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

of Cruelties” at a Barbary court but because the Americans considered the price
exorbitant. Indeed, fixing prices and bargaining for human beings was common
practice in the United States itself; the only difference is that it was practiced
on a much larger scale and involved human beings with other than the white
skin. 18 Indeed, what was shocking for Americans was the “soaring avarice of
the Dey” and the “enormous ransom he demanded for twenty-one prisoners.” 19
Condemnation reached a peak when to the total sum was added an 11% tax
“according to custom.” 20
But according to Cathcart and the other captives, although Lamb
considered the price exorbitant he agreed to pay it but he also specified that “as
the United States were at a great distance, that he could not promise to return
with the cash in less than four months from his departure from Algiers.” 21 To
confirm the agreement with the American envoy, the Dey summoned Lamb
before his departure and asked him whether he was “perfectly contented with
the agreement he had made.” 22 Lamb answered that he would have been better
content had the terms been more favorable, but that he had “ratified the
agreement.” 23 Lamb held a last meeting with Sidi Hassan, the Wakil Khardj or
18 At the first population census of the USA in 1790 the number of the slave population was 757,000
while at Algiers there were about 1,500 slaves from the different nations, in addition to 21 Americans,
as reported by Lamb in 1786 (the ratio is approximately 500 to 1). That number, however, kept
gradually decreasing. The last group comprising 500 Christian captives was forcibly released in 1816
after the bombardment of Algiers by the British. For the number of Christian captives at Algiers in
1786 see USDC, 3:88, From John Lamb to Thomas Jefferson, May 20, 1786.
19 Irwin, Diplomatic Relations, p. 38. Cathcart, however, estimated that that sum could have been easily
raised: “One cargo of tobacco sold in England, … would have paid our ransom.” Cathcart, The
Captives, p. 42.
20 Ibid.; USDC, 3:84, From John Lamb to Thomas Jefferson, May 20, 1786.
21 USDC, 2:749, From the American Captives to John Adams, February 13, 1787.
22 Cathcart, The Captives, pp. 38-9.
23 Ibid.
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