Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

general American approach to the region at the end of the 18 th century. For
Bemis, “the Barbary States were the nest of professional corsairs” whose
“unblushing depredation” jeopardized American shipping in the
Mediterranean; the rulers were “obnoxious” and “rascally potentates” whose
“sinister profession of piracy set in unabashed to make sport of American
property and citizens;” American ships were “unprotected” and caused them to
fall “easy prey” to the “Algerine pirates” and shipping was “at the mercy of
those robbers,” and “American sailors were enslaved with impunity by those
“avaricious free-booters and slave-catchers.” 107 The picture Thomas A. Bailey
(1902-1983), another authority on American diplomatic history, painted was no
better than the previous one. 108 For him:
The petty North African states loosed upon the commerce of the
Mediterranean as raffiantly a lot of cutthroats as history can offer. They
not only enslaved their captives for ransom but collected huge sums of
protection money from those nations that could afford to make
payments. Piracy was a profitable national industry. 109
In such a context loaded with disdain, ignorance, and outright prejudice and
infamy, the USA set out to make some “arrangements with them as may
prevent their committing any future depredations on the American vessels and
trade.” 110 That American move, however, did not occur until after the European
states successively declined to make room for American shipping in the
Mediterranean.
107 Bemis, A Diplomatic History, p. 67-68.
108 Bailey’s textbook A Diplomatic History of the American People, first published in 1940, is widelyused
in American universities.
109 Ibid., p. 64.
110 USDC, 2:507, Report of John Jay on a Reference of his Report of 31 st January Last, March 22,
1786.
237