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European
Slavery
in North Africa
Barbary or the Barbary Coast, the
name having been derived from the
Berber people of North Africa, was
the term used by Europeans to
describe the western and middle
coastal regions of North Africa
during the 16th–19th centuries.
Today, the name evokes the pirates
and slave traders based on that
coast, who attacked ships and
coastal settlements around the
Mediterranean and North Atlantic,
and captured and traded slaves
taken from Europe and sub-
Saharan Africa.
The four Barbary nations of
North Africa – Morocco, Algiers,
Tunis, and Tripoli (Libya) – had been
plundering merchant shipping for
21
RIGHT
:
A Barbary Pirate
by Pier
Francesco Mola ca.1650.
BELOW: The Bombardment of
Algiers, August 27, 1816
by George
Chambers Sr.
In 1816 a squadron under Admiral Sir
Edward Pellew was fitted out and sent to
Algiers where they arrived, in company
with a small Dutch squadron, on August
27, 1816. They sought the release of the
British Consul, who had been detained,
and over 1,000 Christian slaves, many
being seamen taken by the Algerines.
When they received no reply the fleet
bombarded Algiers in the most
spectacular of several similar punitive
actions of this period that finally broke the
power of the “Barbary pirates,” who had
been a plague on European commerce in
the Mediterranean for centuries.
A Concise History of Africa