also from the island that the Barbary pirates under a Dutch muslim convert swept down in the Irish settlement of Baltimore in County Cork capturing 103 villagers. Only 3 were to return home from slavery.
Estimates put the number of English sailors and civilians abducted during a 20 year period from 1622-1644 as high as 7,000.
We will never know exactly how many English white slaves were carried off by the Barbary pirates.
What we do know, is that due to geography, the numbers from Mediterranean countries were larger.
Historian, Robert Davies, from the University of Ohio estimates that over a 200-year period, the Barbary pirates probably seized up to 1.2 million captives from Europe.
Other academics have challenged that figure but haven’t come up with an alternative.
Whilst a twelfth of the estimated figure of slaves transported from West Africa to the Americas, 1 millions is still a huge figure.
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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:18 The Barbary Pirates
3:13 Raids on England
4:34 Barbary Pirates in Cornwall
5:38 Lundy Island
6:03 Raids on Iceland & Ireland
7:08 Cromwell v Barbary Pirates
8:30 Life as a White Slave
10:34 Church Efforts to Free Slaves
14:02 Thomas Pellow
16:20 American Sailors Seized
17:54 The First Barbary War
20:04 The Second Barbary War
21:09 The British Response
22:54 Bombardment of Algiers 1816
25:31 How Many White Slaves in Africa?
26:19 Conclusion
27:50 The History Chap
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My name is Chris Green and I am on a mission to share stories from British history. Not just because they are interesting but because, good or bad, they have shaped the world we live in today.
History should not be stuffy or a long list of dates or kings & queens.
So rather than lectures or Youtube animations, I tell stories that bring the past to life.
Just for the record, I do have a history degree in Medieval & Modern history from the University of Birmingham.
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TRANSCRIPT
(28:31 mins)
Introduction
At 3:15 pm, on the 27th August 1816, the 110 gun Royal Navy ship of the line, HMS [Queen] Charlotte opened fire on the port of Algiers in North Africa. It brought to a close one of Britain’s little known stories. As HMS Charlotte delivered her broadside you could be excused for thinking that this was another piece of Britannia Rule the Waves.
But for nearly 200 years, the fishermen, merchantmen and coastal communities of England and Ireland felt that Britannia ruling the waves was far from the truth. Lurking over the horizon was a terrifying menace. A menace that seized crews and left their deserted boats bobbing on the seas around Britain. Hundreds and hundreds of these empty boats.
Fishermen were so scared that they refused to put to sea, preferring economic hardship to the terrors out on the ocean. A menace that in the dark of the night would break down doors in coastal villages and take men, women and children away. Together with those vanished sailors, they would be carried across the seas to the slave markets of North Africa. Thousands upon thousands of them!
The Barbary Pirates
This is the often forgotten story of the Barbary pirates and England’s White slaves. The Barbary Coast was the area of North Africa ranging from Morocco to modern day Libya, and for nearly 300 years was the home to bands of pirates or corsairs, who plundered their way through the Mediterranean and the western seaboard of Europe.
In popular English speaking culture, we tend to think of pirates as swashbuckling White sailors who enjoyed their rum and sailed around the Caribbean. The Barbary pirates deviate from that popular representation. For a start they were mainly Arabs from North Africa, although not totally. And furthermore, as Muslims, they certainly were not drunk on rum. Nor did they plunder ships in the Caribbean. And when they did seize ships, it wasn’t the cargo they were particularly after. Their eyes were fixed on something more valuable, the crews themselves, who they sold in the slave markets in North Africa.
The pirates not only sold their slaves in the ports along the Barbary coast, but enjoyed the protection of the local rulers too. Normally part of the Ottoman Empire, the local rulers in what’s now Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, held considerable autonomy, whilst Morocco had never been under Ottoman control in the first place. These local rulers provided the Barbary pirates with protection and in return, the pirates made them rich with slaves.
The rulers received a proportion of the prisoners for their own slave collections and they’d also earned valuable hard currency by ransoming some of the captives back to their homelands. The rulers and the pirates couldn’t get enough of this lucrative human treasure. Ships were seized and even coastal communities were raided to fuel the Barbary slave markets.
The European shoreline on the Mediterranean, from Venice to Spain was regularly attacked by these pirates. The island of Gozo in Malta was totally emptied by them. Whole regions were left sparse as surviving populations desperately moved inland.
Raids on England
But the Barbary pirates didn’t limit their attention solely to the Med. During the 17th and 18th centuries, they widened their activities into the Atlantic, which brought them to the very shores of Ireland and England. At the very time that British slave ships were starting to transport cargoes of black Africans across the Atlantic, Arab pirates were taking English White slaves to North Africa.
For a period of 200 years, English merchant and fishing vessels were regularly attacked by the Barbary pirates, and thousands of sailors sold into the slave markets of North Africa, most never to return.
Exactly how many? Well, poor record keeping means we cannot be sure. But here’s one example. In 1616, the Admiralty reported that 466 vessels with their crews had been seized in the previous seven years. In 1625, a petition was presented to Parliament from 2,000 wives of captured sailors requesting assistance to pay ransoms for the return of their loved ones.
Meanwhile, the Mayor of Poole in Dorset reported that 27 ships and, 2,000 sailors have been seized off the Dorset coast in a ten day period. There are reports of deserted boats drifting off the Sussex coast and raids on King’s Lynn in Norfolk.
Barbary Pirates in Cornwall
But it was the southwest peninsula that bore the brunt of these pirate activities. In 1625, fishing vessels from Looe, Penzance, Mousehole were found floating, abandoned. In August 1625, the Barbary corsairs boldly landed in St. Michael’s bay in Cornwall, raiding local settlements and carrying off 60 men, women and children into slavery.
A few days later, they landed at the port of Looe. But by then, the jungle drums have been beating, and many of the townsfolk had fled to the surrounding fields. Nevertheless, the pirates managed to capture 80 people, mainly sailors.
Let’s be clear. The English were not the only White slaves to be found in the North African slave markets. In fact, they were actually in the minority. The lands closer to the Barbary coast were raided far more frequently. A French priest, Father Dan, visiting Algiers in 1634, estimated that there were 25,000 Christian slaves in this port alone. And don’t forget that these slave markets also contained many non-Muslims from sub Saharan Africa, too.
Lundy Island
In the late 1620s, the Barbary pirates audaciously seized the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel and used it as a base for their operations for the next seven years. Now, this is mind boggling! You can see Lundy from the north coast of Devon, and yet here were the Barbary pirates operating without a care in the world! They would return to use Lundy as a base, time and time again during this period.
Raids on Iceland & Ireland
It was from Lundy that they raided Iceland in the summer of 1647, carrying off 400 inhabitants. And it was also from the island that the Barbary pirates, under a Dutch Muslim convert, swept into the Irish settlement of Baltimore in County Cork, capturing 103 villagers. Only three of them were to return home from slavery.
Estimates put the number of English sailors and civilians abducted during a 20 year period between 1622 and 1644, as high as 7,000. In October 1640, a petition to King Charles I claimed that 5,000 of his subjects were being held in bondage in North Africa. It specifically named 957 who’d been captured in the preceding 17 months.
As the English turned in on themselves fighting the Civil War during the 1640s, the Barbary pirates were given almost free reign around the coast of Britain. It was reported at one stage during this decade that there were 60 pirate ships, or what official counts called “Turkish men of war”, operating off the southwest coast alone. Sixty!
Cromwell vs Barbary Pirates
The victory of the Parliamentarians in the Civil war brought Oliver Cromwell to power. A man who had no truck with either pirates attacking England or Muslims enslaving Christians. He ordered that any captured Barbary pirates should be taken to the port of Bristol, not far from Lundy, and slowly drowned. Nice.
He also ordered two of his most talented admirals, Robert Blake and William Penn, to clear the pirates from Lundy island and then take the war to them in North Africa. In 1655, Blake took 15 ships to Tunis and demanded compensation from the ruler, called the Bey. When the latter refused, Blake attacked Porto Farina, destroying two shore batteries and nine of the Bey’s ships.
As an aside, by the way, William Penn’s son, also William Penn, was the founder of Pennsylvania in America.
Despite Cromwell, Blake, and Penn’s best efforts, the menace of the Barbary pirates didn’t go away. A list published in London in 1682 claimed 160 ships have been captured by pirates in a three year period. Furthermore, the list estimated that seven to 9,000 crew members have been taken into slavery.
Whilst these figures might appear small, don’t forget that the population of England at this time was somewhere between just four and five million, and likewise the population of Cornwall was less than 100,000. So the psychological impact of these raids was huge.
Life as a White Slave
The conditions that many White slaves in North Africa lived under were as harsh as anything their black counterparts suffered in the Americas. At least an 8th of every cargo of slaves was presented to the rulers of the various Barbary ports. This kickback ensured that the pirates had both safe ports, access to the slave markets, and the military protection of the rulers.
These so-called “public slaves” were housed in large prisons where they were either put to work in quarries and on building projects, or were forced to row on galleys. These galley slaves would be chained to their ships and never set foot on land for years. Many would die at their oars. The basic diet was bread and water, and these public slaves received one change of clothing a year. Beatings, like the fate of slaves throughout the world and throughout history, were a regular occurrence.
Women, at least, didn’t have to work on these hard labour projects, but were instead housed in the harem’s either as servants or as part of the harem itself. Those captives sold at the public slave markets endured a variety of outcomes depending upon their new owner’s whims. Rather, like slaves the world over, some rose to positions of authority within the households, others regularly assaulted.
Their families back in England were often left without their chief breadwinner. If families had the means they could ransom back their loved ones. The Barbary rulers quite liked that little moneymaking scam.
However, being families of fishermen and sailors few in England were in a financial position to pay any ransoms without some sort of government assistance. The problem in England was that throughout this period governments were not keen, unlike their counterparts in France and Spain to foot the bill. One notable exception was in 1646 when Edmund Casson was sent by Parliament with funds to purchase as many English captives as he could find in Algiers.
He managed to barter the release of 244 men, women and children, before his money ran out.
Church Efforts to Free Slaves
With governments refusing or unable to take a lead in rescuing their captured countrymen and women it was left to the Church of England to remedy the situation. For the Church there was a moral dimension. Sort of like modern day disaster appeals.
In other words simply helping your fellow countrymen in times of need like any good Christian should. But more importantly they felt it was their duty to save good Christian folk being held captives by the Muslims. The problem for the Church was it wasn’t always a clear cut decision as to who to actually save.
Firstly, they deemed that some slaves had gone to use the phrase at the time “Turk” or “native”. In other words they had converted to Islam. And even if these slaves then claimed it was for expediency the Church were wary of spending their money on them.
Indeed many former slaves were treated with suspicion when they did return to England. In 1620 at least three returning slaves were recorded to have been impaled by mobs. You will hear how hard it was for traumatized former slaves to readjust in a tale from Cornwall in a little while. Stay tuned.
The women who had ended up in the harems were seen by the Church as harlots who did not deserve redemption. Likewise some English White slaves had married and had children and actually preferred to stay with their new families in North Africa than return alone to England.
The other problem facing the Church of England was cash. They simply didn’t have enough money to ransom back all of those English captives even discounting those who refused to come back and those who the Church refused to help.
In 1660 the raiding and resulting enslavement had risen to such a level that a committee was established by the Church focused on raising funds to buy the captive’s freedom. The committee included both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. This gives an indication of how pressing the situation had become. Led by the two senior churchmen, this became a national fundraising initiative, with contributions recorded in, for instance, churches in Cheshire, a long way from the English Channel.
Collections were held during special sermons, and church wardens visited homes in their Parishes to gain further contributions. Records indicate that £21,000 in those days money was raised.
Now, back in 1646, Edwin Casson had paid, on average, £30 per head in ransoms. So this sum of money could have probably bought 700 captives their freedom. Yet even this was, to coin a phrase, a drop in the ocean.
In the 1670s, a petition to Parliament for further financial assistance was signed by the parents and wives of over 1,000 English slaves being held in Algiers alone. But it wasn’t just those who were captured or whose relatives were captured that suffered. In 1636, Justices of the Peace sitting at Bodmin in Cornwall reported that fishermen in Looe were refusing to put to sea, fearing that they’d be abducted. In fact, these fishermen told the JPs that they would rather face starvation than risk being captured at sea by the Barbary pirates.
As the 18th century progressed, attacks on the English coast became rarer, and with the strengthening of the Royal Navy, the Barbary corsairs kept away from the coastal waters. On the open sea however, they remained very much a threat.
Thomas Pellow
In 1715, a young eleven year old lad from Penryn in Cornwall by the name of Thomas Pellow, boarded his uncle’s merchant vessel. Somewhere out in the Bay of Biscay, they were attacked by the Barbary pirates. Thomas, along with his uncle and five crewmen, were taken to Morocco. After a few years during which he was subjected to regular beatings, the young teenager was placed in the Sultan’s slave army, the “Abid al-Bukhari”.
Isolated both from England and the society around him, and indoctrinated both religiously and militarily, he became what we would now recognize as a psychopathic or sociopathic boy soldier.
During his career in the Sultan’s army, he fought in at least three battles and rose to become an officer in the slave army. He even played a leading role in a slave raid in sub Saharan Africa.
Finally, in the late 1730s, he managed to abscond on a ship heading across the narrow strait from Morocco to Gibraltar. If he thought that he would receive a warm welcome in British territory, he was in for a shock. Twenty-two years living in Morocco had made him look a lot more like an Arab than a Cornishman. With his tan skin, thick black beard and Arab clothing, the authorities refused to let him disembark, fearing he was actually an undercover Barbary pirate. Eventually convincing them that he was a genuine White slave from England, he was allowed to travel home. Home? He hadn’t been there for over 20 years.
When he finally arrived in Penryn, his parents didn’t even recognize him. People were suspicious as to exactly how Muslim or Arab he’d become. And with his brutal life in the slave army, Thomas Pellow found it hard to adjust back to his home society.
This struggle to reintegrate was not unique. Many tried to ingratiate themselves by becoming very loudly what we would now call “born again Christians”. Others would tell stories to both gain sympathy, support, as well as some sort of justification for their life journey.
Thomas Pellow effectively fell into this storytelling camp, when in 1740 he published a book about his journeys or adventures.
The Barbary pirates remained active throughout the 18th century. By now, European governments had found a new way of controlling the threats to their ships and coastal communities. They paid the Barbary states tributes to be left alone. Not everyone joined in with this protection racket, but it certainly made sense to the Spanish and the French. After all, they were in the front line, and their sailors breathed a sigh of relief.
American Sailors Seized
Also breathing a sigh of relief were the sailors from Britain’s rebelling American colonies. The colonies had now risen in a war of independence against Britain during which they’d allied with France. And as part of that alliance, the French included American ships and sailors in their tribute treaty with the Barbary states. Very nice of them.
However, with the achievement of independence, the new United States was on her own. No longer covered by her alliance with France, they were suddenly prey to the North African pirates. 130 American sailors were swiftly seized in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
A year after the first American sailors had been abducted, Thomas Jefferson and John Smith journeyed to London to negotiate their release with an envoy from Algiers. Jefferson inquired by what right his fellow citizens were being enslaved. And the envoy responded that according to the Holy Quran they had a duty to plunder and enslave “nonbelievers” or “sinners”, as he told Jefferson.
Eventually, in 1794, the Americans, against Jefferson’s better judgment, agreed to pay a tribute of $800,000, which brought the release of all their enslaved sailors. When Jefferson himself became president in 1801, he cancelled the tributes.
The First Barbary War
The ruler of the Barbary state of Tripoli, the Pasha, was enraged at this sudden move and promptly declared war on the United States. What is referred to as the “First Barbary War” saw the USA and Sweden, of all nations, in a four year conflict with the state of Tripolitania.
Now you might be wondering what the heck the Swedes were doing there. Good question. Basically, Tripolitania had declared war on them as well. Believing that tributes had not been paid on time. They then proceeded to hold over 100 Swedish sailors hostage. And hence before the Americans arrived on the scene, three Swedish naval frigates had already arrived off the coast of Tripoli.
In 1803, 16 American warships arrived off the coast of North Africa. There was no sign of the Swedes. They’d paid a tribute, the Pasha had released his captives, and the Swedish frigates were now back in the Baltic. The Americans, meanwhile, proceeded to blockade Tripoli.
And then disaster struck! USS Philadelphia went too close to the shore and ran aground. The captain and all of his men were captured and held hostage. To rub salt in the wound the Philadelphia was then Moored in the harbour by the Tripolitanians, and her guns turned on the American fleet. Ultimately, a party of American sailors and marines boarded her, set her on fire, denying the Pasha’s forces and American guns to fire on American ships.
The turning point in this first Barbary war came on land. In 1805, at the Battle of Dernar. A small force of US marines, together with Greek and Arab mercenaries, defeated the army of Tripoli. It was the first time the US Marines, admittedly a very small number of them had fought and raised a US flag on foreign soil. Indeed, the battle is recorded in the line “at the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Hymn.
Anyway, the battle brought the Pasha to the negotiating table. All captive American slaves and crew from the USS Philadelphia were freed, and the Americans sailed home, having made their first impact on the world stage.
The next ten years saw the Americans more interested in fighting the British, the worrying about Barbary pirates. A diversion that the Barbary pirates spotted and took full advantage of, and they went back to business as usual.
The Second Barbary War
By 1815, they were once more capturing American vessels and their crews, along with any other nations that didn’t pay them a tribute. And once more, the USA decided to take a stand. This time against Algiers. An American fleet entered the Med and proceeded toward Algiers, capturing several of the ruler or Bey’s boats en route.
Arriving off the coastal city, they threatened to bombard it unless the Bey returned the ten American citizens he would hold in captive. Fearing the worst, the day agreed to the American demands, which also included paying $10,000 in compensation for the American ships that the pirates, operating under the Bey’s protection, had seized.
The Bey must have given a big sigh of relief to see the Americans clear off over the horizon. And the Barbary pirates once more went back to their normal tricks. You have to hand it to them, they were tenacious!
The British Response
But the world was changing. The Napoleonic Wars were over, and the European navies could now turn their attentions elsewhere, such as keeping the oceans safe for free trade. Added to that, back in 1807, the British had finally taken a stand against slavery when they had abolished the slave trade, although not the owning of slaves, in her empire. The natural extension of that ban of the slave trade was to convince others to adopt a similar policy by persuasion if possible, by force if necessary. And no one needed to be persuaded more than the Barbary pirates and their protectors along the coast of North Africa.
Admittedly, the pirates were less of a threat off the coast of Britain. But now, thanks to her new naval base in Malta, Britain was starting to see the Mediterranean as a strategic sphere of influence, one in which freedom of trade was key. And the Barbary pirates were a block on that free trade and undermined Britain’s aspirations to be the main power in the Med.
And let’s not forget, they were still a direct threat to British nationals sailing in the region. Indeed, there were still English slaves in North Africa, although as records were not kept by the different States, it’s hard to know exactly how many.
In 1816, Admiral Edward Pellew was sent on a diplomatic mission to North Africa to persuade the States to either stop the slave trade or at least not capture British ships. The rulers in Tunis and Tripoli agreed.
The response from Algiers was less enthusiastic, maybe still smarting from the American appearance the year before. But whatever the reason, the Bey gave his answer by massacring 200 Mediterranean Christians who were nominally under British protection.
Bombardment of Algiers 1816
Outraged by the Bey’s behaviour, London sent Admiral Pellew back to Algiers. This time, however, he was accompanied by five ships of the line, including his flagship, the 100 gun HMS [Queen] Charlotte, four frigates and four bomb boats. These were ships that, rather than armed with an array of cannon, were instead armed with heavy duty mortars. There were also five sloops armed with the newfangled Congreve rockets. All in all, that was some firepower.
As if that wasn’t enough, they were joined by five Dutch frigates whose government were also sick and tired of their merchant ships being hijacked and their crews enslaved. Facing this firepower, the Day really had two choices agree to British demands to release 3,000 Christian slaves in his city from all over Europe, or fight.
He decided to fight. And he wasn’t in a bad position. In the harbour were nearly 50 fighting vessels, and along the shoreline were batteries of cannon. The key was to manoeuvre his boats and guns into position whilst pretending to negotiate. Unfortunately, there is always someone who let’s the side down. One of his ships decided to fire on the British before the allotted time.
The response was immediate and devastating. At 3:15 pm, on the 27th August 1816, the 110 gun Royal Navy ship of the line HMS [Queen] Charlotte opened fire on the port of Algiers. The ensuing devastating barrage from both sides saw thousands of casualties.
HMS Impregnable, commanded by Rear Admiral David Milne, was hit 268 times. Fifty of her crew were killed and a further 160 wounded. Whilst none of Admiral Pellew’s ships were destroyed, it was a fierce cannon duel that cost his fleet 900 men killed or wounded.
Despite giving the British fleet a mauling, the Bey of Algiers slowly found himself outgunned. Pellew’s Royal Naval fleet and their Dutch allies fired 50,000 rounds of shot and used over 100 tons of gunpowder that afternoon. The Bey’s fleet was destroyed, 37 ships sunk. The rest were run aground. His shore batteries were destroyed. His losses, whilst vague, are estimated at anything up to 5,000.
In the ensuing treaty, the Bey accepted the original terms offered by Pellew. Over 3,000 European slaves were released, and he was also forced to return a tribute paid previously by the Americans. It was the beginning of the end of the Barbary pirates and their slave trade.
How Many White Slaves in Africa?
We will never know exactly how many English White slaves were carried off by the Barbary pirates. What we do know is that due to geography, the numbers from the Mediterranean countries were larger. Historian Robert Davis from the University of Ohio estimates that over a 200 year period, the Barbary pirates probably seized up to 1.2 million captives from Europe. Other academics have challenged that figure, but haven’t come up with an alternative one. Whilst a twelfth of the estimated figure of slaves transported from west Africa to the Americas*, one million is still a huge figure.
[* Note: The overwhelming number of blacks were sent to South America. Approximately 400,000 were sent to North America (on jewish owned ships) and auctioned off by jews.]
The Barbary pirates and slave trades rapidly declined in the face of European technological advances at sea. And they were finally to die out with the French occupation of North Africa later in the 19th century.
Conclusion
And so ended a 200 year reign of terror around Europe’s coastlines. It also ended the story that, apart from communities in Cornwall, is pretty much forgotten in Britain. A period for over 200 years when merchant and fishing vessels were left drifting all around the coast of Britain as their crews were taken in bondage to the slave markets in North Africa. A period, too, where communities close to the coast lived in fears of pirates storming their homes in the dead of night and carrying them away as slaves. A period when the picturesque island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel became a pirate haven just 90 miles from the major port of Bristol.
There is a delicious irony about their presence on Lundy. As ships from Bristol set out to take slaves from West Africa to the Americas, they would sail past an island where the Barbary pirates were setting out to capture English slaves to take to North Africa.
Eventually, it came to a head in those Barbary wars, and rather like this, slave trade in general. These wars are little known in modern Britain. But maybe this whole story should be better known, not to try and point score, but to remind us that slavery can exist for many reasons and affect many different peoples. The misery and suffering is the same the world over and it affects the lives of many ordinary people. Possibly some of those ordinary people were our own ancestors. Who knows?
The History Chap
Well, thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed this video. Maybe you found a few small details you hadn’t heard before or you’d forgotten about.
And if you enjoy my work, then please consider becoming a patron so I can research and produce more stories for you. There’s a link at the end. Loads more planned, so until next time, thanks for your support. Keep well, and I’ll see you very soon.
[28:11]
[Outro music]
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Comments
(271 as of Feb 26, 2023)
@stretcher5757
2 days ago
Very good presentation – both yours and Simon Webb’s book ‘The Forgotten Slave Trade’ are excellent reinforcements of a horrific particular history of slavery, which seem always to be an afterthought to that of the transatlantic.
32
3 replies
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for taking the time to comment
1
@sof5858
2 days ago (edited)
Insightful, well researched and narrated as per Chris.
I agree. I learnt about the slave trade in school. But only found out about these pirates a few years back.
Maybe just the general topic of ‘history of slavery’ should be taught. As opposed to just about the trade.
Read more
18
1 reply
@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
Unfortunately slavery is as old as time and still continues today.
5
@chrisp8904
2 days ago
Really interesting. Piracy and slave trading was terrible, no matter the race of the poor slaves. Looks like it wasn’t necessarily just one race doing it all, the common factor seems to have been just individual self-serving greed.
28
14 replies
@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
I think your last part is spot on. Greed drives slavery.
9
@ChrisGamble
2 days ago
Modern slavery same
4
@Liam1304
2 days ago (edited)
@TheHistoryChap The slavers in this case considered themselves to be involved in jihad against Kafirs. Taking money to release captives is something taught in the Qur’an and the Ahadith and was practiced & encouraged by Muhammad himself. The name of Pellow’s fighting regiment abd al Bukhari means “slaves of al Bukhari” (abd BTW also means “black”, which may give some idea of the general status of black people in Islam). Al Bukhari is the collector of one of the two most reliable sources of Hadith (records of the acts and sayings of their prophet Muhammad outside the Qur’an) in the Islamic cannon. Hence these slaves were termed slaves of sound Islamic doctrine, if you like. This slavery & ransoming was a very religious endeavour and, as I said elsewhere, the Muslims of Aceh in Indonesia – the Bogeymen – practiced identical behaviour for identical reasons. Thank you for this wonderful video!
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@robertcottam8824
2 days ago
@Liam1304
Slavery is condoned in The Bible, of course.
@Liam1304
2 days ago
@robertcottam8824 Quite. But in the Old Testament, as is stoning for adultery. Both superseded by the New testament. The NT teachings following the life & teachings of Christ were what led the then largely Christian Britain to end slavery.
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@robertcottam8824
2 days ago
@Liam1304
You’re absolutely right, of course.
I got the impression that you were an erudite chap.
My comment was more intended to preempt the sort of person who might use your comment as a means to beat decent Muslims around the head.
I know that wasn’t your intention.
Best wishes to you and yours.
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@Lassisvulgaris
2 days ago
@Liam1304 According to NT (Eph 6:5 and Col 3:22), slaves shall obey both their earthly and heavenly masters, so still defending slavery….
@robertcottam8824
1 day ago
@thetruthseeker5549
I’ve no way of knowing that, to be frank.
What I do know is that ‘people of faith’ seem to have done a lot of enslaving over the centuries.
I’m not sure that faith has much to do with morality, actually.
Best wishes.
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@josm1481
1 day ago
It is particular you one religion. Slavery is part of Islamic law and always will be. No Islamic nation abandoned slavery without Western interference and there was no Islamic abolitionist movement.
To quote Sheikh Al Fawzan, member of Saudi Arabia’s highest clerical council, slavery is Islamic and anybody who says different is ignorant of Islam.
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@Lassisvulgaris
1 day ago
@Liam1304 But again, “biobul” does NOT support abolishion of slavery, which was the main point….
@Liam1304
23 hours ago
@Lassisvulgaris I think it best to say, without going into a lengthy discussion, that clearly the Bible must support the abolition of slavery as it was the Christian nations that led the way on abolition and it was the strident Christians within those nations that spearheaded abolition. Think of Shaftesbury and Wilberforce. All the best
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@fredazcarate4818
2 days ago (edited)
I am quite proud we Americans, along with Britain, and the Netherlands stood up to Barberry pirates. Oh do forgive me Sir I almost forgot to praise you for creating another brilliant video on the subject. And as usual your narrative was riveting. Indeed I had a rather large grin from to ear to ear just listening to narration. Thank you and kudos Sir!
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@Lassisvulgaris
2 days ago
We Americans? How manyt American countries did actually participate…?
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@fredazcarate4818
2 days ago
@Lassisvulgaris we as a United Nation State. Is that clear enough for you. Unless you are silly types that include Central and South American countries. I am laughing out loud as I write this response.
@Lassisvulgaris
2 days ago
@fredazcarate4818 Keep on laughing, but here in Europe, America is regarded as a continent, not a country. So your country is obviously United States (not nations, as USA in a federation of states, not nations) OF America….
And yes, I am pulling your leg….
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@fredazcarate4818
2 days ago
@Lassisvulgaris the clue is we Americans. if I spoke of continents then the description is given: North America, and South America etc. So it is obvious that if I was speaking of continents; I would mention the continent in question would I not. Hence the term American is short term for a citizen of United States Of America. Now you have clue. No ambiguity and no excuses. God bless you and have a fine year
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you for watching and for taking the time to comment
@jonathanwilliams1065
1 day ago
Just one year earlier the Barbary pirates were allied to Britain
@nigelsheppard625
5 hours ago
@Lassisvulgaris From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli…
@Lassisvulgaris
1 hour ago
@nigelsheppard625 Ah, yes. The US Marines’ song…..
@FranciscoPreira
1 day ago
I did not knew about that particular problem affecting english populations. On the other hand Portugal southern shores suffered much, during more than 500 years, with the north african pirates, portuguese southern populations were one of their favourite slaves, given their historic background and climate indurance. Great video sir, thanks for sharing it.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Indeed, those countries closer to North Africa were raised far more frequently.
@dillonhunt1720
2 days ago
After watching a lot of your other videos about the British involvement in Africa recently I was waiting for this and you did not disappoint! Thank you for the great video.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Glad I didn’t disappoint
@gerrymccartney3561
2 days ago
An excellent expansion of my knowledge of this period. Sally Magnusson, daughter of Magnus, wrote an excellent novel ‘The Seal Woman’ set around the Barbary Pirate raid on Iceland.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
@whitewinederarck2253
1 day ago
Thank you Chris, once more illuminating our past. Your fact based essays are an important and effective wake up call to the so called historians who selectively cull information (some of a dubious nature) to gain attention and reward. Thank you, Derek.
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@TheHistoryChap
19 hours ago
Very kind of you. Thanks for your support.
@brianspendelow840
2 days ago
Thank you Chris for this fascinating account. What little I knew about the Barbary Pirates before this came from an American account in praise of their marines. It’s good to know the full story.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Puts the Barbary Wars into (an English) context
@formwiz7096
2 days ago
Excellent presentation. The plight of the Philadelphia, and the saga of Stephen Decatur, is better known in the US, along with the line, “Millions for defense. Not one red cent for tribute”. Too bad it took a century for Britain, France, and the US to realize what co-operation could do for them.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago (edited)
Thanks for expanding on the line about the shores of Tripoli.
@charlesmaximus9161
19 hours ago (edited)
Thank you very much for covering in such thorough detail an important piece of our history that is largely ignored. God bless you!
– From Boston, USA🙏🇬🇧🏴
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@TheHistoryChap
19 hours ago
Thank you for taking the time to watch
@tomtaylor6163
1 day ago
As a US Navy Veteran who served on Warships this is a well known story. And as you mentioned the US Marine Corps is well known in this. In my opinion the Barbary Wars may be one of the few conflicts that were actually justified in both our Nations. Too bad the USA and Britain had to go at it again after this.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Tom, great poor about one of the few wars which both UK & USA might have been justified fighting. Thanks for sharing
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@tordlarsson9423
2 days ago (edited)
Thanks, very interesting. I read a book some years ago about a Swede, biography, who was a slave and he tells about all the different nationalities that shared his fate. Greetings from Sweden.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Fascinating to hear that a Swedish account exists.
@MrLobstermeat
2 days ago (edited)
Well honestly my look at the history of slavery has taught me it is part of the human condition. No matter the color of skin, Religion, where you are from, it is a part of humanity. An sadly, it is alive to this day. Great video!
PS as US marine I really liked this one !
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Glad you found it interesting
@philwhite3134
1 day ago
Thanks, a great presentation. I never appreciated the extent of such activities. It may be a possible explanation if some of my DNA matches are in northern Africa although there’s a lot of other possibilities as well. As for setting up and maintaining a base off the coast of Devon, that’s staggering. Thanks again.
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@TheHistoryChap
19 hours ago
Phil, thanks for watching and taking the time to post your comment
@timec2002
2 days ago
Very good Chris. Some great content and important points raised about the wider global slave trade that many were hitherto unaware of. Part of my family comes from the West Country, so I had heard a little on this topic. However, your detailed level of info ,is, as ever, fascinating to listen to.
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
Thanks for commenting. I’m glad you found it interesting
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@timec2002
2 days ago
@TheHistoryChap yes indeed it was very good Chris. When are you starting work on “The Great Game” series? 😁😁
@user-dy8ep6gb8q
2 days ago
Reparations now!😉
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@grzzz2287
1 day ago
What an excellent presentation! Although I’d heard of the Barbary pirates I had no idea to the extent of their activities and the effect they had on Britain
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Glad you enjoyed it.
@joeritchie4554
1 day ago
This was a great presentation. You taught me so much about a subject that I did not have an in-depth knowledge of. Thank you.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Glad you enjoyed it
@jona.scholt4362
1 day ago
The Ian Toll book, “Six Frigates” about the US Navy’s original 6 frigates, gets into the Barbary Pirates menace in pretty good detail since the Original 6 were built partly to deal with them, protecting US commerce in the western Med.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you for taking the time to share about the Ian Toll book.
@simonkevnorris
2 days ago
I’d heard of the Barbary Pirates and read somewhere of the USA’s involvement in fighting them (but not knowing any details). However, to hear that they used to regularly raid the coast of Britain was news. I guess I’d just assumed that the Royal Navy was always dominant and especially so close to home. Thanks for another interesting story from history.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for taking the time to comment
@donbateman6230
1 day ago
Hi if you can see U.S. marines song the words on the shores of Triperley
@rodeastell3615
2 days ago
Thanks Chris, great video as always .. but I’m just sitting here thinking about it lasting 200 years. 200 hundred years. That’s like it ending today having started in 1823. Just unbelievable.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
It was a long period, but then so was the trans-Atlantic slave trade
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@brianjones2899
1 day ago
I highly recommend the works of Commander Allan Aldiss regarding the actions of the Barbary Pirates. Very interesting novels and historical records.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for sharing
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@michaelsheahan
2 days ago
Thanks for the research and storytelling Chris you do it so well ! . Forerunners of the modern day Somali pirates & ransomers .
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Interesting link to Somalis.
@davidsayer3325
2 days ago
Thanks for this video, an often forgotten part of History.
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
Glad you enjoyed
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@mikeycraig8970
2 days ago (edited)
A deliberately forgotten part of history! Doesn’t suit wokery to have this known. Same with the Irish who took Britons and Anglo Saxons in their raids ( Saint Patrick was one) leading to conquests.
You can’t have any of this known widely, it would mean more recent victims wouldn’t be treated like little gods if it turned out EVERYBODY suffered the same 😉
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@dionbottcher
2 days ago
I’ve always wanted to know about the Barbary pirates…most impressive video, thanks Chris.
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@darreno9874
1 day ago (edited)
We were never taught this in school, thank you for telling this harrowing story.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
It is just part of the ugly history of slavery.
@user-nm9gj4rx1h
2 days ago
Excellent and informative presentation, I just subscribed.
Your readers may be interested to learn that the large group of people enslaved from Baltimore on the southern coast of Ireland were in fact English rather than Irish. They had leased the island a short time prior to the raid in order to establish a self-sufficient community with non-establishment religious beliefs. If memory serves, one man was killed resisting the surprise attack and all others were enslaved. Similar to other groups you mention when, 40 years later, the survivors had an opportunity to return many declined as they had long since earned their freedom and had established lives and families on the Barbary Coast. The standard of living there was better that England or Ireland in many respects, especially in medical practices of the time, once they were no longer slaves.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Very interesting about the date of the Baltimore slaves
@aguadigger
2 days ago
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🇬🇧A long overdue area of Slavery history off most peoples radar. Also loved the maritime theme ! ⛵️👍😁🌍
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Should have played the Marine hymn.
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@aguadigger
1 day ago
@TheHistoryChap Maybe 🤔. But it’s not British ! 🇬🇧😁⭐️
@freebeerfordworkers
1 day ago (edited)
6.27 The raid on Baltimore is interesting as many of the victims were English settlers and as you might imagine some Irish gloat over this. However there is another account that they were invited to settle by an Irish Chieftain because their skill at preserving fish would be profitable for him. But a rival Chieftain organised the raid and abduction as part of an ongoing feud – you pays your money and you takes your choice.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Interesting. Thanks for sharing
@josephsolowyk7697
2 days ago
You want to be careful posting videos like this my friend YouTube does not like anything that goes against the narrative. Keep up the good work I just hope you don’t get cancelled.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago (edited)
This story has been told by the BBC and I’ve also read an article in The Guardian
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@markwilson7788
2 days ago
A fascinating video and very educational.. something we get to hear nothing about it in our schooling. Thank you.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
There’s loads of history we don’t get taught. Although teaching adolescents anything is a challenge!
@mikepowell2776
2 days ago
Interesting and often overlooked subject. I have found references to payments made to survivors of slavery attacks made by the borough council of Christchurch, Dorset during the 17th and 18th centuries. One small point. The bombardment referred to at the opening was led by HMS Queen Charlotte. There were near-contemporary ships named Charlotte but they were sloops, not ships-of-the-line.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
My mistake, thanks for sharing
@Thurnmourer
2 days ago (edited)
I don’t like how it always comes back to a certain other issue, but I am glad when people elaborate on the concept of slavery as a whole as it helps… It helps let your eyes roll a bit when you hear some of the lunacy that comes out of some mouths.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for watching. As I said in the video the size of this trade was one twelfth of the trans Atlantic slave trade but a million people is still a big number and a lot of suffering
@GapBahnDirk
1 day ago
Fascinating history and so well presented!
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Very kind of you. Thanks for watching
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@nicholaspullen6608
2 days ago
I’m surprised the comments remain open for this. Even discussion of this in my country starts fights that ruin whole families and can last an entire lifetime. But for those who already know, there is solidarity, and remembrance for the suffering and fear of the lost and afflicted. This is still living history for us.
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@daveglynn748
1 day ago
I am interested and curious to know
What country are you from and how does discussion of the white slave trade start fights and divides families?
Thanks
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you for taking the time to comment
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@guruandy2606
1 day ago
Excellant video m8…covering how man’s greed and cruelty knows no bounds regardless of race…keep up the vids m8
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you for your support
@genwoolfe
1 day ago
England’s senior Infanty Regiments’ oldest battle honour is ‘Tangiers 1661′.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for sharing.
@michaelgauntnz
1 day ago (edited)
The Rule Britannia words are actually ‘Britannia rule the waves’. It was a request for the navy to rule the waves and protect British citizens from the pirates.
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.
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@TheHistoryChap
19 hours ago
Thank you for sharing full lyrics of the Marine hymn.
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@sandramillett8267
2 days ago
Enjoy watching your videos glad I found them today.
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
Glad you are enjoying.
@paulwilson7234
1 day ago
A very informative and interesting video thank you for sharing.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
L glad you found it interesting
@johnmurray1529
2 days ago (edited)
Our US Marine officers carry the mameluke sword. It was presented to first lieutenant Presley O’Bannon by Prince Hamat.
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
How interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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@tankman7711
2 days ago
LT. Presley N. O’Bannon USMC, is buried here in Frankfort , Kentucky. LT O’Bannon raised the colors over Tripoli.
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@johnmurray1529
2 days ago
@TheHistoryChap thanks for the history lessons!
@johnmurray1529
2 days ago
@tankman7711 that’s good to know! The raid he led was quite impressive.
@harryshriver6223
2 days ago
I have heard of the Barnaby Pirates but never during their history. I was fascinated to learn that there was involvement by the US which led to one of the most famous lines for the Marine Corps. It filled some of the gaps wish I had been missing in the history of America. Thank you for this contribution to the remembrance and retelling of history.
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@arslongavitabrevis5136
2 days ago
Fancy you mentioning that: “From the halls of Moctezuma to the shores of Tripoli” I remember watching “Tripoli” (1950) about 50 years ago. In fact, is available on YT. How I loved Maureen O’Hara!
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for watching
@jerrymachusak3216
2 days ago
Very well done! Thank you!!!
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
My pleasure
@ravenmouth
2 days ago
Tough topic to tackle. Thanks for doing it.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for watching
@franknemo7628
1 day ago
The other comments here really do say it all. First class documentary. Very well done to you.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Very kind of you. Thanks
@janlindtner305
2 days ago
Even up in Iceland, slaves were taken. In 1627, pirates landed and took 242 prisoners, 30-40 dead. It continued more or less until the end of the 17th century.
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
Thanks for sharing. I do mention one particular raid on Iceland from the island of Lundy.
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@janlindtner305
2 days ago
Sorry, but I’m just so excited by your sections, topics and your enthusiasm that, for me, they could be much longer and more comprehensive. Thanks Chris.
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@cameronbrown9080
2 days ago
Great video today thanks for what you do as I really enjoyed the one today
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for your support
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@BHam336
2 days ago
Fascinating stuff. Quality clip. Thank you
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
My pleasure.
@daveandow2809
7 hours ago
Did this period lead to the poem Rule Britania??? Very informative.
@nix1059
1 day ago
wow, extraordinary stuff thank you for another informative , excellent presentation
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for watching
@jtchivers
2 days ago
Remember that the second line of the chorus of Rule Britannia is not “Britannia rules the waves” but the imperative call “Britannia rule the waves.”
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@Lassisvulgaris
2 days ago
Now it’s more like “waving the rules”….
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
The song was originally written to implore Britain to do more to protect her merchant ships from French and Spanish rivals (& their privateers)
@jonmeek3879
2 days ago (edited)
Thanks for the shout out to the United States Marine Corp, great video!!
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Respect to the US Marine Corps.
@nalrog297
1 day ago (edited)
Sir Sidney Smith (in Hansard) wanted the Royal Navy to “remove” the Barbary problem
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for sharing.
@farangtravels3956
2 days ago
A real eye opener this, thanks 👍
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
Thanks for watching.
@surters
2 days ago
If you see the amount of guard towers in southern Italy you can imaging the size of the problem.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
That’s a great point. Thanks for sharing
@georgeamanor-boadu6771
2 days ago
Never heard of this bit of history, very interesting. Could this probably explain why a good number of North Africans have European like features?
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@user-ss4dh5vx5e
2 days ago (edited)
Thats mainly because of Greek then later Roman conquests.. The Carthagians were also of European decent and made up the population of Algieria Libya and Tunisia. The Egyptian ruling families were of Greek Ptolemaic) decent after Alexander the green and blue eyed Persians and Indians have also been attributed to Alexander and the Smaller Greek kingdom’s that his Empire fractured into! It is also worthy of note that the Berbers of the Atlas mountains and portions of Morocco and Algeria (not to be confused with Barbars) have blonde or red hair as do some of the pre Ptolemaic Egyptian mummies..I’m sure as you say the Barbary slaves will have contributed to this also!
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@Bcfcuklhpwalker
2 days ago
@user-ss4dh5vx5e well said
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
That’s an interesting perspective. Don’t know the answer.
@ianlang4522
2 days ago
Astonishing…….well done !
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you. Appreciate your support
@praveenb9048
20 hours ago
Giles Million’s “White Gold” is a good book about what it was like to be enslaved by the Barbary Pilates.
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@TheHistoryChap
19 hours ago
Thank you for sharing.
@TrailWalker03
1 day ago
An interesting (and under-reported/understood) piece of history. As is North African / Arab slavers’ role in the African slave trade to Europe and North America.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you for taking the time to comment
@lorriebrady4956
1 day ago
Very Informative.
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@TheHistoryChap
19 hours ago
Thank you.
@davidcunningham2074
2 days ago
the most comprehensive video i have seen on the subject
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you for watching
@CGM_68
19 hours ago
The Bank of England calculator suggests £21 thousand in 1660 is worth around £3,342,000 today. While £30 ransom per slave in 1646 is some £5,250 in 2023
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@TheHistoryChap
16 hours ago
Conor, thanks for taking the time to work out the figures.
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@CGM_68
16 hours ago
@TheHistoryChap The sack of Baltimore, as the only recorded instance of a slaving raid by the corsairs in Ireland, I find fascinating. 20 June 1631, one would like to think the world had changed for the better over the centuries, only it hasn’t really. I hadn’t heard of the Turkish Abductions raids on Iceland in the summer of 1627 previously, so thanks for that.
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@beachboy0505
2 days ago
A very excellent video 📹
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Many thanks!
@1RGBARG
1 day ago
Read Daniel Defoe’s classic Robinson Crusoe.
Crusoe was enslaved by Barbarys, escaped to Brasil to set up a tobacco plantation and was then ship wrecked on an island off the coast of Venezuela.
He rescues Friday from cannibals and teaches him the ways of the Western world.
We seem to have forgotten our moral crusade against benighted peoples and now chose to castigate ourselves instead.
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@TheHistoryChap
19 hours ago
It’s that opening piece about Crusoe’s slavery that helps put the rest of the story into context.
@dougearnest7590
2 days ago (edited)
“I don’t understand. We paid the ransom they wanted, but then they just took more of our people. Maybe if we pay more ransom they’ll start treating us nicer.”
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@Lassisvulgaris
2 days ago
Ah, yes. Danegeld…..
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Rather like the Danegeld paid by the Anglo Saxons to Viking pirates.
@ludovica8221
2 days ago
Fascinating!
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you for watching
@user-nx5jp5gl9f
2 days ago
So much for the invincible Royal Navy of the time.
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@desperateneedofscotch
2 days ago
They couldnt be every where, same as the the Africa squadron couldnt stop every ship or the combined British and USN fleets couldnt stop every Uboat
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago (edited)
Thanks for adding to the debate.
@obvioustroll2221
1 day ago (edited)
The Barbary pirates and Arab slave trade was why the Royal Navy was created.
Where do you think “Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves, britons never never never shall be slaves” comes from
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@jameshannaford3329
1 day ago
A slavery that’s forgotten by certain agendas
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Most slavery has been forgotten. Vikings enslaving the Irish for example
@nigelsheppard625
5 hours ago
Arab and Berber pirates attacked the Western Coast of England, Wales, the southern and eastern coasts of Ireland and even up to Iceland. So many European sailors were sold in the markets of north Africa that the price was as low as one red onion. They were all castrated and usually employed as galley slaves.
I have been contacted by Libyans and Palestinians because we have shared DNA and I have had to tell them that we probably have a shared female ancestor who was enslaved and raped by their male ancestors.
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@andrewmstancombe1401
2 days ago
For years, I’ve talked to people about this, and they don’t believe you and don’t want to read to find out.
So I’m really happy you have put this in a short hand easily understood for those with a short span of attention.
Slavery hasn’t ended. White slaves still appear in the East, just not officially.
What is the sex traffic if it’s not slavery how many posh houses have cleaners that are actually slaves, too afraid to speak?
We should stop telling our children and grandchildren slavery has ended. It hasn’t!
It’s modern, it fits in with our modern way of life. It’s everywhere but we can no longer see it. After all aren’t we told Slavery was stopped in the 19th early 20th century.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for mentioning how sex trafficking is a modern form of slavery. The concept of using and abusing people hasn’t gone away.
@arslongavitabrevis5136
2 days ago
Brilliant documentary. I would say, from a wider European perspective and having access to Italian and Spanish sources, that the reign of terror of the Barbary pirates lasted well over 300 years and the figure of European men and women captured and enslave may well be near 1.500.000. BTW, you don’t see the Arabs bending over backwards asking for forgiveness for what they ancestors did a long time ago; as many Americans and Britons do today.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for adding that info.
@arslongavitabrevis5136
1 day ago
@TheHistoryChap You are welcome! There is a very interesting book called “The Paradise of Travellers” (The Italian influence on XVII century Englishmen) by Lytton Sells, in there it says: “The Genoese Riviera was one of the most perilous spots in western Europe…owing to the pirates from Tunis and Algeria who made regular descents on the Ligurian coast and carried off people as slaves” (p.92)
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@nealblanchett2621
2 days ago
Here’s the deal – slavery was an improvement over death, which was what war captives get when they can’t be enslaved. So, yes, everyone who ever fought a war at some point realized slavery was better for both captive and captor.
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@Lassisvulgaris
2 days ago
Improvement over death? I think many slaves would have preferd death….
@nealblanchett2621
2 days ago
@Lassisvulgaris maybe so, surely many killed themselves or took action that would get them killed. But morally, isn’t it more moral for captors to let them live as slaves than to kill them?
@Lassisvulgaris
2 days ago
@nealblanchett2621 First you have to define “moral”….
But, yes, for slavers it’s best with living slaves, as dead slaves have no value. As for the slaves themselves, had no choice to decide their fate. Survival might be “beneficial”, but I wouldn’t call it a winning situation. I also doubt slavers thought aboutethics, when taking and sllking slaves, no more than selling a goat or a cow….
Then, some soscieties would let slaves earn their own money, and then buy themselves free, like in Rome. Others would regard slaves no better than animals, and treat them accordingly…..
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@nealblanchett2621
2 days ago
@Lassisvulgaris if you were watching a soldier who just won a battle and has captured prisoners from the other side, is it better in your mind that he kill them, or that he not kill them but make them build him buildings and tend his fields?
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
I’m not sure about that but thanks for contributing
@nealblanchett2621
1 day ago
@TheHistoryChap if you were on the losing side of a war/battle/skirmish/raid, would you rather be killed or be pressed into slave labor?
@Lassisvulgaris
1 day ago
@nealblanchett2621 Taking POWs are not the same as taking slaves. If you look at the Aztec “Flower Wars”, the whole point was to take prisioners, to sacrifice them later…..
Today, treatment of POWs is regulated by the Geneva Convention; what work they can do, and what they can’t. Not always followed, but still there….
As for slavery itself, it’s not an issue anymore. All I can say, it’s immoral to take slaves, in the first place….
Finally, you can’t judge the past, with today’s standards….
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@nealblanchett2621
23 hours ago
@Lassisvulgaris for thousands of years, taking POWs was taking slaves. You either took them as slaves or just killed the men and took the fertile women
@lokischildren7862
1 day ago
Any chance of a video on the East India company and the opium war
1 reply
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
I am planning to. Please make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss.
@kathyastrom1315
2 days ago
That Dutch-Muslim convert you mentioned as raiding Baltimore and carrying off 100 villagers was my 12th great grandfather Jan Janszoon. He was not a nice man, raiding Iceland as well as Baltimore for slaves, amongst other places. He had been a Dutch privateer, captured by Algerian pirates and given the choice to convert or die. He converted and threw in with them, eventually becoming the first president of the Republic of Sale in Morocco as well as Grand Admiral of their fleet. Two of his sons settled in New Amsterdam in the 1630s and have extensive numbers of descendants in the US, including me.
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
That’s the man. Interesting about his sons settling in New Amsterdam.
@jonathanwilliams1065
1 day ago
The Barbary Pirates believed that if they died in battle that would guarantee them heaven
Sound familiar?
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
So they said to Thomas Jefferson in the 1780’s
@blacksquirrel4008
2 days ago (edited)
Wait a minute! You mean the Pirates of Penzance was a documentary?
Also, so in the 1640s they stop the Barbary slave trade but a few years later start their own across the Atlantic?
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@estobart
2 days ago
Not quite. The attack on Algiers, which was the beginning of the end for the Barbary pirates, was in 1816. The British had abolished the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1807.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
History is full of ironies.
@Fatherofheroesandheroines
2 days ago (edited)
The Barbary pirates are where the line in the famous Marine hymn “To the shores of Tripoli” comes from. These guys needed to be put down and they were.
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for sharing
@Liam1304
2 days ago
“Watch out for the Bogey men” we used to be told as kids. These turned out to be real Muslim pirates from the Aceh region of Indonesia – still today the more rabidly fundamentalist part of Indonesia. They conducted themselves in the same manner as the Barbary corsairs. Isn’t history interesting?
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for sharing a perspective from another part of the world.
@davidwoods7720
2 days ago
What does a pirate say on his 80th birthday? “Aye-matey”
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago (edited)
Oh no 🤣
@martinfurness7605
2 days ago
Did they visit South Wales from Lundy?
1 reply
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Not sure. It would have been an easy target.
@Hilts931
2 days ago
Interesting that European slave trading of Africans ended because of humanitarianism yet African slave trading of Europeans stopped because of the balance of power
1 reply
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you for taking the time to comment
@user-qm7pp7uw2r
13 hours ago
How many from central Europe were taken to Africa over the centuries?
1 reply
@TheHistoryChap
12 hours ago
Don’t know.
@eugenemurray2940
1 day ago
The Baltimore Incident
1 reply
@TheHistoryChap
19 hours ago
It’s in the video.
@douglasmiller4351
1 day ago
Pity the title of this video and the commentator refers to “English” slaves when in fact he should have been referring to “British” slaves (Scots and Welsh were enslaved too).
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Bit all the examplesI have were English weren’t they?
@mattdragonrider7888
1 day ago
Interesting book on this broad subject is called ” white cargo ”
1 reply
@TheHistoryChap
19 hours ago
Thanks for sharing
@jonathanwilliams1065
1 day ago
Those British slave traders were buying slaves, not taking them, often from the same people selling to Barbary merchants overland
1 reply
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you for taking the time to comment
@johnking6252
2 days ago
Quid pro quo? Business is business, nothing personal.
1 reply
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thank you for taking the time to comment
@billballbuster7186
2 days ago
Great presentation on what was then the “White Gold” trade. The truth about slavery should be told instead of todays “White Guilt” version of history.
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1 reply
@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
Thanks for taking the time to comment
@markwilkes8209
1 day ago
Not just the Black’s then eh’
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@TheHistoryChap
19 hours ago
Never has been. Just ask the Vikings and the Romans.
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@Wiggywom
2 days ago
Careful…. history can get you in trouble.
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago (edited)
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Which bit of my video are you specifically referring to?
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@Wiggywom
2 days ago (edited)
@The History Chap Just commenting on people who may view this as some sort of distortion or rewrite of history! I love your videos BTW! I had a long debate with a fellow recently on the work 1800s Great Britain did in abolishing slavery throughout various places on earth.
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@wolfiesmithx2619
2 days ago
Are the north Africans gonna pay repatriations to the people of Cornwall
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@glenmiller272
2 days ago
Don’t be silly lol..
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@TheHistoryChap
1 day ago
I’m not sure the people of Cornwall are demanding any.
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@wolfiesmithx2619
1 day ago
@TheHistoryChap hey history chap I’m ex sqaddie who lives in Cornwall love your work keep it coming x
@peterneijs387
2 days ago
please tell the BLM people not us
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@TheHistoryChap
2 days ago
It’s not a political point . I am simply telling a factual story that happened to some real people.
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@ashlibabbittcroakedit9108
2 days ago
Barbary piracy has nothing to do with BLM
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@desperateneedofscotch
2 days ago
History shouldnt be political, in fact I believe that the political biases of previous generations are why so much history is being forgotten
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