Second, whose restoration was inaugurated by an unsuccessful expedition
against Algiers under Lord Sandwich. This was soon followed by another,
with a more favorable result, under Admiral Lawson.[44] By a treaty
bearing date May 3d, 1662, the piratical government expressly
stipulated, "that all subjects of the King of Great Britain, now slaves
in Algiers, or any of the territories thereof, be set at liberty, and
released, upon paying the price they were first sold for in the market;
and for the time to come no subjects of his Majesty shall be bought or
sold, or made slaves of, in Algiers or its territories."[45] Other
expeditions ensued, and other treaties in 1664, 1672, 1682, and
1686--showing, by their constant recurrence and iteration, the little
impression produced upon those barbarians.[46] Insensible to justice and
freedom, they naturally held in slight regard the obligations of
fidelity to any stipulations in restraint of robbery and slaveholding.
[Footnote 44: Rapin's History of England, vol. ii. pp. 858, 864.]
[Footnote 45: _Recueil des Traitez de Paix_, tom. iv. p. 43.]
[Footnote 46: Ibid. pp. 307, 476, 703, 756.]
During a long succession of years, complaints of the sufferings of
English captives continued to be made. An earnest spirit, in 1748, found
expression in these words:--
O, how can Britain's sons regardless hear
The prayers, sighs, groans (immortal infamy!)
Of fellow-Britons, with oppression sunk,
In bitterness of soul demanding aid,
Calling on Britain, their dear native land,
The land of liberty![47]
But during all this time, the slavery of blacks, transported to the
colonies under the British flag, still continued.
[Footnote 47: The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 531.]
Meanwhile, France had plied Algiers with embassies and bombardments. In
1635 three hundred and forty-seven Frenchmen were captives there.
Monsieur de Sampson was despatched on an unsuccessful mission, to
procure their liberation. They were offered to him "for the price they
were sold for in the market;" but this he refused to pay.[48] Next came,
in 1637, Monsieur de Mantel, who was called "that noble captain, and
glory of the French nation," "with fifteen of his king's ships, and a
commission to enfranchise the French slaves." But he also returned,
leaving his countrymen still in captivity.[49] Treaties followed at a
later day, which were hastily concluded, and abruptly broken; till at
last Louis the Fourteenth did for France what Cromwell had done for
England. In 1684, Algiers, being twice bombarded[50] by his command,
sent deputies to sue for peace, and to surrender all her Christian
slaves. Tunis and Tripoli made the same submission. Voltaire, with his
accustomed point, declares that, by this transaction, the French became
respected on the coast of Africa, where they had before been known only
as slaves.[51]
[Footnote 48: Osborne's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 468; Relation of Seven
Years' Slavery in Algiers.]
[Footnote 49: Ibid. p. 470.]
[Footnote 50: In the melancholy history of war, this is remarked as the
earliest instance of the _bombardment_ of a town. Sismondi, who never
fails to regard the past in the light of humanity, says, that "Louis the
Fourteenth was the first to put in practice the atrocious method, newly
invented, of bombarding towns,--of burning them, not to take them, but
to destroy them,--_of attacking, not fortifications, but private
houses,--not soldiers, but peaceable inhabitants, women and children,
and of confounding thousands of private crimes, each one of which would
cause horror, in one great public crime, one great disaster, which he
regarded only as one of the catastrophes of war_." Sismondi, _Histoire
des Francais_, tom. xxv. p. 452. How much of this is justly applicable
to the recent murder of women and children by the forces of the United
States at Vera Cruz! Algiers was bombarded in the cause of _freedom_;
Vera Cruz to extend _slavery_!]
[Footnote 51: _Siecle de Louis XIV._ chap. 14.]
An incident is mentioned by the historian, which unhappily shows how
little the French at that time, even while engaged in securing the
emancipation of their own countrymen, had at heart the cause of general
freedom. As an officer of the triumphant fleet received the Christian
slaves who were brought to him and liberated, he observed among them
many English, who, in the empty pride of nationality, maintained that
they were set at liberty out of regard to the King of England. The
Frenchman at once summoned the Algerines, and, returning the foolish
captives into their hands, said, "These people pretend that they have
been delivered in the name of their monarch; mine does not offer them
his protection. I return them to you. It is for you to show what you owe
to the King of England." The Englishmen were again hurried to prolonged
slavery. The power of Charles the Second was impotent in their
behalf--as was the sense of justice and humanity in the French officer
or in the Algerine government.
Time would fail, even if materials were at hand, to develop the course
of other efforts by France against the Barbary States. Nor can I dwell
upon the determined conduct of Holland, one of whose greatest naval
commanders, Admiral de Ruyter, in 1661, enforced at Algiers the
emancipation of several hundred Christian slaves.[52] The inconsistency,
which we have so often remarked, occurs also in the conduct of France
and Holland. Both these countries, while using their best endeavors for
the freedom of their white people, were cruelly engaged in selling
blacks into distant American slavery; as if every word of reprobation,
which they fastened upon the piratical, slaveholding Algerines, did not
return in eternal judgment against themselves.
[Footnote 52: Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 441.]
[Illustration]
Thus far I have chiefly followed the history of military expeditions.
War has been our melancholy burden. But peaceful measures were also
employed to procure the _redemption_ of slaves; and money sometimes
accomplished what was vainly attempted by the sword. In furtherance of
this object, missions were often sent by the European governments. These
sometimes had a formal diplomatic organization; sometimes they consisted
of fathers of the church, who held it a sacred office, to which they
were especially called, to open the prison doors, and let the captives
go free.[53] It was through the intervention of the superiors of the
Order of the Holy Trinity, who were despatched to Algiers by Philip the
Second of Spain, that Cervantes obtained his freedom by ransom, in
1579.[54] Expeditions of commerce often served to promote similar
designs of charity; and the English government, forgetting or
distrusting all their sleeping thunder, sometimes condescended to barter
articles of merchandise for the liberty of their subjects.[55]
[Footnote 53: To the relations of these missions we are indebted for
works of interest on the Barbary States, some of which I am able to
mention. _Busnot, Histoire du Regne de Mouley Ishmael, a Rouen, 1714._
This is by a father of the Holy Trinity. _Jean de la Faye, Relation, en
Forme de Journal, du Voyage pour la Redemption des Captifs, a Paris,
1725._ _Voyage to Barbary for the Redemption of Captives in 1720, by the
Mathurin-Trinitarian Fathers, London, 1735._ The last is a translation
from the French. _Braithwaite's History of the Revolutions of the Empire
of Morocco, London, 1729._ This contains a journal of the mission of
John Russel, Esq., from the English government to Morocco, to obtain the
liberation of slaves. The expedition was thoroughly equipped. "The
Moors," says the author, "find plenty of every thing but drink, but for
that the English generally take care of themselves; for, besides chairs,
tables, knives, forks, plates, table linen, &c., we had two or three
mules, loaded with wine, brandy, sugar, and utensils for punch."--P.
82.]
[Footnote 54: Roscoe's Life of Cervantes, p. 43.]
[Footnote 55: "The following goods, designed as a present from his
Majesty to the Dey of Algiers, to redeem near one hundred English
captives lately taken, were entered at the customhouse, viz.: 20 pieces
of broadcloth, 2 pieces of brocade, 2 pieces of silver tabby, 1 piece of
green damask, 8 pieces of Holland, 16 pieces of cambric, a gold
repeating watch, 4 silver do., 20 pounds of tea, 300 of loaf sugar, 5
fuzees, 5 pair of pistols, an escritoire, 2 clocks, and a box of
toys."--_Gent. Mag._, iv. p. 104, (1734.)]
[Illustration]
Private efforts often secured the freedom of slaves. Friends at home
naturally exerted themselves in their behalf; and many families were
straitened by generous contributions to this sacred purpose. The widowed
mother of Cervantes sacrificed all the pittance that remained to her,
including the dowry of her daughters, to aid in the emancipation of her
son. An Englishman, of whose doleful captivity there is a record in the
memoirs of his son, obtained redemption through the earnest efforts of
his wife at home. "She resolved," says the story, "to use all the means
that lay in her power for his freedom, though she left nothing for
herself and children to subsist upon. She was forced to put to sale, as
she did, some plate, gold rings and bracelets, and some part of her
household goods to make up his ransom, which came to about L150
sterling."[56] In 1642, four French brothers were ransomed at the price
of six thousand dollars. At this same period, the sum exacted for the
poorest Spaniards was "a thousand shillings;" while Genoese, "if under
twenty-two years of age, were freed for a hundred pounds sterling."[57]
These charitable endeavors were aided by the cooperation of benevolent
persons. George Fox interceded in behalf of several Quakers, slaves at
Algiers, writing "a book to the Grand Sultan and the King at Algiers,
wherein he laid before them their indecent behavior and unreasonable
dealings, showing them from their Alcoran that this displeased God, and
that Mohammed had given them other directions." Some time elapsed before
an opportunity was found to redeem them; "but, in the mean while, they
so faithfully served their masters, that they were suffered to go loose
through the town, without being chained or fettered."[58]
[Footnote 56: MS. Memoirs of Abraham Brown.]
[Footnote 57: Osborne's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 489; Relation of Seven
Years' Slavery in Algiers.]
[Footnote 58: Sewell's History of the Quakers, p. 397.]
[Illustration]
As early as the thirteenth century, under the sanction of Pope Innocent
the Third, an important association was organized to promote the
emancipation of Christian slaves. This was known as the _Society of the
Fathers of Redemption_.[59] During many successive generations its
blessed labors were continued, amidst the praise and sympathy of
generous men. History, undertaking to recount its origin, and filled
with a grateful sense of its extraordinary merits, attributed it to the
suggestion of an angel in the sky, clothed in resplendent light, holding
a Christian captive in his right hand, and a Moor in the left. The pious
Spaniard, who narrates the marvel, earnestly declares that this
institution of beneficence was the work, not of men, but of the great
God alone; and he dwells, with more than the warmth of narrative, on the
glory, filling the lives of its associates, as surpassing far that of a
Roman triumph; for they share the name as well as the labors of the
Redeemer of the world, to whose spirit they are the heirs, and to whose
works they are the successors. "Lucullus," he says, "affirmed that it
were better to liberate a single Roman from the hands of the enemy than
to gain all their wealth; but how much greater the gain, more excellent
the glory, and more than human is it to redeem a captive! For whosoever
redeems him not only liberates him from one death, but from death in a
thousand ways, and those ever present, and also from a thousand
afflictions, a thousand miseries, a thousand torments and fearful
travails, more cruel than death itself."[60] The genius of Cervantes has
left a record of his gratitude to this Anti-Slavery Society[61]--the
harbinger of others whose mission is not yet finished. Throughout Spain
annual contributions for its sacred objects continued to be taken for
many years. Nor in Spain only did it awaken sympathy. In Italy and
France also it successfully labored; and as late as 1748, inspired by a
similar catholic spirit, if not by its example, a proposition appeared
in England "to establish a _society_ to carry on the truly charitable
design of emancipating" sixty-four Englishmen, slaves in Morocco.[62]
[Footnote 59: Biot, _De l'Abolition de l'Esclavage Ancien_, p. 437.]
[Footnote 60: Haedo, _Historia de Argel_, pp. 142-144; _Dialogo I. de la
Captiudad_.]
[Footnote 61: Roscoe's Life of Cervantes, p. 50. See his story of
_Espanola Inglesa_.]
[Footnote 62: Gentleman's Mag. xviii. p. 413.]
War and ransom were not the only agents of emancipation. Even if history
were silent, it would be impossible to suppose that the slaves of
African Barbary endured their lot without struggles for freedom.
Since the first moment they put on my chains,
I've thought on nothing but the weight of them,
And how to throw them off.
These are the words of a slave in the play;[63] but they express the
natural inborn sentiments of all who have intelligence sufficient to
appreciate the great boon of freedom. "Thanks be to God," says the
captive in Don Quixote, "for the great mercies bestowed upon me; for, in
my opinion, there is no happiness on earth equal to that of liberty
regained."[64] And plain Thomas Phelps--once a slave at Machiness, in
Morocco, whence, in 1685, he fortunately escaped--in the narrative of
his adventures and sufferings, breaks forth in a similar strain. "Since
my escape," he says, "from captivity, and worse than Egyptian bondage, I
have, methinks, enjoyed a happiness with which my former life was never
acquainted; now that, after a storm and terrible tempest, I have, by
miracle, put into a safe and quiet harbor,--after a most miserable
slavery to the most unreasonable and barbarous of men, now that I enjoy
the immunities and freedom of my native country and the privileges of a
subject of England, although my circumstances otherwise are but
indifferent, yet I find I am affected with extraordinary emotions and
singular transports of joy; now I know what liberty is, and can put a
value and make a just estimate of that happiness which before I never
well understood. Health can be but slightly esteemed by him who never
was acquainted with pain or sickness; and liberty and freedom are the
happiness only valuable by a reflection on captivity and slavery."[65]
[Footnote 63: Oronooko, act iii. sc. i. It is not strange that the
anti-slavery character of this play rendered it an unpopular performance
at Liverpool, while the prosperous merchants there were concerned in the
slave trade.]
[Footnote 64: Don Quixote, part i. book iv. chap. 12.]
[Footnote 65: Osborne's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 500.]
The history of Algiers abounds in well-authenticated examples of
_conspiracy against the government_ by Christian slaves. So strong was
the passion for freedom! In 1531 and 1559, two separate plans were
matured, which promised for a while entire success. The slaves were
numerous; keys to open the prisons had been forged, and arms supplied;
but, by the treason of one of their number, the plot was betrayed to the
Dey, who sternly doomed the conspirators to the bastinado and the stake.
Cervantes, during his captivity, nothing daunted by these disappointed
efforts, and the terrible vengeance which awaited them, conceived the
plan of a general insurrection of the Christian slaves, to secure their
freedom by the overthrow of the Algerine power, and the surrender of the
city to the Spanish crown. This was in the spirit of that sentiment, to
which he gives utterance in his writings, that "for liberty we ought to
risk life itself, slavery being the greatest evil that can fall to the
lot of man."[66] As late as 1763, there was a similar insurrection or
conspiracy. "Last month," says a journal of high authority,[67] "the
Christian slaves at Algiers, to the number of four thousand, rose and
killed their guards, and massacred all who came in their way; but after
some hours' carnage, during which the streets ran with blood, peace was
restored."
[Footnote 66: Roscoe's Life of Cervantes, pp. 32, 310, 311. In the same
spirit Thomas Phelps says: "I looked upon my condition as desperate; my
forlorn and languishing state of life, without any hope of redemption,
appeared far worse than the terrors of a most cruel death."--Osborne's
Voyages, vol. ii. p. 504.]
[Footnote 67: British Annual Register, vol. vi. p. 60.]
But the struggles for freedom could not always assume the shape of
conspiracies against the government. They were often _efforts to
escape_, sometimes in numbers, and sometimes singly. The captivity of
Cervantes was filled with such, in which, though constantly balked, he
persevered with determined courage and skill. On one occasion, he
attempted to escape by land to Oran, a Spanish settlement on the coast,
but was deserted by his guide, and compelled to return.[68] Another
endeavor was favored by a number of his own countrymen, hovering on the
coast in a vessel from Majorca, who did not think it wrong to aid in the
liberation of slaves! Another was promoted by Christian merchants at
Algiers, through whose agency a vessel was actually purchased for this
purpose.[69] And still another was supposed to be aided by a Spanish
ecclesiastic, Father Olivar, who, being at Algiers to procure the legal
emancipation of slaves, could not resist the temptation to lend a
generous assistance to the struggles of his fellow-Christians in bonds.
If he were sufficiently courageous and devoted to do this, he paid the
bitter penalty which similar services to freedom have found elsewhere,
and in another age. He was seized by the Dey, and thrown into chains;
for it was regarded by the Algerine government as a high offence to
further in any way the escape of a slave.[70]
[Footnote 68: El Trato de Argel.]
[Footnote 69: Roscoe's Life of Cervantes, pp. 31, 308, 309. I refer to
Roscoe as the popular authority. His work appears to be little more than
a compilation from Navarrete and Sismondi.]
[Footnote 70: Ibid. p. 33. See also Haedo, _Historia de Argel_, p. 185.]
[Illustration]
Endeavors for freedom are animating; nor can any honest nature hear of
them without a throb of sympathy. As we dwell on the painful narrative
of the unequal contest between tyrannical power and the crushed captive
or slave, we resolutely enter the lists on the side of freedom; and as
we behold the contest waged by a few individuals, or, perhaps, by one
alone, our sympathy is given to his weakness as well as to his cause. To
him we send the unfaltering succor of our good wishes. For him we invoke
vigor of arm to defend, and fleetness of foot to escape. The enactments
of human laws are vain to restrain the warm tides of the heart. We pause
with rapture on those historic scenes, in which freedom has been
attempted or preserved through the magnanimous self-sacrifice of
friendship or Christian aid. With palpitating bosom we follow the
midnight flight of Mary of Scotland from the custody of her stern
jailers; we accompany the escape of Grotius from prison in Holland, so
adroitly promoted by his wife; we join with the flight of Lavalette in
France, aided also by his wife; and we offer our admiration and
gratitude to Huger and Bollman, who, unawed by the arbitrary ordinances
of Austria, strove heroically, though vainly, to rescue Lafayette from
the dungeons of Olmutz. The laws of Algiers--which sanctioned a cruel
slavery, and doomed to condign penalties all endeavors for freedom, and
all countenance of such endeavors--can no longer prevent our homage to
Cervantes, not less gallant than renowned, who strove so constantly and
earnestly to escape his chains; nor our homage to those Christians also
who did not fear to aid him, and to the good ecclesiastic who suffered
in his cause.
The story of the efforts to escape from slavery in the Barbary States,
so far as they can be traced, are full of interest. The following is in
the exact words of an early writer:--
"One John Fox, an expert mariner, and a good, approved, and
sufficient gunner, was (in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth)
taken by the Turkes, and kept eighteen yeeres in most miserable
bondage and slavery; at the end of which time, he espied his
opportunity (and God assisting him withall) that hee slew his
keeper, and fled to the sea's side, where he found a gally with
one hundred and fifty captive Christians, which hee speedily
waying their anchor, set saile, and fell to work like men, and
safely arrived in Spaone; by which meanes he freed himselfe and
a number of poor soules from long and intolerable servitude;
after which, the said John Fox came into England, _and the
Queene (being rightly informed of his brave exploit) did
graciously entertaine him for her servant, and allowed him a
yeerly pension_."[71]
[Footnote 71: Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. p. 888.]
[Illustration]
There is also, in the same early source, a quaint description of what
occurred to a ship from Bristol, captured, in 1621, by an Algerine
corsair. The Englishmen were all taken out except four youths, over whom
the Turks, as these barbarians were often called by early writers, put
thirteen of their own men to conduct the ship as a prize to Algiers; and
one of the pirates, a strong, able, stern, and resolute person, was
appointed captain. "These four poor youths," so the story proceeds,
"being thus fallen into the hands of merciless infidels, began to study
and complot all the means they could for the obtayning of their freedom.
They considered the lamentable and miserable estates that they were like
to be in, as to be debarred forever from seeing their friends and
country, to be chained, beaten, made slaves, and to eat the bread of
affliction in the galleys, all the remainder of their unfortunate lives,
and, which was worst of all, never to be partakers of the heavenly word
and sacraments. Thus, being quite hopeless, and, for any thing they
knew, forever helpless, they sailed five days and nights under the
command of the pirates, when, on the fifth night, God, in his great
mercy, showed them a means for their wished-for escape." A sudden wind
arose, when, the captain coming to help take in the mainsail, two of the
English youths "suddenly took him by the breech and threw him overboard;
but, by fortune, he fell into the bunt of the sail, where, quickly
catching hold of a rope, he, being a very strong man, had almost gotten
into the ship again; which John Cook perceiving, leaped speedily to the
pump, and took off the pump brake, or handle, and cast it to William
Long, bidding him knock him down, which he was not long in doing, but,
lifting up the wooden weapon, he gave him such a palt on the pate, as
made his braines forsake the possession of his head, with which his body
fell into the sea." The corsair slave dealers were overpowered. The four
English youths drove them "from place to place in the ship, and having
coursed them from poop to the forecastle, they there valiantly killed
two of them, and gave another a dangerous wound or two, who, to escape
the further fury of their swords, leaped suddenly overboard to go seek
his captain." The other nine Turks ran between decks, where they were
securely fastened. The English now directed their course to St. Lucas,
in Spain, and "in short time, by God's ayde, happily and safely arrived
at the said port, _where they sold the nine Turks for galley slaves, for
a good summe of money, and as I thinke, a great deal more than they were
worth_."[72] "He that shall attribute such things as these," says the
ancient historian, grateful for this triumph of freedom, "to the arm of
flesh and blood, is forgetful, ungrateful, and, in a manner,
atheistical."
[Footnote 72: Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. pp. 882-883.]
[Illustration]