achieving freedom. Several Englishmen, being captured and carried into
Algiers, were sold as slaves. These are the words of one of their
number: "_We were hurried like dogs into the market, where, as men sell
hacknies in England, we were tossed up and down to see who would give
most for us; and although we had heavy hearts, and looked with sad
countenances, yet many came to behold us, sometimes taking us by the
hand, sometimes turning us round about, sometimes feeling our brawny and
naked armes, and so beholding our prices written in our breasts, they
bargained for us accordingly, and at last we were all sold._" Shortly
afterwards several were put on board an Algerine corsair to serve as
slaves. One of them, John Rawlins, who resembled Cervantes in the
hardihood of his exertions for freedom,--as, like him, he had lost the
use of an arm,--arranged a rising or insurrection on board. "O hellish
slavery," he said, "to be thus subject to dogs! O God! strengthen my
heart and hand, and something shall be done to ease us of these
mischiefs, and deliver us from these cruel Mohammedan dogs. What can be
worse? I will either attempt my deliverance at one time or another, or
perish in the enterprise." An auspicious moment was seized; and eight
English slaves and one French, with the assistance of four Hollanders,
freemen, succeeded, after a bloody contest, in overpowering fifty-two
Turks. "When all was done," the story proceeds, "and the ship cleared of
the dead bodies, Rawlins assembled his men together, and with one
consent gave the praise unto God, using the accustomed service on
shipboard, and, for want of books, lifted up their voices to God, as he
put into their hearts or renewed their memories; then did they sing a
psalm, and, last of all, embraced one another for playing the men in
such a deliverance, whereby our fear was turned into joy, and trembling
hearts exhilarated that we had escaped such inevitable dangers, and
especially the slavery and terror of bondage worse than death itself.
The same night we washed our ship, put every thing in as good order as
we could, repaired the broken quarter, set up the biticle, and bore up
the helme for England, where, by God's grace and good guiding, we
arrived at Plimouth, February 17th, 1622."[73]
[Footnote 73: Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. pp. 889-896.]
[Illustration]
In 1685, Thomas Phelps and Edward Baxter, Englishmen, accomplished their
escape from captivity in Machiness, in Morocco. One of them had made a
previous unsuccessful attempt, which drew upon him the punishment of the
bastinado, disabling him from work for a twelvemonth; "but such was his
love of Christian liberty, that he freely declared to his companion,
that he would adventure with any fair opportunity." By devious paths,
journeying in the darkness of night, and by day sheltering themselves
from observation in bushes, or in the branches of fig trees, they at
length reached the sea. With imminent risk of discovery, they succeeded
in finding a boat, not far from Sallee. This they took without
consulting the proprietor, and rowed to a ship at a distance, which, to
their great joy, proved to be an English man-of-war. Making known to its
commander the exposed situation of the Moorish ships, they formed part
of an expedition in boats, which boarded and burned them, in the night.
"One Moor," says the account, "we found aboard, who was presently cut in
pieces; another was shot in the head, endeavoring to escape upon the
cable; we were not long in taking in our shavings and tar barrels, and
so set her on fire in several places, she being very apt to receive what
we designed; for there were several barrels of tar upon deck, and she
was newly tarred, as if on purpose. Whilst we were setting her on fire,
we heard a noise of some people in the hold; we opened the scuttles, and
thereby saved the lives of four Christians, three Dutchmen and one
French, who told us the ship on fire was Admiral, and belonged to
Aly-Hackum, and the other, which we soon after served with the same
sauce, was the very ship which in October last took me captive." The
Englishman, once a captive, who tells this story, says it is "most
especially to move pity for the afflictions of Joseph, to excite
compassionate regard to those poor countrymen now languishing in misery
and irons, to endeavor their releasement."[74]
[Footnote 74: Osborne's Voyages, vol. ii. pp. 497-510.]
Even the non-resistance of Quakers, animated by a zeal for freedom,
contrived to baffle these slave dealers. A ship in the charge of people
of this sect became the prey of the Algerines; and the curious story is
told with details, unnecessary to mention here, of the effective manner
in which the ship was subsequently recaptured by the crew without loss
of life. To complete this triumph, the slave pirates were safely landed
on their own shores, and allowed to go their way in peace, acknowledging
with astonishment and gratitude this new application of the Christian
injunction to do good to them that hate you. Charles the Second,
learning from the master, on his return, that "he had been taken by the
Turks, and redeemed himself without fighting," and that he had
subsequently let his enemies go free, rebuked him, saying, with the
spirit of a slave dealer, "You have done like a fool, for you might have
had a good gain for them." And to the mate he said, "You should have
brought the Turks to me." "_I thought it better for them to be in their
own country_" was the Quaker's reply.[75]
[Footnote 75: Sewell's History of the Quakers, pp. 392-397.]
[Illustration]
In the current of time other instances occurred. A letter from Algiers,
dated August 6, 1772, and preserved in the British Annual Register,
furnishes the following story:[76] "A most remarkable escape," it says,
"of some Christian prisoners has lately been effected here, which will
undoubtedly cause those that have not had that good fortune to be
treated with utmost rigor. On the morning of the 27th July, the Dey was
informed that all the Christian slaves had escaped the over-night in a
galley; this news soon raised him, and, upon inquiry, it was found to
have been a preconcerted plan. About ten at night, seventy-four slaves,
who had found means to escape from their masters, met in a large square
near the gate which opens to the harbor, and, being well armed, they
soon forced the guard to submit, and, to prevent their raising the city,
confined them all in the powder magazine. They then proceeded to the
lower part of the harbor, where they embarked on board a large rowing
polacre that was left there for the purpose, and, the tide ebbing out,
they fell gently down with it, and passed both the forts. As soon as
this was known, three large galleys were ordered out after them, but to
no purpose. They returned in three days, with the news of seeing the
polacre sail into Barcelona, where the galleys durst not go to attack
her."
[Footnote 76: Vol. xv. p. 130.]
[Illustration]
In the same journal[77] there is a record of another triumph of freedom
in a letter from Palma, the capital of Majorca, dated September 3, 1776.
"Forty-six captives," it says, "who were employed to draw stones from a
quarry some leagues' distance from Algiers, at a place named Genova,
resolved, if possible, to recover their liberty, and yesterday took
advantage of the idleness and inattention of forty men who were to guard
them, and who had laid down their arms, and were rambling about the
shore. The captives attacked them with pickaxes and other tools, and
made themselves masters of their arms; and, having killed thirty-three
of the forty, and eleven of the thirteen sailors who were in the boat
which carried the stones, they obliged the rest to jump into the sea.
Being then masters of the boat, and armed with twelve muskets, two
pistols, and powder, they set sail, and had the good fortune to arrive
here this morning, where they are performing quarantine. Sixteen of them
are Spaniards, seventeen French, eight Portuguese, three Italian, one a
German, and one a Sardinian."
[Footnote 77: Vol. xix. p. 176.]
Thus far I have followed the efforts of European nations, and the
struggles of Europeans, unhappy victims to White Slavery. I pass now to
America, and to our own country. In the name of fellow-countryman there
is a charm of peculiar power. The story of his sorrows will come nearer
to our hearts, and, perhaps, to the experience of individuals or
families among us, than the story of Spaniards, Frenchmen, or
Englishmen. Nor are materials wanting.
Even in the early days of the colonies, while they were yet contending
with the savage Indians, many American families were compelled to mourn
the hapless fate of brothers, fathers, and husbands doomed to slavery in
distant African Barbary. Only five short years after the landing of the
Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock,[78] it appears from the records of the town,
under date of 1625, that "two ships, freighted from Plymouth, were taken
by the Turks in the English Channel, and carried into Sallee." A little
later, in 1640, "one Austin, a man of good estate," returning
discontented to England from Quinipiack, now New Haven, on his way "was
taken by the Turks, and his wife and family were carried to Algiers, and
sold there as slaves."[79] And, under date of 1671, in the diary of the
Rev. John Eliot, the first minister of Roxbury, and the illustrious
apostle to the Indians, prefixed to the record of the church in that
town, and still preserved in manuscript, these few words tell a story of
sorrow: "We heard the sad and heavy tidings concerning the captivity of
Captain Foster and his son at Sallee." From further entries in the diary
it appears, that, after a bondage of three years, they were redeemed.
But the same record shows other victims, for whom the sympathies of the
church and neighborhood were enlisted. Here is one: "20 10m. 1674. This
Sabbath we had a public collection for Edward Howard of Boston, to
redeem him out of his sad Turkish captivity, in which collection was
gathered L12 18s. 9d., which, by God's favor, made up the just sum
desired." And not long after, at a date left uncertain, it appears that
William Bowen "was taken by the Turks;" a contribution was made for his
redemption; "and the people went to the public box, young and old, but
before the money could answer the end for which the congregation
intended it," tidings came of the death of the unhappy captive, and the
money was afterwards "improved to build a tomb for the town to inter
their ministers."[80]
[Footnote 78: Davis's Extracts relating to Plymouth, p. 3.]
[Footnote 79: Winthrop's Journal, vol. ii. p. 11.]
[Footnote 80: MS. Records of First Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts.]
Instances now thicken. A ship, sailing from Charlestown, in 1678, was
taken by a corsair, and carried into Algiers, whence its passengers and
crew never returned. They probably died in slavery. Among these was Dr.
Daniel Mason, a graduate of Harvard College, and the earliest of that
name on the list; also James Ellson, the mate. The latter, in a
testamentary letter addressed to his wife, and dated at Algiers, June
30, 1679, desired her to redeem out of captivity two of his
companions.[81] At the same period William Harris, a person of
consequence in the colony, one of the associates of Roger Williams in
the first planting of Providence, and now in the sixty-eighth year of
his age, sailing from Boston for England on public business, was also
taken by a corsair, and carried into Algiers. On the 23d February, 1679,
this veteran,--older than the slaveholder Cato when he learned
Greek,--together with all the crew, was sold into slavery. The fate of
his companions is unknown; but Mr. Harris, after remaining in this
condition more than a year, obtained his freedom at the cost of $1200,
called by him "the price of a good farm." The feelings of the people of
the colony, touched by these disasters, are concisely expressed in a
private letter dated at Boston, New England, November 10, 1680, where it
is said, "The Turks have so taken our New England ships richly loaden
homeward bound, that it is very dangerous to goe. Many of our neighbors
are now in captivity in Argeer. The Lord find out some way for their
redemption."[82]
[Footnote 81: Middlesex [Massachusetts] Probate Files in MS.]
[Footnote 82: William Gilbert to Arthur Bridge, MS.]
Still later, as we enter the next century, we meet a curious notice of
the captivity of a Bostonian. Under date of Tuesday, January 11, 1714,
Chief Justice Samuel Sewell, in his journal, after describing a dinner
with Mr. Gee, and mentioning the guests, among whom were the famous
divines, Increase and Cotton Mather, adds, "It seems it was in
remembrance of his landing this day at Boston, after his Algerine
captivity. Had a good treat. Dr. Cotton Mather, in returning thanks,
very well comprised many weighty things very pertinently."[83] Among the
many weighty things very pertinently comprised by this eminent preacher,
in returning thanks, it is hoped, was a condemnation of slavery. Surely
he could not then have shrunk from giving utterance to that faith which
preaches deliverance to the captive.
[Footnote 83: MS. Journal of Chief Justice Samuel Sewell.]
But leaving the imperfect records of colonial days, I descend at once to
that period, almost in the light of these times, when our National
Government, justly careful of the liberty of its white citizens, was
aroused to put forth all its power in their behalf. The war of the
Revolution closed in 1783, by the acknowledgment of the independence of
the United States. The new national flag, then freshly unfurled, and
hardly known to the world, seemed to have little power to protect
persons or property from the outrages of the Barbary States. Within
three years, no less than ten American vessels became their prey. At one
time an apprehension prevailed, that Dr. Franklin had been captured. "We
are waiting," said one of his French correspondents, "with the greatest
patience to hear from you. The newspapers have given us anxiety on your
account; for some of them insist that you have been taken by the
Algerines, while others pretend that you are at Morocco, enduring your
slavery with all the patience of a philosopher."[84] The property of our
merchants was sacrificed or endangered. Insurance at Lloyd's, in London,
could be had only at advanced prices; while it was difficult to obtain
freight for American bottoms.[85] The Mediterranean trade seemed closed
to our enterprise. To a people filled with the spirit of commerce, and
bursting with new life, this in itself was disheartening; but the
sufferings of our unhappy fellow-citizens, captives in a distant land,
aroused a feeling of a higher strain.
[Footnote 84: Sparks's Works of Franklin, ix. 506, 507; x. 230. M. Le
Veillard to Dr. Franklin, October 9, 1785.]
[Footnote 85: Boston Independent Chronicle, April 28, 1785, vol. xvii.
No. 866; May 12, 1785, No. 868; Oct. 20, 1785, No. 886; Nov. 3, 1785,
No. 888; Nov. 17, 1785, No. 890; March 2, 1786, vol. xviii. No. 908;
April 27, 1786, No. 918.]
As from time to time the tidings of these things reached America, a
voice of horror and indignation swelled through the land. The slave
corsairs of African Barbary were branded sometimes as "infernal crews,"
sometimes as "human harpies."[86] This sentiment acquired new force,
when, at two different periods, by the fortunate escape of captives,
what seemed an authentic picture of their condition was presented to the
world. The story of these fugitives will show at once the hardships of
their lot, and the foundation of the appeal which was soon made to the
country with so much effect.
[Footnote 86: Boston Independent Chronicle, May 18, 1786, xviii. No.
916; Sparks's Franklin, ix. 506, 507.]
The earliest of these escapes was in 1788, by a person originally
captured in a vessel from Boston. At Algiers he had been, with the rest
of the ship's company, exposed for sale at public auction, whence he was
sent to the country house of his master, about two miles from town.
Here, for the space of eighteen months, he was chained to the
wheelbarrow, and allowed only one pound of bread a day, during all which
wretched period he had no opportunity to learn the fate of his
companions. From the country he was removed to Algiers, where, in a
numerous company of white slaves, he encountered three of his shipmates,
and twenty-six other Americans. After remaining for some time crowded
together in the slave prison, they were all distributed among the
different galleys in the service of the Dey. Our fugitive, with eighteen
other white slaves, was put on board a xebec, carrying eight
six-pounders and sixty men, which, on the coast of Malta, encountered an
armed vessel belonging to Genoa, and, after much bloodshed, was taken
sword in hand. Eleven of the unfortunate slaves, compelled to this
unwelcome service in the cause of a tyrannical master, were killed in
the contest, before the triumph of the Genoese could deliver them from
their chains. Our countryman and the few still alive were at once set at
liberty, and, it is said, "treated with that humanity which
distinguishes the Christian from the barbarian."[87]
[Footnote 87: Boston Independent Chronicle, Oct. 16, 1778, vol. xx. No.
1042; History of the War with Tripoli, p. 59.]
[Illustration]
His escape was followed in the next year by that of several others,
achieved under circumstances widely different. They had entered, about
five years before, on board a vessel belonging to Philadelphia, which
was captured near the Western Islands, and carried into Algiers. The
crew, consisting of twenty persons, were doomed to bondage. Several were
sent into the country and chained to work with the mules. Others were
put on board a galley and chained to the oars. The latter, tempted by
the facilities of their position near the sea, made several attempts to
escape, which for some time proved fruitless. At last, the love of
freedom triumphing over the suggestions of humanity, they rose upon
their overseers; some of whom they killed, and confined others. Then,
seizing a small galley of their masters, they set sail for Gibraltar,
where in a few hours they landed as freemen.[88] Thus, by killing their
keepers and carrying off property not their own, did these fugitive
white slaves achieve their liberty.
[Footnote 88: History of the War with Tripoli, p. 62. American Museum,
vol. viii. Appendix.]
Such stories could not be recounted without producing a strong effect.
The glimpses thus opened into the dread regions of slavery gave a
harrowing reality to all that conjecture or imagination had pictured. It
was, indeed, true, that our own white brethren, heirs to the freedom
newly purchased by precious blood, partakers in the sovereignty of
citizenship, belonging to the fellowship of the Christian church, were
degraded in unquestioning obedience to an arbitrary taskmaster, sold as
beasts of the field, and galled by the manacle and the lash! It was true
that they were held at fixed prices; and that their only chance of
freedom was to be found in the earnest, energetic, united efforts of
their countrymen in their behalf. It is not easy to comprehend the exact
condition to which they were reduced. There is no reason to believe that
it differed materially from that of other Christian captives in Algiers.
The masters of vessels were lodged together, and indulged with a table
by themselves, though a small iron ring was attached to one of their
legs, to denote that they were slaves. The seamen were taught and
obliged to work at the trade of carpenter, blacksmith, and stone mason,
from six o'clock in the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon,
without intermission, except for half an hour at dinner.[89] Some of the
details of their mode of life, as transmitted to us, are doubtless
exaggerated. It is, however, sufficient to know that they were slaves;
nor is there any other human condition, which, when barely mentioned,
even without one word of description, so strongly awakens the sympathies
of every just and enlightened lover of his race.
[Footnote 89: History of the War between the United States and Tripoli,
p. 52.]
[Illustration]
With a view to secure their freedom, informal agencies were soon
established under the direction of our minister at Paris; and the
_Society of Redemption_--whose beneficent exertions, commencing so early
in modern history, were still continued--offered their aid. Our agents
were blandly entertained by that great slave dealer, the Dey of Algiers,
who informed them that he was familiar with the exploits of Washington,
and, as he never expected to see him, expressed a hope, that, through
Congress, he might receive a full-length portrait of this hero of
freedom, to be displayed in his palace at Algiers. He, however, still
clung to his American slaves, holding them at prices beyond the means of
the agents. These, in 1786, were $6000 for a master of a vessel, $4000
for a mate, $4000 for a passenger, and $1400 for a seaman; whereas the
agents were authorized to offer only $200 for each captive.[90] In 1790,
the tariff of prices seems to have fallen. Meanwhile, one obtained his
freedom through private means, others escaped, and others still were
liberated by the great liberator Death. The following list, if not
interesting from the names of the captives, will at least be curious as
evidence of the sums demanded for them in the slave market:[91]--
_Crew of the Ship Dolphin, of Philadelphia, captured July 30,
1785._
Sequins.
Richard O'Brien, master, price demanded, 2,000
Andrew Montgomery, mate, 1,500
Jacob Tessanier, French passenger, 2,000
William Patterson, seaman, (keeps a tavern,) 1,500
Philip Sloan, " 725
Peleg Loring, " 725
John Robertson, " 725
James Hall, " 725
_Crew of the Schooner Maria, of Boston, captured July 25,
1785._
Isaac Stevens, master, (of Concord, Mass.,) 2,000
Alexander Forsythe, mate, 1,500
James Cathcart, seaman, (keeps a tavern,) 900
George Smith, " (in the Dey's house,) 725
John Gregory, " 725
James Hermit, " 725
------
16,475
Duty on the above sum, ten per cent., 1,647-1/2
Sundry gratifications to officers of the
Dey's household, 240-1/3
----------
Sequins 18,362-5/6
This sum being equal to $34,792.
[Footnote 90: Lyman's Diplomacy, vol. ii. p. 353.]
[Footnote 91: Lyman's Diplomacy vol. ii. p. 357; History of the War with
Tripoli, p. 64.]
In 1793, there were one hundred and fifteen American slaves in
Algiers.[92] Their condition excited the fraternal feeling of the whole
people, while it occupied the anxious attention of Congress and the
prayers of the clergy. A petition dated at Algiers, December 29, 1793,
was addressed to the House of Representatives, by these unhappy
persons.[93] "Your petitioners," it says, "are at present captives in
this city of bondage, employed daily in the most laborious work, without
any respect to persons. They pray that you will take their unfortunate
situation into consideration, and adopt such measures as will restore
the American captives to their country, their friends, families, and
connections; and your petitioners will ever pray and be thankful." But
the action of Congress was sluggish, compared with the swift desires of
all lovers of freedom.
[Footnote 92: Lyman's Diplomacy, vol. ii. p. 359.]
[Footnote 93: Ibid. p. 360.]