Hayreddin Barbarossa, an Ottoman admiral

The Barbary corsairs, sometimes called Ottoman corsairs or Barbary pirates, were pirates and privateers (corsairs) who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, a term derived from the name of its Berber inhabitants. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard and even South America,^[1] and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, but they primarily operated in the western Mediterranean. In addition to seizing ships, they engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, but also in England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Ireland, and as far away as Iceland. The main purpose of their attacks was to capture Christian slaves for the Islamic market in North Africa and the Middle East.^[2]

While such raids had occurred since soon after the Muslim conquest of the region, the terms Barbary pirates and Barbary corsairs are normally applied to the raiders active from the 16th century onwards, when the frequency and range of the slavers' attacks increased and Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli came under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, either as directly administered provinces or as autonomous dependencies known as the Barbary States. Similar raids were undertaken from Bou Regreg and Salé and other ports in Morocco, but strictly speaking Morocco, which never came under Ottoman dominance, was not one of the Barbary States.

Göke (1495) was the flagship of Kemal Reis at the Battle of Zonchio

Corsairs captured thousands of ships, and long stretches of coast in Spain and Italy were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants, discouraging settlement until the 19th century. From the 16th to 19th century, corsairs captured an estimated 800,000 to 1.25 million people as slaves.^[2] Some corsairs were European outcasts such as John Ward, Zymen Danseker and Henry Mainwaring.^[3] Hayreddin Barbarossa and Oruç Reis, the Barbarossa brothers, who took control of Algiers on behalf of the Ottomans in the early 16th century, were also famous corsairs. The European pirates brought state-of-the-art sailing and shipbuilding techniques to the Barbary Coast around 1600, which enabled the corsairs to extend their activities into the Atlantic Ocean,^[3] and the impact of Barbary raids peaked in the early to mid-17th century.

The scope of corsair activity began to diminish in the latter part of the 17th century, as the more powerful European navies started to compel the Barbary States to make peace and cease attacking their shipping. However, the ships and coasts of Christian states without such effective protection continued to suffer until the early 19th century. Following the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna in 1814-5 European powers agreed upon the need to suppress the Barbary corsairs entirely and the threat was largely subdued, although occasional incidents continued until finally terminated by the French conquest of Algiers in 1830.

History[link]

Piratical activity by Muslim populations had been known in Mediterranean since at least the 9th century and the short-lived Emirate of Crete. Despite the animosity generated by the Crusades, the level of Muslim pirate activity was relatively low. In the 13th and 14th century it was rather Christian pirates, particularly out of Catalonia, that had been the constant threat to merchants. It was not until the late 14th century that Tunisian corsairs had become enough of a threat to provoke a Franco-Genoese attack on Mahdia in 1390, also known as the "Barbary Crusade". Moorish exiles of the Reconquista and Maghreb pirates added to the numbers, but it was not until the expansion of the Ottoman Empire and the arrival of the privateer and admiral Kemal Reis in 1487 that the Barbary corsairs became a true menace to Christian shipping.^[4]

The Barbary pirates had long attacked British and other European shipping along the North Coast of Africa. They had been attacking British merchant and passengers ships since the 1600s. The many captives required regular fundraising by families and local church groups, who generally raised the ransoms for individuals. The British became familiar with captivity narratives written by Barbary pirates' prisoners and some who were sold into Arab slavery before the North American colonies were well established.^[5] This was decades before English colonists became subject to captivity by Native Americans and began to write their own narratives.

During the American Revolution, the pirates attacked American ships. On December 20, 1777, Morocco's Sultan Mohammed III declared that the American merchant ships would be under the protection of the sultanate and could thus enjoy safe passage into the Mediterranean and along the coast. The Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship stands as the U.S.'s oldest non-broken friendship treaty^[6][7] with a foreign power. In 1787 Morocco had been one of the first nations to recognize the United States.^[8]

16th century[link]

Battle of Preveza, 1538.

Spanish Moors and Muslim adventurers from the Levant, of whom the most successful were Hızır and Oruç, natives of Mitylene, increased the amount of raids around the turn of the 15th century. In response, Spain began to conquer the coast towns of Oran, Algiers and Tunis. But after Oruç was killed in battle with the Spanish in 1518, his brother Hızır appealed to Selim I, the Ottoman sultan, who sent him troops. In 1529, Hızır drove the Spaniards from the rocky, fortified island in front of Algiers, and founded the Ottoman power in the region. From about 1518 till the death of Uluch Ali in 1587, Algiers was the main seat of government of the beylerbeys of northern Africa, who ruled over Tripoli, Tunisia and Algeria. From 1587 to 1659, they were ruled by Ottoman pashas, sent from Constantinople to govern for three years; but in the latter year a military revolt in Algiers reduced the pashas to nonentities. From 1659, these African cities, although nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, were in fact military republics which chose their own rulers and lived by war booty captured from the Spanish and Portuguese. There are several cases of Sephardic Jews, including Sinan Reis and Samuel Pallache, who upon fleeing Iberia turned to attacking the Spanish Empire's shipping under the Ottoman flag, a profitable strategy of revenge for the Inquisition's religious persecution.^[9][10]

During the first period (1518–1587), the beylerbeys were admirals of the sultan, commanding great fleets and conducting war operations for political ends. They were slave-hunters and their methods were ferocious. After 1587, the sole object of their successors became plunder, on land and sea. The maritime operations were conducted by the captains, or reises, who formed a class or even a corporation. Cruisers were fitted out by investors and commanded by the reises. Ten percent of the value of the prizes was paid to the pasha or his successors, who bore the titles of agha or dey or bey.^[11]

The Quattro Mori ("Four Moors") by Pietro Tacca; Livorno, Italy

In 1544, Hayreddin captured the island of Ischia, taking 4,000 prisoners, and enslaved some 9,000 inhabitants of Lipari, almost the entire population.^[12] In 1551, Turgut Reis enslaved the entire population of the Maltese island Gozo, between 5,000 and 6,000, sending them to Libya. In 1554, corsairs sacked Vieste in southern Italy and took an estimated 7,000 slaves.^[13] In 1555, Turgut Reis sacked Bastia, Corsica, taking 6,000 prisoners. In 1558, Barbary corsairs captured the town of Ciutadella (Minorca), destroyed it, slaughtered the inhabitants and took 3,000 survivors to Istanbul as slaves.^[14] In 1563, Turgut Reis landed on the shores of the province of Granada, Spain, and captured coastal settlements in the area, such as Almuñécar, along with 4,000 prisoners. Barbary corsairs often attacked the Balearic Islands, and in response many coastal watchtowers and fortified churches were erected. The threat was so severe that the island of Formentera became uninhabited.

Even at this early stage, the European states fought back: Livorno's monument Quattro Mori celebrates 16th century victories against the Barbary corsairs won by the Knights of Malta and the Order of Saint Stephen, of which the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando I de' Medici was Grand Master. Another response was the construction of the original frigates; light, fast and manoueverable galleys, designed to run down Barbary corsairs trying to get away with their loot and slaves. Other measures included coastal lookouts to give warning for people to withdraw into fortified places and rally local forces to fight the corsairs, though this latter objective was especially difficult to achieve as the corsairs had the advantage of surprise; the vulnerable European Mediterranean coasts were very long and easily accessible from the north African Barbary bases, and the corsairs were careful in planning their raids.

17th century[link]

Cornelis Hendriksz Vroom, Spanish Men-of-War Engaging Barbary Corsairs, 1615.

The first half of the 17th century saw the peak of Barbary raiding. This was due largely to the contribution of Dutch corsairs, notably Zymen Danseker (Simon de Danser), who used the Barbary ports as bases for attacking Spanish shipping during the Dutch Revolt. They cooperated with local raiders and introduced them to the latest Dutch sailing rigs, enabling them to brave Atlantic waters.^[15] Some of these Dutch corsairs converted to Islam and settled permanently in North Africa. Two examples are Süleyman Reis, "De Veenboer", who became admiral of the Algerian corsair fleet in 1617, and his quartermaster Murat Reis, born Jan Janszoon. Both worked for the notorious Dutch corsair Zymen Danseker.

In 1607, the Order of Malta went on the offensive with forty-five galleys, capturing and pillaging the city of Bona in Algeria.^[16] The participation of the Knights of Saint Stephen (under Jacopo Inghirami) in this victory is commemorated by a series of frescoes painted by Bernardino Poccetti in the "Sala di Bona" of Palazzo Pitti, Florence.^[17][18]

Battle of a French ship of the line and two galleys of the Barbary corsairs

Barbary corsair attacks were common in southern Portugal, south and east Spain, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Sardinia, Corsica, Elba, the Italian Peninsula (especially the coasts of Liguria, Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Calabria and Apulia), Sicily and Malta. They also occurred on the Atlantic northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula. In 1617, the African corsairs launched their major attack in the region when they destroyed and sacked Bouzas, Cangas and the churches of Moaña and Darbo.

Occasionally coastal raids reached farther afield. Iceland was subject to raids in 1627. Jan Janszoon, (Murat Reis the Younger) is said to have taken 400 prisoners; 242 of the captives later were sold into slavery on the Barbary Coast. The corsairs took only young people and those in good physical condition. All those offering resistance were killed, and the old people were gathered into a church which was set on fire. Among those captured was Ólafur Egilsson, who was ransomed the next year and, upon returning to Iceland, wrote a slave narrative about his experience.

A Barbary pirate, Pier Francesco Mola 1650.

Ireland was subject to a similar attack. In June 1631 Murat Reis, with corsairs from Algiers and armed troops of the Ottoman Empire, stormed ashore at the little harbor village of Baltimore, County Cork. They captured almost all the villagers and took them away to a life of slavery in North Africa.^[11] The prisoners were destined for a variety of fates — some lived out their days chained to the oars as galley slaves, while others would spend long years in the scented seclusion of the harem or within the walls of the sultan's palace. Only two of them ever saw Ireland again.^[19]

More than 20,000 captives were said to be imprisoned in Algiers alone. The rich were often able to secure release through ransom, but the poor were condemned to slavery. Their masters would on occasion allow them to secure freedom by professing Islam. A long list might be given of people of good social position, not only Italians or Spaniards, but German or English travelers in the south, who were captives for a time.^[11] While the chief victims were the inhabitants of the coasts of Sicily, Naples and Spain, all traders of nations which did not pay tribute for immunity or force the Barbary States to leave them alone were liable to be taken at sea. Religious orders — the Redemptorists and Lazarists — worked for the redemption of captives, and large legacies were left for that purpose in many countries.

An action between an English ship and vessels of the Barbary Corsairs

Lieve Pietersz Verschuier, Dutch ships bomb Tripoli in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates, c. 1670

The continuation of piracy was assisted by competition among European powers. France encouraged the corsairs against Spain, and later Britain and Holland supported them against France. By the second half of the 17th century the greater European naval powers were able to strike back effectively enough to intimidate the Barbary States into making peace with them. However, those countries' commercial interests then benefited from the impact of continuing attacks on their competitors, and as a result there was little interest in imposing a more general cessation of corsair activity.

The most successful of the Christian states in dealing with the corsair threat was England. From the 1630s onwards England had signed peace treaties with the Barbary States on various occasions, but invariably breaches of these agreements led to renewed wars. A particular bone of contention was the tendency of foreign ships to pose as English to avoid attack. However, growing English naval power and increasingly persistent operations against the corsairs proved increasingly costly for the Barbary States. During the reign of Charles II a series of English expeditions won victories over raiding squadrons and mounted attacks on their home ports which permanently ended the Barbary threat to English shipping. In 1675 a Royal Navy squadron led by Sir John Narborough negotiated a lasting peace with Tunis and, after bombarding the city to induce compliance, with Tripoli. Peace with Sale followed in 1676. Algiers, the most powerful of the Barbary States, returned to war the following year, breaking a treaty made in 1671, but further defeats at the hands of an English squadron under Arthur Herbert forced Algiers to make peace again in 1682, in a treaty which would last until 1816. France, which had recently emerged as a leading naval power, achieved comparable success soon afterwards, with bombardments of Algiers in 1682, 1683 and 1688 securing a lasting peace, while Tripoli was similarly coerced in 1686.

[edit] 18th–19th centuries

Captain William Bainbridge paying tribute to the Dey of Algiers, circa 1800

In 1783 and 1784 it was the turn of Spaniards to bombard Algiers. The second time, Admiral Barceló damaged the city so severely that the Algerian Dey asked Spain to negotiate a peace treaty and from then on Spanish vessels and coasts were safe for several years.

Until the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 British treaties with the North African states protected American ships from the Barbary corsairs. Morocco, which in 1777 was the first independent nation to publicly recognize the United States, became in 1784 the first Barbary power to seize an American vessel after independence. The Barbary threat led directly to the creation of the United States Navy in March 1794. While the United States managed to secure peace treaties, these obliged it to pay tribute for protection from attack. Payments in ransom and tribute to the Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States government annual expenditures in 1800.^[20] The First Barbary War in 1801 and the Second Barbary War in 1815 led to more favorable peace terms ending the payment of tribute. However, Algiers broke the 1805 peace treaty after only two years, and subsequently refused to implement the 1815 treaty until compelled to do so by Britain in 1816.

The Congress of Vienna in 1814–5, which ended the Napoleonic Wars, led to increased consensus on the need to achieve a general halt to Barbary raiding. The sacking of Palma on the island of Sardinia by a Tunisian squadron, which carried off 158 inhabitants, roused widespread indignation. Britain had by this time banned the slave trade and was seeking to induce other countries to do likewise. This led to complaints from states which were still vulnerable to the corsairs that Britain's enthusiasm for ending the trade in African slaves did not extend to stopping the enslavement of Europeans and Americans by the Barbary States.

Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth in August 1816, Thomas Luny.

In order to neutralise this objection and further the anti-slavery campaign, in 1816 Lord Exmouth was sent to secure new concessions from Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers, including a pledge to treat Christian captives in any future conflict as prisoners of war rather than slaves and the imposition of peace between Algiers and the kingdoms of Sardinia and Sicily. On his first visit he negotiated satisfactory treaties and sailed for home. While he was negotiating, a number of Sardinian fishermen who had settled at Bona on the Tunisian coast were brutally treated without his knowledge. As Sardinians they were technically under British protection and the government sent Exmouth back to secure reparation. On August 17, in combination with a Dutch squadron under Admiral Van de Capellen, he bombarded Algiers. Both Algiers and Tunis made fresh concessions as a result.

However, securing uniform compliance with a total prohibition of slave-raiding, which was traditionally of central importance to the North African economy, presented difficulties beyond those faced in ending attacks on ships of individual nations, which had left slavers able to continue their accustomed way of life by preying on less well-protected peoples. Algiers subsequently renewed its slave-raiding, though on a smaller scale. Measures to be taken against the city's government were discussed at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. In 1824 another British fleet under Admiral Sir Harry Neal again bombarded Algiers. Corsair activity based in Algiers did not entirely cease until its conquest by France in 1830.^[11]

Barbary slaves[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

While Barbary corsairs naturally looted the cargo of ships they captured, their primary goal was to capture prisoners on land or at sea and turn them into slaves. Once captured, the slaves were often sold or put to work in various ways in North Africa.

The historian Robert C. Davis has estimated that between 1530 and 1780 1-1.25 million Europeans were captured and enslaved in North Africa, principally in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, with further captives in Istanbul and Salé.^[21]

Sultan of Morocco, by Eugène Delacroix.

Being captured was just the first part of a slave's nightmare journey. Many slaves died on the ships during the long voyage back to North Africa due to disease or lack of food and water. The ones that did survive the journey were made a spectacle of as they walked through town on their way to the slave auction. The slaves would then have to stand from eight in the morning until two in the afternoon while buyers passed by and viewed them. Next came the auction, where the townspeople would bid on the slaves they wanted to purchase and once that was over, the governor of Algiers (the Dey) had the chance to purchase any slave he wanted for the price they were sold at the auction. During these auctions, the slaves would be forced to run and jump around to show their strength and stamina. After purchase, these slaves would either become slaves for ransom, or they would be put to work. There were a wide variety of jobs slaves had, from hard manual labor to doing housework (the job that almost all women slaves got). At night the slaves were put into prisons called 'bagnios' that were often hot and overcrowded. However, these bagnios began improving by the 18th century, and some bagnios had chapels, hospitals, shops, and bars run by slaves, though such amenities remained uncommon.

Galley slaves[link]

Although the conditions in bagnios were harsh, they were better than what the galley slaves had to go through. Barbary galleys were at sea for around eighty to a hundred days a year, so the slaves were not on them constantly, but when they were not rowing the galleys they were forced to do difficult manual labor on land. However, there were some exceptions; "galley slaves of the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul would be permanently confined to their galleys, and often served extremely long terms, averaging around nineteen years in the late seventeenth-century and early eighteenth-century periods. These slaves rarely got off the galley but lived there for years."^[22] During this time, rowers were shackled and chained where they sat, and were never allowed to leave. Sleeping (which was limited), eating, defecation and urination took place at the seat to which they were shackled. There was normally around five or six rowers on each oar. Overseers would walk back and forth and whip the slaves who were not rowing up to par.

Freedom for slaves[link]

Barbary slaves could hope to be freed through payment of a ransom. Despite the efforts of middlemen and charities to raise money to provide ransoms, they were still very difficult to come by. Just as charity funding for slave ransoms increased, North African states kept increasing the amount of money that each slave was worth. However, lack of money was not the only problem standing between slaves and their freedom. Slaves would often need to notify their families that they were captive and inform them of the ransom price, and they would also need to pay the hefty mailing charge (which few slaves could afford) and wait several months for the mail to be delivered.

For the slaves and their families who were able to come up with the money, actually returning home was not guaranteed either. Redeemed slaves often went through a port to wait for the ransom to be finalized, and in some cases in the 17th and 18th centuries, slaves were kept at these ports as a quarantine due to fear of the plague.

Clearly, not many barbary slaves could depend on being rescued by ransoms, and instead had to look for the chance to escape. This was obviously easier said than done, since only a handful of slaves were actually able to escape. The most famous of runaway slaves was Thomas Pellow, who had the story of his journey published in 1740. After several failed attempts (which nearly resulted in his death), Pellow was finally able to escape to Gibraltar in July 1738.

French bombardment of Algiers by Admiral Dupperé, 13 June 1830.

Famous Barbary corsairs[link]

According to historian Adrian Tinniswood, the most notorious corsairs were English and European renegades who had learned their trade as privateers, and who moved to the Barbary Coast during peacetime to pursue their trade. These outcasts brought up-to-date naval expertise to the piracy business, and enabled the corsairs to make long-distance slave-catching raids as far away as Iceland and Newfoundland.^[3] The English corsair Henry Mainwaring later returned to England with a royal pardon, was knighted, elected to Parliament and appointed a vice admiral of the Royal Navy.^[3]

The Barbarossa brothers[link]

Oruç Barbarossa[link]

The most famous of the corsairs in North Africa were the four Barbarossa brothers, who all became Barbary corsairs. However, only two of the Barbarossas became famous, Oruç and Hızır Hayreddin. Oruç, the oldest who gave the Barbarossas their name because of his red beard, captured the island of Djerba for the Ottoman Empire in 1502 or 1503. Often, Oruç would attack Spanish territories on the coast of North Africa, and during one failed attempt in 1512, Oruç lost his left arm to a cannon ball. The oldest Barbarossa would also go on a rampage through Algiers in 1516 and capture the town with the help of the Ottoman Empire. He executed the ruler of Algiers and everybody he suspected would oppose him, including local rulers. He was finally captured and killed by the Spanish in 1518 and put on display.

Hızır Hayreddin Barbarossa[link]

However, Oruç was not the most famous corsair of the Barbarossas since he was more of a land-based corsair. His youngest brother Hızır (later named Hayreddin, pronounced Kheir ed-Din) was a more traditional corsair, and was actually a more capable corsair as he was a clever engineer and spoke at least six languages. But Hızır was obviously very fond of his eldest brother, and dyed his hair and beard with a reddish tint to honor Oruç. After capturing many crucial coastal areas, Hayreddin was appointed admiral in chief of the Ottoman sultan's fleet. Under Hızır's command, the Ottoman empire was able to gain control and keep control of the eastern Mediterranean for over thirty years. Barbaros Hızır Hayreddin Pasha died in 1546 of either the plague or fever.

Captain Jack Ward[link]

Perhaps the most notorious English corsair was Captain Jack Ward - (also known as John Ward). He was once called, "beyond doubt the greatest scoundrel that ever sailed from England", by the English Ambassador to Venice. Ward was born in Faversham, England, but traveled to Plymouth when he got older in hopes to become a privateer for Queen Elizabeth during her war with Spain. Once the war was over, Ward, like many other ex-privateers, soon became bored with his life. He and some of his mates who were serving on board a naval vessel, decided to capture a ship and sail it to Tunis in North Africa. Here, Ward's ship was renamed Little John and he began his rather successful career as a pirate.

Ward captured many ships such as John Keyes' and the Fursman brothers' before he made his riches by capturing a 1500 ton Venetian vessel called Reneira a Soderina. He soon made it his primary boat and armed it with 60 cannons and 380 men. However, after an amazing voyage where he captured vessels whose combined value was around 400,000 crowns, Ward discovered an irreparable leak in the boat and he abandoned it along with most of his crew. Now an extremely wealthy man, Ward hoped to purchase a pardon and finally return home. But when his offer was denied, he stayed in Tunis and built himself a palace with his riches. Ward was the most notorious corsair in Tunis not only for his vast success as a corsair, but also for introducing the concept of using square-rigged and heavily armed ships (as opposed to galleys) to the North African area. This concept was a major reason for the Barbary's future dominance of the Mediterranean. Before dying of the plague in 1622, Jack Ward (like many other Christians who sailed North Africa) abandoned his religion and converted to Islam.

Other famous Barbary corsairs[link]

• Kemal Reis (c. 1451 – 1511)
• Gedik Ahmed Pasha
• Sinan Reis (died 1546)
• Piri Reis (died 1554 or 1555)
• Turgut Reis (1485 – 1565)
• Sinan Pasha (died 1553)
• Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis (1487 – c. 1535)
• Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis
• Salih Reis (1488 ca. – 1568)
• Seydi Ali Reis (1498 – 1563)
• Piyale Pasha (c. 1515-1578)
• Uluç Ali Reis (1519 - 1587)
• Murat Reis the Elder (c.1534-1638)
• Simon de Danser or Simon Reis (c. 1579 – c. 1611),
• Salomo de Veenboer or Sulayman Reis (died 1620)
• Jan Janszoon or Murat Reis the younger (c. 1570 - post 1641?)

In fiction[link]

Barbary corsairs are protagonists in Le pantere di Algeri (the panthers of Algiers) by Emilio Salgari and appear in a number of other famous novels, including Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, père, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, The Sea Hawk and the Sword of Islam by Rafael Sabatini, The Algerine Captive by Royall Tyler, Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, The Walking Drum by Louis Lamour, Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting and Corsair by Clive Cussler. Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish author, was captive for five years as a slave in the bagnio of Algiers, and reflected his experience in some of his books, including Don Quixote.

Barbary corsairs also feature in many pornographic novels, such as The Lustful Turk (1828), where the abduction of white women into sexual slavery is an abiding interest.^[23]

One of the stereotypical features of a pirate in popular culture, the eye patch, dates back to the Arab corsair Rahmah ibn Jabir al-Jalahimah, who wore it after losing an eye in battle in the 18th century.^[24]

The Little Johnny England song "Lily of Barbary" tells the story of an English man who is enslaved by Barbary corsairs and sold in Algiers, but is freed when his master dies. He then becomes a merchant and buys the freedom of another English slave girl.

See also[link]

• Barbary Slave Trade
• Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
• Turkish Abductions
• Barbary treaties
• Ghazw
• Ottoman Navy
• Islam and slavery
• List of Ottoman sieges and landings
• Ottoman–Habsburg wars
• Sack of Baltimore
• Romegas
• Tybalt Rosembraise
• Republic of Bou Regreg
• Morisco
• U.S. Constitution, Articles Congress could not pay.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Clissold, Stephen. 1976. "CHRISTIAN RENEGADES AND BARBARY CORSAIRS." History Today 26, no. 8: 508-515. Historical Abstracts.
• Davis, Robert C., Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, The Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. 2003. ISBN 0-333-71966-2
• Earle, Peter. The Pirate Wars. Thomas Dunne. 2003
• Forester, C. S. The Barbary Pirates. Random House. 1953
• Konstam, Angus A History of Pirates.
• Kristensen, Jens Riise, Barbary To and Fro Ørby Publishing. 2005.
• Leiner, Frederick C. The End of Barbary Terror: America's 1815 War against the Pirates of North Africa. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 2006
• Lambert, Frank. The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World. Hill & Wang, 2005
• Lloyd, Christopher. 1979. "Captain John Ward: Pirate." History Today 29, no. 11; p. 751.
• Matar, Nabil. 2001. "The Barbary Corsairs, King Charles I and the Civil War." Seventeenth Century 16, no. 2; pp. 239–258.
• Pryor, John H., Geography, Technology, and WarStudies in the Maritime History of the Mediterranean, 649–1571. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1988. ISBN 0-521-34424-7
• Severn, Derek. "The Bombardment of Algiers, 1816." History Today 28, no. 1 (1978); pp. 31–39.
• Silverstein, Paul A. 2005. "The New Barbarians: Piracy and Terrorism on the North African Frontier." CR: The New Centennial Review 5, no. 1; pp. 179–212.
• Travers, Tim, Pirates: A History. Tempus Publishing, Gloucestershire. 2007.
• World Navies
• To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the U.S. Navy and Marines. -- Annapolis, MD : Naval Institute Press, c1991, 2001.

Further reading[link]

• Adrian Tinniswood, Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean, 343 pp. Riverhead Books, 2010. ISBN 978-1-59448-774-3. NY Times review
• White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves by Giles Milton (Sceptre, 2005)
• London, Joshua E. Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005. ISBN 978-0-471-44415-2
• The pirate coast : Thomas Jefferson, the first marines and the secret mission of 1805 by Richard Zacks. Hyperion, 2005. ISBN 1-4013-0849-X
• Christian slaves, Muslim masters : white slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 by Robert C. Davis. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. ISBN 978-0-333-71966-4
• Piracy, Slavery and Redemption: Barbary Captivity Narratives from Early Modern England by D. J. Vikus (Columbia University Press, 2001)
• The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates by Des Ekin ISBN 978-0-86278-955-8
• Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival by Dean King, ISBN 0-316-15935-2
• Oren, Michael. "Early American Encounters in the Middle East", in Power, Faith, and Fantasy. New York: Norton, 2007.
• Boot, Max. The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power. New York: Basic Books, 2002. ISBN 0-465-00720-1
• Lambert, Frank. The Barbary Wars. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005.
• Whipple, A. B. C. To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the U.S. Navy and Marines. Bluejacket Books, 1991. ISBN 1-55750-966-2

External links[link]

• Hitchens, Christopher (Spring 2007). "Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates". City Journal. http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_urbanities-thomas_jefferson.html. Retrieved 2007-04-28. 
• Knights Hospitaller of St. John - Order of St John of Jerusalem Malta
• Pirates of the Mediterranean
• The Barbary Pirates
• New book reopens old arguments about slave raids on Europe
• Barbary Warfare
• The Barbary Wars at the Clements Library:An online exhibit on the Barbary Wars with images and transcriptions of primary documents from the period.
• American Barbary Wars
• America's First War On Terror Paul Fallon, October 17, 2002

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2009)

Vic Reeves
Vic Reeves (right) with Bob Mortimer during the Big Night Out tour.
Birth name	James Roderick Moir
Born	(1959-01-24) 24 January 1959 (age 53) Leeds, England
Medium	Stand up, Television
Years active	1989–present
Genres	Surreal humour, Physical comedy
Influences	Monty Python, Spike Milligan, Malcolm Hardee, Eric Morecambe, Steve Martin
Influenced	Charlie Higson, Paul Whitehouse, Noel Fielding, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Harry Hill
Spouse	Sarah Vincent (1990-1999) (two children) Nancy Sorrell (2003 to date) (two children)

James Roderick Moir (born 24 January 1959), better known by the stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer (see Vic and Bob). He is known for his surreal and non sequitur sense of humour.

In 2003, he and Bob Mortimer were listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, Reeves and Mortimer were voted the 9th greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Early life[link]

James Roderick Moir was born in Leeds, the son of James Neill (1926–2004) and Audrey Moir (née Leigh). At the age of five, he moved to Darlington with his parents and younger sister Lois. He attended Heathfield Nursery and went on to the nearby secondary school, Eastbourne Comprehensive in Darlington.

Marriage[link]

Moir has four children; the eldest two are Alice Vincent Moir (born May 1993) and Louis Vincent Moir (born July 1997 in York), by his first wife Sarah Vincent, whom he married in 1990. They divorced in 1999.

He met his second wife, Nancy Sorrell, in 2001, and the couple married on 25 January 2003. Sorrell gave birth to twin girls Elizabeth and Nell at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent on 25 May 2006.

He now lives in Charing, near Ashford.^[2] He is a keen amateur birdwatcher. In August 2006 he attended the National Crabbing Competition at Walberswick in Suffolk along with Sorrell and their twin daughters.

Moir buried his classic Austin A40 Somerset in his back garden, as shown on the BBC's 1997 Omnibus documentary - A Film Of Reeves & Mortimer. He also appeared on the ITV show Mr and Mrs with his wife Nancy Sorrell.

Career[link]

After school, Moir undertook an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering, before moving to London and becoming a factory inspector.

He also formed the Fashionable Five, a group of five friends (including Jack Dent, who ran the original Fan Club) who would follow bands like The Enid and Free onto stage, and perform pranks (including Moir pretending to have a brass hand, and following a Terry Scott lookalike around Darlington town centre in single file formation). Eventually, they formed their own band. Reeves had an early breakthrough with the help of comedian Malcolm Hardee.

In 1983, he began a part-time course at a local art college, developed his love of painting and eventually persuaded a local art gallery to stage an exhibition of his unique work. Although still primarily known as a comedian, he is also gaining a reputation as an artist. His drawings and paintings have been used in his television shows and form a major part of his 1999 book, Sun Boiled Onions.

As Vic Reeves[link]

As well as working and performing in bands, in London, Moir also joined the alternative comedy circuit under many different guises. These included a loudmouth American called Jim Bell, a beat poet called Mister Mystery and, eventually, "The North-East’s Top Light Entertainer" - Vic Reeves. His stage show Vic Reeves Big Night Out began life as a regular Thursday night gig at Goldsmith’s Tavern, New Cross (now the New Cross House). Here he met Bob Mortimer, a solicitor who attended the show and enjoyed it so much that he soon began to participate. His television debut came in December 1986 on Channel 4 Television's The Tube in a comedy game show segment called "Square Celebrities", suspended by a wire to ask the "celebrities" questions. His next appearance was on the short-lived chat/comedy show One Hour with Jonathan Ross in a game show segment known as Knock Down Ginger. His growing TV profile led to Big Night Out being given a slot on Channel 4 the following year. It was about this time that Vic and Bob rented a back room at Jools Holland's office/recording studio in Westcombe Park, Greenwich where they would spend hours writing material.

Reeves continued to work alongside Bob Mortimer as a comedy duo in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Shooting Stars, and Bang Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer, some of which also featured future cast members of The Fast Show and Little Britain.

Reeves is one of the few comedians to have had a number one hit record in the UK Singles Chart, which he did in company with The Wonder Stuff, singing "Dizzy" (previously a number one hit for Tommy Roe). The single's B-side was the original composition "Oh! Mr. Hairdresser", recorded with The Images of Cream and supposedly featuring Bob Mortimer on mandolin. He had also released a version of Born Free, which was critically acclaimed and also reached the top ten. A third single during the same period, Abide With Me, had little success. All three tracks appeared on his album, I Will Cure You, released in 1991. In 1995, Reeves collaborated with EMF, covering The Monkees hit "I'm a Believer". Before finding fame, Reeves appeared in the Shakin' Stevens video promo for "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For".^[3]

A 1994 pilot written by Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson entitled The Honeymoon's Over was due to feature Chris Bell, a character from The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer. The series was never commissioned. The same year, Reeves made a guest appearance on the Radio 1 series Shuttleworth's Showtime, hosted by John Shuttleworth.

Between August 1998 and May 1999, Reeves and Mortimer presented the Channel X produced BBC Saturday night family game show Families at War alongside Alice Beer.

Reeves played Marty Hopkirk in the BBC's 2000–2001 thriller series Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) - a revival of the original 1960s series, with Mortimer as Randall, Emilia Fox as Jeannie and Tom Baker as Wyvern.

In 2000, he presented a series entitled, Vic Reeves Examines on UK Play. The programme featured celebrities such as Ricky Gervais, Johnny Vegas, Lauren Laverne and Emma Kennedy discussing a topic of their choice. The same year, Reeves presented a one-off radio show on BBC Radio 1, entitled Cock of the Wood.

In 2004 he and Sorrell were both contestants in the fourth series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Along with Mortimer, he appeared in the series Catterick as several characters.

In September 2005 Reeves hosted a show for Virgin Radio called Vic Reeves Big Night In produced by Mark Augustyn, for a short period on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7.00pm.

In May 2006 he presented a programme on ITV Tyne Tees about Northeast comedy culture, It's Funny Up North with... Vic Reeves.

Reeves presented a historical ten-part series, entitled Rogues Gallery, which was shown on the Discovery Channel (UK) in 2005. In the series, he investigated, and portrayed Anne Bonny & Mary Read, Captain Kidd, Claude Duval, Jonathan Wild, Rob Roy, Colonel Blood, George Ransley, Deacon Brodie, Blackbeard and Dick Turpin. Nancy Sorrell also appeared in some episodes. Continuing in this vein, Vic Reeves' Pirates was shown on ITV West, and subsequently on The History Channel in 2007.

In 2007, Reeves hosted a show called Vic Reeves Investigates: Jack the Ripper. Reeves, with the help of historians and leading experts, tried to discover who Jack the Ripper was. At the end of the show, he came to the conclusion that Jack the Ripper was Francis Tumblety.

He was the main presenter of Brainiac: Science Abuse during the fifth and sixth series, replacing Richard Hammond, who quit the show. The series began on 8 May 2007.^[4]

Beginning in June 2007, Reeves presented a BBC Radio 2 panel game called Does the Team Think….

In late 2007, Reeves appeared in a weekly radio-based sketch show on BBC Radio 2, entitled Vic Reeves' House Arrest. The first episode was broadcast on 17 November 2007 and the series ran for six episodes. The show's premise was that Reeves had been put under house arrest for "a crime he didn't commit", and each episode consists of the various events that take place in and around his house on a particular day. Reeves' comedy partner Bob Mortimer plays his housecall-making hairdresser, Carl, while other performers include The Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding as a local vagrant who comes to Reeves' door on a weekly basis looking for work, and Reeves' wife Nancy Sorrell in multiple roles.^[5]

On 20 February 2008, Reeves appeared onstage at the BRIT Awards to present the "Mastercard British Album" award to winners, Arctic Monkeys. He was visibly disorientated and event co-host Sharon Osbourne called him a "pissed bastard" and repeatedly told him to "piss off".^{[citation needed]} There have been claims by The Sun newspaper that Reeves' addled state was due to his autocue failing. In ITV's Teletext music magazine Planet Sound interview, which took place half an hour after the show, Reeves stated that he was trying to read the autocue, and was pushed away by Osbourne whilst trying to do his job. He called Osbourne's behaviour "unacceptable". Planet Sound defended Reeves, saying "for the record" he was not drunk, and declared that there are better people to present live awards ceremonies than the Osbournes, such as Jonathan Ross.

On 27 February 2008, Reeves announced that he and Mortimer were working together on a new sitcom about super heroes who get their powers through a malfunctioning telegraph pole.^[6] He also reiterated his desire to bring back Shooting Stars for a 6th series. Along with his son, he is also featured in one edition of a factual TV series for Five, Dangerous Adventures For Boys, based on the best-selling book written by Conn and Hal Iggulden, The Dangerous Book for Boys.

In February 2009, Reeves appeared as presenter of the first episode of My Brilliant Britain, one of the new television shows commissioned for UKTV People channel's relaunch as Blighty.^[7]

On 25 August 2009, Reeves appeared as a guest on the BBC One programme The One Show alongside Bob Mortimer

Series 6 of Shooting Stars began airing on 26 August 2009 with Reeves returning as co-host with Mortimer, along with Ulrika Jonsson and Jack Dee as team captains.

Reeves appeared as one of the guests in Reece Shearsmith's Haunted House, a light-hearted radio discussion show which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in two parts, either side of Halloween. The first part aired on 29 October 2009 and the second on 5 November 2009.^[8]

Reeves also lends his voice to the Virgin Atlantic Airlines onboard safety video, alongside Dani Behr.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2011, Reeves commemorated the Royal Wedding by painting 100 plates bearing a picture he drew of William and Kate, with the slogan "Our future King and Queen, Bill and Cath." He also painted a vase, which bore a shirtless William. The plates were priced at £100GBP each.^[9]

In July 2011, Vic rejoined Bob for a selection of YouTube Improvised Comedy Sketches, in association with Fosters - They released their "Afternoon Delight" clips every weekday afternoon in July.

Television appearances[link]

Reeves has appeared without Mortimer on a number of British television shows, primarily game shows, poll programs and charity telethons. These include: