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

ut diplomatically they were considered as a financial burden on the state. 71
Perhaps also Donaldson declined the offer of the Dey because he saw that his
countrymen behaved more as free men than as captives or slaves; in all cases,
they were not the kind of slaves he was accustomed to see in his own country.
A product of the ideology of his time, his attitude should not be considered as
shocking: when the Dey sent him John Foss and two other captives to serve as
his personal domestics he told them that he still considered them as slaves and
asked them to behave as such! 72
Skjoldebrand after suffering his terrorization
and suspicions—he was accused of spying for the Dey—declared that
Donaldson was “wholly unqualified for the business he was sent on; that he
hardly thought such another original could be found in the United States.” 73
2. 2. A Treaty of Peace and Amity, 1795
The treaty by itself is a subject matter for legal studies; 74 nonetheless,
few remarks should be made here: first, Turkish was the first language of the
treaty but there exists an original English translation (in four original copies)
which Cathcart claimed he had made:
71 On the return of captives, Congress fathered the publication of the journal of John Foss which he
held at Algiers. In its second edition, Foss embellished the original narrative thus increasing the
original text from 80 pages to 190 pages. Daniel Williams, “White Slaves, African Masters:
An Anthology of American Barbary Captivity Narratives,” Early American Literature, 36: 2 (Mar.
2001), p. 317.
72 Barnby, Prisoners of Algiers, p. 190.
73 Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers, edited by Dudley
Knox, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1939-44), 1:129, Barlow to Humphreys,
Apr. 3 rd , 1796; also Ross, “The Mission of Joseph Donaldson,” p. 433. (Hereafter cited as NDBW).
74 For the full English version of the treaty see The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of
America, from the Organization of Government in 1789 to March 3, 1845, edited by Richard Peters,
vol. VIII (Boston, MA: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1867), pp. 133-137. (Hereafter cited as
SaL). It is mentioned on page 137 that the original treaty was in Arabic which is incorrect. See also
Appendix 9.
316