That Time the US Paid a $642,500 Ransom to Pirates
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
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Did you know that the U.S.’ first foreign-fought war was with…pirates? After the U.S. declared independence, the Barbary pirates began capturing Americans in the Mediterranean and holding them for ransom. At one point, Congress agreed to pay them a huge portion of their federal budget. In this episode of Rogue History, we uncover the truth behind the pirates that nearly snuffed out the U.S. economy.
Some images are sourced from © LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz-Vienna:
“Admiral of the Turkish ships, of the Algerian pirates” and “Captain of an Algerian pirate ship” from a series of depictions from Algeria by Andreas Matthäus Wolfgang
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Rogue History
Shaking off the barnacles from this wildly popular storytelling canon, this Pirates historical series is an enlightening voyage that unravels historical myths, unearths lost narratives, and discovers fresh perspectives. This is the pirate history you were never told.
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:26 These Pirates Existed for Hundreds of Years
00:50 U.S. Government Paid Ransom for Captives
01:20 Who Were the Barbary Pirates?
01:38 Meaning of “Barbary”
02:28 Hayreddin Hizir Reis/ Barbarossa
03:03 Selim I Recognized the Value of These Pirates
03:35 A Famous Captive of the Barbary Pirates
04:27 An Ambitious New Nation Challenges Them
05:44 Contradictory Attitudes Towards Enslavement
06:13 The First Barbary Pirate War
06:25 “The Shores of Tripoli”
06:50 The Second Barbary Pirate War
07:25 The End of Their Reign
07:46 Were The Barbary Wars Really Religious Conflicts?
Correction:
01:31 This region was called ‘The Maghreb’ by settlers of Arab and Ottoman origin, and ‘Tamazgha’ by indigenous people.
Reminded of the Frederick Douglas quote “A man may think slavery is right, but no man thinks slavery is right for him.”
The Treaty of Tripoli that's mentioned, written and ratified mostly by founding fathers, also has a telling passage that states "The United States is in no way a Christian nation." Funny that a lot of people have forgotten that...
lol never has the willing suspension of disbelief ever been used in reality like it is in the states
Exactly. “As the government of the United States of America was in no sense founded on the Christian religion.” We are not a Christian nation!
@@janmitchell3976 I mean, it's bad but I really encourage you to read some ancient history
something for you to consider.
Because the “founding fathers” were themselves Christian, perhaps references to God and belief in the value of religion if associated with Christianity is only because that is what they know well. Maybe the choice to not mention Jesus, which distinguishes Christianity from Judaism and Islam was indeed more purposeful that you are choosing to imagine/ suggest.
To respect religion and acknowledge a God is not only a value for a Christian; though , if you are a Christian and practice your religion, you would be well versed in the benefits of a life devoted to a higher power and a commitment toward becoming a better you in the eye of your idea God. The morality, ideals, and practices in many religions ( generally speaking) are meant to contribute to the cultivation of a “domesticated” human so to speak. A domesticated individual would be an ideal member of a country or group. With original colonists fleeing in their homelands often due to religious persecution, I am sure it was purposeful to leave Jesus’ name out even if they were speaking from their Christian Hearts and Minds. Currently, we can witness the huge impact Judaism has on our school and business hours of operation. It is no coincidence the weekend is Saturday and Sunday - to make room for the Jewish sabbath certainly. School and bank holidays reflect both Christian and Jewish holy days. Why would I know anything of ram kippur roshashanah Hanukkah Passover and what not. To see a country that wants to make claims of being the land of the free and home of the brave makes interpreting the mental limitations of the leaders of the past as being exclusionary is weak. I am more inclined to believe that they were just some desperate selfish fucks maybe trying to be better sometime …
@@fjbiden6327 agree with most, but wasn't Under God, added in the 1940's or 1950's?
Amazing thanks 🙏 from algeria 🇩🇿❤️🇺🇸
It's only algeria ,and they're not Pirates
I am Algerian and I’m impressed how the details and information are accurate in this video.
Keep up the good work!!
We were not pirates and the West always tarnishes our reputation
I am an Algerian from the city of Mourad Raïs 🇩🇿 😊
It was the first time that Sweden and the US fought together as well.
We peaced out early tho 😅
I think Sweden briefly had a colony on Delaware Bay. Not sure what happened to it .
@@Bacopa68 It got conquered by the dutch apparently:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden
Okay this was a way _clearer_ explanation on the Barbary Wars! So great that you made this Joel 😺
(also props to William Ray 👀 - and yeah, pirates are pirates are pirates, in the end they operate with their own MO 😏)
I'm glad you liked it!
I am really enjoying this series. Bravo!
This is one of my favorite stories about America. It feels so telling. The first American military action abroad was both by our navy, which has always been well funded because of our America's location and the Founder's distrust for standing armies, and it was done because they were bleeping with American commerce. America: we'll take a lot, just don't mess with our cash
Or our boats.
The number placed after a monarch's name is to differentiate between a number of kings, queens or princes reigning the same territory with the same name, so it's "Selim the First" and not Selim One.
Definitely need their own tv series. imagine how absolutely amazing a Barbarossa show would be!
it actually has a great new Turkish show.
I never knew any of this. Thanks for sharing.
So cool that both you and Max Miller produced videos about the Barber people today!
Algeria was powerful in the past, but ignorance took hold
Wonderful content! Beautifully presented. More please! Hey Joel Cook, thank you!
This was great. I remember learning about the first, but not second, Barbary War, but I never learned that it had religious dimensions. I suspect that that interpretation probably came into fashion in 2001, which is a shame. Also, thanks for clearing up the notion of "berber" as slur. I like to think that the 7-10% of my North African DNA is Amazigh.
Could you maybe do an episode.. and this might be beyond your scope.. maybe a team-up with Otherwords, about that Atlantic World pidgin language that developed between pirates, explorers, Europeans, Africans etc.?
I am not sure you could call these barbary pirates "sea bandits". They were sailing with the full cooperation of their home countries, they were Privateers, and as such much more like a irregular but official navy of smal countries that were officially at war with the rest of the world.
Great episode as always.
More content like this please! Loved it.
This was one of the most interesting things I learned in high school history, mostly because I had never heard about it before. There are so many fascinating stories from history that so few people hear about.
Wow, I never knew the details. Thank you Mr. Cook. Oh, by the way, great vest!
I had only heard bits and pieces of this wonderful part history, thanks for the time you took on this video.
Excellent presentation, dude. I just recently discovered you and even though I've been a seriously incorrigible history junkie for more than 50 years, I am deeply impressed. I thought I knew a bit about the "Barbary pirates," but it turns out that I did not really understand either the cultural context (as just one example, that the "Berbers" resented the name they were given, with its roots in the all-encompassing, ancient Greek slur on "barbarian foreigners.") Top-notch historiography, my friend. Kudos and deep appreciation. I will be reading and watching what you come up with. Many thanks.
Algeria 🇩🇿🔥 capital of the war
Excellent informative presentation! Thank you so much! Look forward to more! Keep up the great work appreciate it very much, stay well have a beautiful day👍🙏
all good stories will have pirates in them.
Barbarossa didn't declare himself a sultan he was elected by the scholars and chiefs of Algiers as one
Another amazing video on this fascinating topic. That last line "Try to remember the Barbary Pirates for what they really were: thieving, murderous, sea bandits." is perfection! ❤
Forcing America to build them a ship was a real power move.
Prout to be algerian
@@ololonononon1564 🇩🇿😎
absolute power from algeria ...
PBS makes really good videos! Thank you
Thanks. This is the first time I have heard the word Amazigh. I knew that Barber was a pejorative, but I did not know their real name. I think it is like the word Eskimo that, I think, was used by Russian settlers to refer to the Inuit, I think that is correct, people of Alaska.
Those pirates were just like the British Empire. They both prospered by committing armed robbery and murder.
Send Williams Ray's book "Horrors of Slavery" to Ron DeSantis. Highlight the pages where he points out the hypocrisy of slavery in America.
...What ABOUT Ron deSantis and slavery?
The real hypocrisy comes from those who want to forget about the Barbary Slave Trade, the Arab Slave Trade, the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade, or the West African Slave Trade, and and believe that slavery was something created by white Europeans in 1619.
💪🇩🇿💪🔥🔥🔥Vieve algera
This channel is so good!
I'm so glad I found rogue history, it's really cool to find out more about pirates
c est une vraie hiistoire qui sont des algeriens c est pas des voyous.ils ramenent des blans de l europe en parrticuliers dans les pays scandives et de france comme esclaves a ALGER pour les vendre.
لقد نسيت الحادث الوزير الأمريكي أن يطلب من الحاكم الجزائري أن يسلم على يد حاكم الجزاير لكي يبرم معاهدة سلام بين الجزائر وأمريكا لكن رفض الحاكم الجزائري 😂😂😂😂😊😊
Report Louisiana Pearl as a spammer ...and all who replied to their comment...please!
Holy moly! 19 (plus you & the other real person talking about spammers)
@@eliscanfield3913 yep... that's a lot of spammers. And they somehow had this in-depth conversation in like...2 minutes. YT has gotten very sloppy...
Done!
@@irighterotica looks like we got Louisiana Pearl removed!
@@DarkPesco Excellent.
even tho pirates and slavery is a shameful part of our history i still like how this video is accurate , thank you for ur honesty much love from algeria
They are not pirates its called "جهاد البحر "
Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle" books are set in the period where the peak of the North African slave trade led by opportunists and the Ottomans overlapped the beginning of the West African slave trade funded by Europeans seeking low cost labor to send to the New World. Abolition of the slave trade is a major part of these books. I highly recommend them. Also they help us understand that actual Puritans could sometimes be badasses and were actually pretty realistic about sexual matters.
I will check those out! Thanks for the recommendation!
And some of the Most amazing navigators who sailed to the edge of the artic with no charts or GPS or radar. They had fast ships corsair agreed but they were fast and light and not really what needed in the cold Atlantic in bad weather.
It makes sense considering how similar it is to "barbarian," but it has never even crossed my mind before that the term "berber" would be considered a slur
We don't consider it a slur, i don't know where he got that from, but we're more known as amazigh which means "free men"
I have the opening line to the Marines' Hymn tattooed.
In the comments I see a lot of puffed up Algerians boasting about blackmailing the US when we were a new nation and our military was small. But try that today and things will turn out very differently for you, very differently indeed.
In your dreams in 1962 we kicked out France one of the most powerful countries at that time
We fucked you in the past we still do it now, you don't know the first thing about us pal.
Thanks for telling the truth bout Algeria 🇩🇿 was controlled the see side
...i♥️your hair!...👑...
Im loveing this story some things some good things happene
bro they were not pirates they were algerian navy who was under the wing of the ottoman navy
1:31 Nope, native people did NOT use the Arabic word "Maghreb" to refer to their own region. Apart from that slip-up, a great clip!
Tamazgha would be the right one.
Thanks for this! We have added a correction in our video description.
What ? We do refer to the entire region as the “Maghreb”.
I like the way you try to pass the first north africa map it tell me who you are!!!!
Do Klaus Störtebecker!
I almost stopped the video when the host referred to the Ottoman Calif as, “Selim _One”_ instead of Selim the First.
Not in Morocco your wrong Algéria Tunisia lybia check
Well done there is no maroco that time😂
Don’t get scared bb we all know you don’t have balls to do that
@@akselbounia489 hahahaha thanks god the whole world know the real history of algeria the kibgdom of algeria only you empty joking country of mareshal lyaute your country founded by Marshal lyaute 1012 hes olso fiundee your flag your hymne ......haha moroko khemisser khmisset 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🐕🐕🐕🐕🐕🐕tacos tacos
Are you gonna talk about Roberto Cofresi
High Barbaree
Look ahead, look astern, look the weather and the lee,
Blow high ! Blow low ! and so sailed we.
I see a wreck to windward and a lofty ship to lee,
A-sailing down all on the coasts of High Barbaree.
O are you a pirate or a man o'war ? cried we
Blow high ! Blow low ! and so sailed we.
O no ! I'm not a pirate, but a man o'war, cried he,
A-sailing down all on the coasts of High Barbaree.
Then back up your topsails and heave your vessel to;
Blow high ! Blow low ! and so sailed we.
For we have got some letters to be carried home by you.
A-sailing down all on the coasts of High Barbaree.
We'll back up our topsails and heave our vessel to;
Blow high ! Blow low ! and so sailed we.
But only in some harbour and along the side of you.
A-sailing down all on the coasts of High Barbaree.
For broadside, for broadside, they fought all on the main;
Blow high ! Blow low ! and so sailed we.
Until at last the frigate shot the pirate's mast away.
A-sailing down all on the coasts of High Barbaree.
For quarters ! For quarters ! the saucy pirate cried.
Blow high ! Blow low ! and so sailed we.
The quarters that we showed them was to sink them in the tide.
A-sailing down all on the coasts of High Barbaree.
With cutlass, and with gun, O we fought them hours three;
Blow high ! Blow low ! and so sailed we.
The ship it was their coffin, and their grave it was the sea.
A-sailing down all on the coasts of High Barbaree.
But O ! It was a cruel sight, and grieved us full sore,
Blow high ! Blow low ! and so sailed we.
To see them all a-drowning as they tried to swim to shore.
A-sailing down all on the coasts of High Barbaree.
Such a nice supplement to One Piece ^_^7
The presenter's hair is SPECTACULAR ❤🔥
😁
🤣
Algiers ruled Mediterranean sea for 300 years 🇩🇿
Although the Barbary pirates were barbarians, the etymology of the word Barbary doesn't come from "barbarian". "Barbar" is a corruption of the term Berber.
Oh my god I can’t spell the name of the book but that’s so cool to learn about the author! And that these pirates could cause such problems for the governments. Build us a sexy ass boat to get your people back
I'm not going to lie. The only reason why I clicked on this video is because I saw Blackbeard from One Piece.
I'm an Algerian from Irish descendents, my first old grandmother was an Irish from Baltimore originally she was treated as a princess in our clan "Ben yaala" and she got married and having a lot of children, Stop telling lies on things you don't know. They weren't pirates or turk as Europeans says they were a Muslim mudjahid or sea privetiers noting that since 1492 they were rescuing the Muslims and Jewish people from the masacers of the catholics"inquisition" in Andalusia or Spain. Note that they weren't forcing people to convert to Islam as they were the first power in the world at that time. Belive me that there is a lot of hidden history as European use to transmit fake things on Muslims...the true reason behind this attack was that the English "which invaded Baltimore" had broken an agreement with Algerian "khilafa sultan " government and then they faced the backlash.. Maybe you don't know that those you call them pirates and barberies were the firstly discovering the new lands US nowadays.
Well done
Fun fact: some sfardic Jews got revenge on the Spanish crown for expelling them by joining these Barbary pirates.
Berbers being considered a slur makes me feel uncomfortable about AOE2
Christopher Hitchens proved you wrong.
kicking american asses since 1300 xDD
much love from the Maghreb !
Algiers didn't fall for the Spanish invades, Barbarossa helped the natives liberate the other regions then through a controversy he became Sultan
Wow it’s crazy to think that the Ottoman/Turkish pirates 🏴☠️ has accomplished that. & It’s also crazy to think that back in the Ottoman Empire Turkish barbar pirates did hijack warships, trade slaves, tortured slaves & that 🇹🇷 is the only nation that made 🇺🇸 to pay tribute to the Ottoman Turks & why because 🇺🇸 was taxed by a Turkish 🇹🇷 sailor Hasan Pasha & the Barbary war leader was Turkish origin that made these bad things to happen & made Americans suffer. & Turks are the reason that 🇷🇺 lost Alaska so 🇹🇷 was a strong world leader back then & no wonder because Ottoman Empire was a United States Of 🇹🇷.
Greetings From 🇹🇷 No Hatred Only Peace ✌️
🤗
Jefferson did not want to pay ransom,when he became president he went to war against the Barbary Pirates which eventually led to their demise 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
Rogue history is very, very cool.!
why wasn't it a holy war from the perspective of the barbary states?
the barbary states had an ambassador in London, the Americans asked this ambassador why the barbary states were attacking, the barbary states ambassador said, 'we do this for no other reason than you are infidels'
That’s bs “ infidel “ is a European christian terminology we don’t use an equivalent term to express the state of not being a Muslim, the term used in Arabic for example is كافر ( kafir) which the etymology is closer in English to “ someone in denial/ someone who covers the true to himself “ , know that every time a European Christian writer put the word “ infidel “ in a Muslim mouth we already that the story is a forgery that aims to induce hatred and enmity in the earth of the listeners towards people from other faiths..
@@jambouh8575 how do you expect Europeans speaking a European language to understand?
Or even an Arab-berber ambassador speaking a European language?
@@jambouh8575 also, may I mention that the word infidel appears in English translations of the Qur'an
Your welcome Europe. Without America these pirates could’ve been raiding your show for a hundred more years. Sincerely, an ignorant American
They were not pirates
🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿
🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿
You can call them Banu Hilal, not Berbers... Berbers were servants of the Arabs
forgotren? by who?
this is literally in the Marine Corps Hymn and taught in schools, how in the hell is this “forgotten”?
Like a lot, this isn't something taught in most schools. Ask any random person on the street and you might get them to know the War of 1812 but our history is still muddy with legends.
@@CleverCover05 bullcrap. this is taught in schools, you either forgot or didn’t pay attention.
@@bostonrailfan2427 nope, I def would have remembered the United States going to war against a massive group of pirates. The only interaction I remember the US had with the continent of Africa was the Atlantic Slave trade. Theres a lot to cover and that wasn't important enough to cover when there were a lot of other wars with more impact.
Hi from an amazigh algerian personne 😂😂😂 well you needed some more details on that the us didn't fight them alone and win just like that 😂 European countries were in it too and with some coward allies that left us alone😂😂😂but yeah it so amazing learning about it how the world navy force development started to change once and for all hhhh
wassup Week'nd
Oof 😅
White Americans were people, as complex and varied. Aren’t we all complex and varied. All nations and cultures so let’s all just stop grifting.
Sad. Can’t even listen to pbs without hearing race grifting. Very sad.
The pirates where muslim
Something that I don’t appreciate: the comments section for PBS origins Atlantic slave trade, was disabled. Why? Why was that one disabled and this one disabled. Aren’t we supposed to be having dialogue ?
Lol so Many misconceptions, I wonder why you didn't mention the George Washington ship incident where the Barbary pirates took over the George Washington ship and made it's captain take down the American flag and out the flag of Algeria in it's place... You skipped so many humiliating losts of Europe and the USA and went straight to when the Barbary pirates started losing 😂even then you still missed the marque, the USA lost the 1st Barbary war you didn't even mention that they ended up paying a lot more to get the slaves they've lost in that war you just skipped to the second Barbary war🤣and the Barbary pirates didn't care about color they weren't enslaving "whites" they just enslaved everyone who wasn't an Allie, it wasn't based on race.
Western arrogance my friend
Meanwhile americans enslaving Africans.... Algerians enslaved Americans hahaha 🇩🇿💪😂
Algerians did not yet exist, but white North Africans were enslaving Black people from Subsaharan Africa for about one millennium, finally ending around WWI. For comparison they were "only" enslaving Europeans for a couple of centuries, finally ending in 1830.
Slavery is hilarious
@@kenster8270 Algerians didn't exist!! Hahaha lemme tell u Algerians are the descendant of the numidians (numidia empire)... Google it... If u mean the name Algeria didn't exist yes because it was al djazair... Named from al zirid beni zirid... So... Next time use Google... We didn't just spawn there...
@Syd FinkIestein hahahaha nice story you should consider making a Disney movie for you kids 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@garyjohnson8327 I can enslave you if I catch you...
Note for whatever intern/employee is responsible for this: you do not need to make this many chapter dividers in your 9 minute video! In my opinion you should cut it down to like 3 or 4 main points
I don't know, more can be better than less, especially for someone who is just reading the subtitles. I get it it can make a little bit confusing or crowded, I don't know. Great video though!
But it's still just as navigable for you while allowing for more precise reference for others... Winner, Winner! Chicken Dinner!
Curious how you went out of your way to stress the few Black Africans who were European pirates, but then do the same to exclude them from the Barbary pirates. I suppose this is history after a fashion. By the By, Europeans were also fighting Black Africans to stop the traficking of Black Africans at that time.
Had similar thoughts, but those are two separate topics.
These channel is so bad. I want to like it, but it's clear you're preaching "right side of history" -itis. It's low empathy, spreadsheet logic.
Maghreb is not þe indigenous name. It literally means Weſt or Sunſet, becauſe it is an Arabic name.
The barbery pirates definitely declared jihad and wanted specifically white slaves. They were not like blackbeard or even privateers, they were definitely worse
You can call them Banu Hilal, not Berbers... Berbers were servants of the Arabs