There has just been an excellent programme on British TV about the activities of the Barbary Pirates in the seventeenth century. Barbary describes the northern coast of Africa from Morocco to Libya and was, in the seventeenth century, famous for its 'pirates'. They were a significant force in the Western Mediterranean - and by the 1630s were active in the English Channel and the coastlines of SW England and southern Ireland. I was already aware of such activity because the Journal of the Cumbrian Quaker, James Dickinson, mentions his ship being chased by 'Turkish pirates' when sailing from Gravesend to Holland in the late seventeenth century; but I hadn't realised that many of the Barbary corsairs were actually Dutch who had settled in N. Africa and converted. Nor had I realised the extent of the white slave trade that was the main incentive for their piracy. The suggestion made in the programme was that about 35000 European white slaves reached the markets of North Africa each year - so the actual numbers taken must have been much greater. If the majority of these came from raids on shipping or on the coastal populations of Italy, Spain, France, Ireland and Britain, then that becomes a significant factor in our genealogical research. How much impact did this have on our Cumbrian ancestors and their families? Presumably at least some Cumbrian mariners ended up as galley slaves; but maybe too some of your female (or male, come to think of it) relatives found themselves in the harems of Morocco and the Ottoman Empire! Chris chris@dickinson.uk.net

Richard Sheridan, Sugar and Slavery, University of the West Indies, 1974. p. 236 Generally speaking, the Civil Wars [speaking of Britain not US] marked a change in the source and nature of emigration to the West Indies. Voluntary emigration did not cease after 1642, but the emphasis shifted to the forced migration of prisoners-of-war, political prisoners, 'felons condemned to death, sturdy beggars, gipsies, and other incorrigible rogues, poor and idle debauched persons.' Early migrants were chiefly Englishmen of lower middle-class origins. The Civil Wars, on the other hand, threw up a polyglot lot of Englishmen, Scotsmen, and Irishmen, including a few Royalists of distinguished lineage. Scottish an English prisoners were transported to the West Indies after the Royalist armies were defeated at Preston, Dunbar, and Worcester. Irish military prisoners suffered a similar fate after the storming of Drogheda, when Cromwell wrote: "When they submitted, these officers were knocked on the head, and every tenth man of the soldiers killed, and the rest shi! pped for Barbados.' Sheridan believes that the statistic from Barbados of 12,000 military prisoners having arrived there by 1655 may have been inflated. The plantation owners felt a need to keep the ratio of white to black from getting too large, and filled that need by importing them. "...in order that by their breeding they should replenish the white population," 400 women from the streets of London were sent to Barbados in 1656. In that same year the Council of State voted that 1,000 girls, and as many young men, should be taken from Ireland and sent to Jamaica. Although in the 1700s slaves who had been baptized considered themselves to be free in England, the Yorke and Talbot judgement of 14 January 1729 refuted this claim, "We are of the opinion, that a slave by coming from the West Indies to Great Britain or Ireland, doth not become free, and thus his Master's Property or Right in him is not thereby determined or varied; and that Baptism doth not bestow freedom on him, nor make any Alteration in his Temporal Condition in these Kingdoms. We are also of the Opinion that his master may legally compel him to return to the Plantations. A. N. Rigg, p. 56 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Dickinson" <chris@dickinson.uk.net> To: <ENG-CUL-COPELAND-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 12:39 AM Subject: [CUL-COP] White Slavery > There has just been an excellent programme on British TV about > the activities of the Barbary Pirates in the seventeenth century. > > Barbary describes the northern coast of Africa from Morocco to > Libya and was, in the seventeenth century, famous for its > 'pirates'. They were a significant force in the Western > Mediterranean - and by the 1630s were active in the English > Channel and the coastlines of SW England and southern Ireland. > > I was already aware of such activity because the Journal of the > Cumbrian Quaker, James Dickinson, mentions his ship being chased > by 'Turkish pirates' when sailing from Gravesend to Holland in > the late seventeenth century; but I hadn't realised that many of > the Barbary corsairs were actually Dutch who had settled in N. > Africa and converted. > > Nor had I realised the extent of the white slave trade that was > the main incentive for their piracy. The suggestion made in the > programme was that about 35000 European white slaves reached the > markets of North Africa each year - so the actual numbers taken > must have been much greater. If the majority of these came from > raids on shipping or on the coastal populations of Italy, Spain, > France, Ireland and Britain, then that becomes a significant > factor in our genealogical research. > > How much impact did this have on our Cumbrian ancestors and their > families? Presumably at least some Cumbrian mariners ended up as > galley slaves; but maybe too some of your female (or male, come > to think of it) relatives found themselves in the harems of > Morocco and the Ottoman Empire! > > > Chris > chris@dickinson.uk.net > > ______________________________