Chapter II: Part 2

[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.)]

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.]

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.]

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.]

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.]

From the same authority I draw another narrative of singular success in 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.]

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.]

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.]

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.]

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.]

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.]

Appeals of a different character, addressed to the country at large, were now commenced. These were efficiently aided by a letter to the American people, dated Lisbon, July 11, 1794, from Colonel Humphreys, the friend and companion of Washington, and at that time our minister to Portugal. Taking advantage of the general interest in lotteries, and particularly of the custom, not then condemned, of resorting to these as a mode of obtaining money for literary or benevolent purposes, he suggested a grand lottery, sanctioned by the United States, or particular lotteries in the individual states, in order to obtain the means required to purchase the freedom of our countrymen. He then asks, "Is there within the limits of these United States an individual who will not cheerfully contribute, in proportion to his means, to carry it into effect? By the peculiar blessings of freedom which you enjoy, by the disinterested sacrifices you made for its attainment, by the patriotic blood of those martyrs of liberty who died to secure your independence, and by all the tender ties of nature, let me conjure you once more to snatch your unfortunate countrymen from fetters, dungeons, and death."

This appeal was followed shortly after by a petition from the American captives in Algiers, addressed to the ministers of the gospel of every denomination throughout the United States, praying their help in the sacred cause of Emancipation. It begins by an allusion to the day of national thanksgiving appointed by President Washington, and proceeds to ask the clergy to set apart the Sunday preceding that day for sermons, to be delivered contemporaneously throughout the country in behalf of their brethren in bonds.[94]

"_Reverend and Respected_,--

"On Thursday, the 19th of February, 1795, you are enjoined by
the President of the United States of America to appear in the
various temples of that God who heareth the groaning of the
prisoner, and in mercy remembereth those who are appointed to
die.

"Nor are ye to assemble alone; for on this, the high day of
continental thanksgiving, all the religious societies and
denominations throughout the Union, and all persons whomsoever
within the limits of the confederated States, are to enter the
courts of Jehovah, with their several pastors, and gratefully
to render unfeigned thanks to the Ruler of nations for the
manifold and signal mercies which distinguish your lot as a
people; in a more particular manner, commemorating your
exemption from foreign war; being greatly thankful for the
preservation of peace at home and abroad; and fervently
beseeching the kind Author of all these blessings graciously to
prolong them to you, and finally to render the United States of
America more and more an asylum for the unfortunate of every
clime under heaven.

"_Reverend and Respected_,--

"Most fervent are our daily prayers, breathed in the sincerity
of woes unspeakable; most ardent are the imbittered aspirations
of our afflicted spirits, that thus it may be in deed and in
truth. Although we are prisoners in a foreign land, although we
are far, very far from our native homes, although our harps are
hung upon the weeping willows of slavery, nevertheless America
is still preferred above our chiefest joy, and the last wish of
our departing souls shall be _her peace, her prosperity, her
liberty forever_. On this day, the day of festivity and
gladness, remember us, your unfortunate brethren, late members
of the family of freedom, now doomed to perpetual confinement.
_Pray, earnestly pray, that our grievous calamities may have a
gracious end. Supplicate the Father of mercies for the most
wretched of his offspring. Beseech the God of all consolation
to comfort us by the hope of final restoration. Implore the
Jesus whom you worship to open the house of the prison. Entreat
the Christ whom you adore to let the miserable captives go
free._

"_Reverend and Respected_,--

"It is not your prayers alone, although of much avail, which we
beg on the bending knee of sufferance, galled by the corroding
fetters of slavery. We conjure you by the bowels of the mercies
of the Almighty, we ask you in the name of your Father in
heaven, to have compassion on our miseries, to wipe away the
crystallized tears of despondence, to hush the heartfelt sigh
of distress; _and by every possible exertion of godlike
charity, to restore us to our wives, to our children, to our
friends, to our God and to yours_.

"Is it possible that a stimulus can be wanting? Forbid it, the
example of a dying, bleeding, crucified Savior! Forbid it, the
precepts of a risen, ascended, glorified Immanuel! _Do unto us
in fetters, in bonds, in dungeons, in danger of the pestilence,
as ye yourselves would wish to be done unto. Lift up your
voices like a trumpet; cry aloud in the cause of humanity,
benevolence, philosophy; eloquence can never be directed to a
nobler purpose; religion never employed in a more glorious
cause; charity never meditate a more exalted flight._ O that a
live coal from the burning altar of celestial beneficence might
warm the hearts of the sacred order, and impassion the feelings
of the attentive hearer!

"_Gentlemen of the Clergy in New Hampshire, Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia_,--

"Your most zealous exertions, your unremitting assiduities, are
pathetically invoked. Those States in which you minister unto
the Church of God gave us birth. We are as aliens from the
commonwealth of America. We are strangers to the temples of our
God. The strong arm of infidelity hath bound us with two
chains; the iron one of slavery and the sword of death are
entering our very souls. _Arise, ye ministers of the Most High,
Christians of every denomination, awake unto charity! Let a
brief, setting forth our situation, be published throughout the
continent. Be it read in every house of worship, on Sunday, the
8th of February. Command a preparatory discourse to be
delivered on Sunday, the 15th of February, in all churches
whithersoever this petition or the brief may come; and on
Thursday, the 19th of February, complete the godlike work._ It
is a day which assembles a continent to thanksgiving. It is a
day which calls an empire to praise. God grant that this may be
the day which emancipates the forlorn captive, and may the best
blessings of those who are ready to perish be your abiding
portion forever! Thus prays a small remnant who are still
alive; thus pray your fellow-citizens, chained to the galleys
of the impostor Mahomet.

"Signed for and in behalf of his fellow-sufferers, by

"RICHARD O'BRIEN,

"In the tenth year of his captivity."

[Footnote 94: History of the War with Tripoli, pp. 69-71.]

The cause in which this document was written will indispose the candid reader to any criticism of its somewhat exuberant language. Like the drama of Cervantes, setting forth the horrors of the galleys of Algiers, "it was not drawn from the imagination, but was born far from the regions of fiction, in the very heart of truth." Its earnest appeals were calculated to touch the soul, and to make the very name of slavery and slave dealer detestable.

And here I should do injustice to the truth of history, if I did not suspend for one moment the narrative of this Anti-Slavery movement, in order to exhibit the pointed parallels then extensively recognized between Algerine and American slavery. The conscientious man could not plead in behalf of the emancipation of his white fellow-citizens, without confessing in his heart, perhaps to the world, that every consideration, every argument, every appeal urged for the white man, told with equal force in behalf of his wretched colored brother in bonds. Thus the interest awakened for the slave in Algiers embraced also the slave at home. Sometimes they were said to be alike in condition; sometimes, indeed, it was openly declared that the horrors of our American slavery surpassed that of Algiers.

John Wesley, the oracle of Methodism, addressing those engaged in the negro slave trade, said, as early as 1772, "You have carried the survivors into the vilest of slavery, never to end but with life--_such slavery as is not found among the Turks at Algiers_."[95] And another writer, in 1794, when the sympathy with the American captives was at its height, presses the parallel in pungent terms: "For this practice of buying and selling slaves," he says, "we are not entitled to charge the Algerines with any exclusive degree of barbarity. The Christians of Europe and America carry on this commerce one hundred times more extensively than the Algerines. It has received a recent sanction from the immaculate Divan of Britain. Nobody seems even to be surprised by a diabolical kind of advertisements, which, for some months past, have frequently adorned the newspapers of Philadelphia. The French fugitives from the West Indies have brought with them a crowd of slaves. These most injured people sometimes run off, and their master advertises a reward for apprehending them. At the same time, we are commonly informed that his sacred name is marked in capitals on their breasts; or, in plainer terms, it is stamped on that part of the body with a red-hot iron. Before, therefore, we reprobate the ferocity of the Algerines, we should inquire whether it is not possible to find in some other region of this globe a systematic brutality still more disgraceful."[96]

[Footnote 95: Wesley's Thoughts on Slavery, (1772,) p. 26.]

[Footnote 96: Short Account of Algiers, (Philadelphia, 1794,) p. 18.]

Not long after the address to the clergy by the captives in Algiers, a publication appeared in New Hampshire, entitled "Tyrannical Libertymen; a Discourse upon Negro Slavery in the United States, composed at ---- in New Hampshire on the late Federal Thanksgiving Day,"[97] which does not hesitate to brand American slavery in terms of glowing reprobation. "There was a contribution upon this day," it says, "for the purpose of redeeming those Americans who are in slavery at Algiers--an object worthy of a generous people. Their redemption, we hope, is not far distant. But should any person contribute money for this purpose which he had cudgelled out of a negro slave, he would deserve less applause than an actor in the comedy of Las Casas.... When will Americans show that they are what they affect to be thought--friends to the cause of humanity at large, reverers of the rights of their fellow-creatures? Hitherto we have been oppressors; nay, murderers! for many a negro has died by the whip of his master, and many have lived when death would have been preferable. Surely the curse of God and the reproach of man is against us. Worse than the seven plagues of Egypt will befall us. If Algiers shall be punished sevenfold, truly America seventy and sevenfold."

[Footnote 97: From the Eagle Office, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1795.]