The book presents a fairly straightforward, chronological account based on original sources, focusing on the challenge presented to the newly established United States by Mediterranean pirates, supported by and based mainly in four North African states.
Wealthier European countries paid protection money to keep their shipping unmolested; the United States could afford neither the exorbitant fees set by the Barbary states, nor the depredations by the pirates on U. Sources used by the authors to develop the story included personal documents, such as journals and correspondence, and official documents, such as ships' logs and other naval documents, and official records of the U.
The authors studied the accounts of those involved in the business of dealing with the Barbary pirates, thus achieving as close a perspective as is possible, without actually having lived the events themselves. They include a bibliography of "the best of the primary and secondary works" written on this subject, for those readers who wish to explore further.
The authors focus mainly on those who were "on site," as it were, serving in the Mediterranean either as diplomats or in a military capacity. Just as in more recent times, their efforts were both aided and hampered by politics back home.
Brian Kilmeade is a television broadcaster and radio host for FOX News, as well as a bestselling author with a passion for history and a talent for storytelling. His pre. His previo. Though lesser known than other wars the US has fought over the years, it was an important conflict that set the stage for the US to earn a reputation as a respected nation that could demonstrate power on foreign lands as well as its homeland We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.
In an attempt to stop the legendary Barbary Pirates of North Africa from hijacking American ships, William Eaton set out on a secret mission to overthrow the government of Tripoli. He sent the U. Whether you have a personal connection to the U. For example:. Add to Bag. The Barbary Coast countries were nations of pirates. In reality, they often profited as slave traders and pirates who attacked shipping vessels sailing under any flag.
The United States had no navy. George Bruggeman Pirate as Pirate uncredited. William Fawcett Beggar as Beggar uncredited. Duke Fishman Pirate as Pirate uncredited. Leonard P. Geer Pirate as Pirate uncredited. Jack Gordon Pirate as Pirate uncredited. Felix E. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. For Barbary Gold If they were able to send four ships, it would be enough to take care of the problem, and the force would overwhelm the need to send presents.
Cathcart also says or gives some of the details of other arrangements. For instance, the Danes and the Swedes are also making these protection payments, and what I found particularly interesting is he indicates how much those payments are—so he says they're paying dollars every three years which seems like quite a bit of money.
It was quite a bit of money then. And you can see the trouble that Americans are having. They don't have a lot of money in the federal government, even though they're at least operating under the Constitution instead of the Articles of Confederation. They can't pay Algiers, let alone Tripoli. They need desperately to trade in the Mediterranean, but they're not able to either protect their trade or make the payments that they need to make.
It is difficult for students, I think, to understand the language, and I find if you can have students read it out loud, that they can often make sense of it. And it is meant to be a public document, so it's being sent to the Secretary of State, but Cathcart is well aware that this is going to be a document that's going to circulate.
It might be published in part in the newspaper, it might be something that's going to end up in collections for the government, it might be in Congress. So he's definitely writing in a way that he thinks will look good for other people to read, which can be difficult for us to interpret. He's also using terms that may be unfamiliar, like the Imperials, the Danes.
Ragusians, which was a very small trading state on the Dalmatian coast. And those powers that he's listing there are not very strong powers. So the British, the French, had very strong navies, but these people do not, and they're involved in the carrying trade, because they, like the Americans, are neutral states, and there's so much war on the continent at that time period that the neutral states are making a lot of money in the carrying trade—as long as they can pay off the Barbary pirates.
Well, there's actually humongous subtext, and if you're going to do further research, there are two ways I think that you could have students approach this. One is the issue of trade and how trade was carried out at that time period—and increase in violence, as well, between the s and the early s.
There's an incredible increase in violence in trade in general. The French Navy, for instance, grows something like 40 or 60 percent, and that's fairly standard. A lot of European and Russian navies—the Algerian navy, for that matter, grows at this time period. There are European powers, including the Neapolitans, who are seizing American ships. One historian estimated that between about and about , other powers seized about 1, American ships all told. And North Africans take 13 of those ships.
Want more? Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! When Thomas Jefferson became president in , America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa's Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new country could afford.
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