Inconvenient History – The Barbary Slave Trade

Once upon a time, slavers ravaged the coastal towns of the European continent. Eventually, the response to that would include clear proof that the United States is not founded on a religion. Soon thereafter, European imperialism would become the driving force for the abolition of slavery around the world. Continue reading to learn more.

The Barbary Slave Trade is a relatively small part of the Arab Slave Trade, which itself is only one part of the Islamic Slave Trade (which besides Arab slavers, includes Turks enslaving Europeans and Africans, Muslim invaders of India and Sub-Saharan Africa, Malay enslavers of local minorities, and other Islamic slavers). For example, the Arab Slave Trade may have enslaved up to 18 million people over its span (not including those born enslaved), while the Barbary Slave Trade enslaved some number over 1 million. Bear in mind that this number is three times the number of enslaved people (roughly 388 thousand) sent to the area of the United States over its history (1). The Barbary Slave Trade is also significant for its historical implications.

The main source of slaves to the Barbary States came from Europe. While Mediterranean Europe was their general target due to its proximity, they made their way at least as far as the British Isles...and even the Netherlands and Iceland (2)! To give one example, nearly every individual in the town of Baltimore, Ireland was captured and taken into slavery in the year 1631 (3). Many European coastal towns were so terrorized that they shrank or even disappeared. Indeed, "The unfortunate southerners [Mediterranean Europeans] were sometimes taken by the thousands, by slavers who raided the coasts of Valencia, Andalusia, Calabria and Sicily so often that eventually it was said that 'there was no one left to capture any longer'. (3)"

Of course, in regular Islamic fashion, the men were often worked to death, and the women had the added misery of being rape toys. Unlike in North America, where the rape of slaves happened but was not directly advertised, throughout the Islamic world, rape was a delightful and accepted perk that went along with being the master over someone. Instead of slaves forming family units (which in North America were often split up by sales), slave families in the Middle East never formed. Females were sex slaves of the masters, and males were lucky if they did not get their genitals cut off to become eunuchs.

As Europe's power grew over the centuries of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the Barbary slavers could reach less and less of Europe, so they came to rely mostly on piracy in the vicinity of the Mediterranean. This is where the new nation of the United States faced off with the Barbary States. American sailors were often subjected to slave raids on their ships. Europeans had been putting up with this for centuries, and often bribed the slavers to let them pass. The United States did not want to continue this tradition, but for the sake of peace, also negotiated with Tripoli and other North African states.

In March 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy, Ambassador Adja. Adja's reply stated matter-of-factly that... It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman [Muslim] who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once. (4) (5)

Well, this wasn't what they wanted to hear. However, they still came away with the Treaty of Tripoli. This is important because it states that "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion", and was signed under George Washington's presidency, and negotiated by Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, among others, and signed by John Adams.

The Treaty of Tripoli came into effect in 1797, ushering in peace across the Mediterranean. Just kidding. Tripoli's Islamic ruler broke the treaty by 1801, enslaving more Americans and others while asking for more money. This time the United States was fed up, and the Barbary Wars began. In the first Barbary War, the 35 Americans were killed, while around 800 Barbarians (hey, shouldn't that be their nationality?) perished, proving that the West could seriously fuck them up if they decided to take their velvet gloves off. One other thing I should mention that Thomas Jefferson did while in office was the Slave Import Ban, which went into effect in 1808. From that time on, an Obamacare-like promise developed in America, namely, "If you like your slaves, you can keep your slaves. (You just can't import any more. But any new slaves born are yours.)"

After the First Barbary War, peace and understanding developed between the Muslim Barbarians and the West. I'm kidding again, of course. How many times are you going to fall for that? The Europeans and American had kept paying tribute, but the Barbary slavers persisted in enslaving anyone who approached. This led to the aptly-named Second Barbary War in 1815. It was actually more like a battle, which lasted three days. After that, the United States and Europe stopped paying tribute.

Well, that was pretty much the end of the Barbary Slave Trade of Europeans. However, slavery of course continued unabated in those lands for those who were already slaves. It would take a French consul getting hit in the face with a fan (or fly-whisk) by Hussein Dey, the Ottoman ruler of Algiers, for things to change. This must have been the final straw, as the French blockaded Algiers...and then after being fired upon, invaded it as well as the rest of Algeria and eventually the other Barbary States. The conquest of Algeria took place from 1830 to 1847. Then, one year later, in 1848 (to 1849), France abolished slavery in all of its colonies (again, after they'd done so in 1794 but Napoleon had reestablished it). Thus, the slaves in French North Africa were freed. (Of course, French law could not reach everywhere, so we can expect that slavery persisted in some areas that were harder to reach. In fact, there could be half a million slaves in the country of Mauritania right now in the 21^st century. Old habits die hard.) Over the latter half of the 19^th century, European empires (particularly the British with their powerful navy) patrolled the waters and tried to stamp out the slave trade and slavery wherever they found it across the world. These European empires no doubt hastened the decline of slavery.

So the slavery of Westerners in some way led to a treaty that states that the United States was not founded on religion, and European colonialism was instrumental in the fall of the slave trade and slavery. Yes, history is interesting.

(1)

http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2012/10/how_many_slaves_came_to_america_fact_vs_fiction.html

(2)

http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/white-slaves-barbary-002171

(3)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml

(4)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War

(5)

https://books.google.com/books?id=nWQCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA413#v=onepage&q&f=false