The Barbary Captivity Narrative in American Culture

Baepler, Paul

doi:10.1353/eal.2004.0022

Cited by 47 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Cathcart noted that the very same men who shed blood to secure the nation's liberty had been left in bondage and 'denied the rights of our common country', clearly blaming the sad state of affairs on a perceived dilution of revolutionary spirit and sinking virtue of his fellow citizens. 81 Cathcart's later correspondence urging war with Tripoli suggested his evolving belief that larger matters were also at stake. In his mind defeat of the Barbary system was necessary to restore honour and grant prestige to the nation.…”

Section: Diplomacy and War Reflections Of Literary Themesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Images of Enemy and Self in the Age of Jefferson: The Barbary Conflict in Popular Literary Depiction

Voelz¹

2009

War & Society

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In 1801 Thomas Jefferson deployed American's infant navy to the Mediterranean in the nation's first projection of military power abroad in reaction to decades of piracy emanating from the regencies of North Africa. 1 The flotilla's efforts eventually included a naval blockade against the port city of Tripoli as well as an overland Marine campaign in support of a coup attempt against a Barbary sovereign. While the military campaign is often relegated to little more than a colourful historical footnote of American foreign relations, the intellectual milieu surrounding domestic perceptions of the Barbary threat offers revealing insights into the complex interplay of war, diplomacy and literary culture.During the period of American involvement in the Barbary, literary representations were a primary means by which citizens were introduced to this largely unknown adversary, communicated through an ample supply of travel logs, captivity narratives, theatrical presentations, historical studies, poetry and works of popular fiction. These depictions of Barbary culture drew on several persistent sources of knowledge; inherited presumptions of European philosophy, powerful subtexts of republican political ideology and a vast reservoir of domestic experience with Native American tribes serving as a basis for cultural comparison. These disparate notions melded together to form a uniquely Americanised strain of inherited old world orientalism, preoccupied with domestic ideological concerns over matters of political virtue, religion and state, gender equality, free commerce, private property, and persistent a paranoia over the risks of backsliding into the grips of monarchical despotism.In prelude to conflict, popular literature served two important functions for the reading public, first as telescope, second as mirror. The literary telescope offered distant glimpses revealing the face of the adversary and providing an intellectual context for the crafting of diplomacy and war. At the same time the 1.In this context the term Barbary States generally refers to the Ottoman military provinces of Algiers, Tripoli, Tunisia and the independent regency of Morocco.

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Section: Diplomacy and War Reflections Of Literary Themesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Images of Enemy and Self in the Age of Jefferson: The Barbary Conflict in Popular Literary Depiction

Voelz¹

2009

War & Society

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“…Following its eventual detachment from the colonial grip of the British Empire in 1776, the United States of America-newly nascent and keen-engaged in maritime activities, leading to unfriendly encounters in an unprotected region in the world-North Africa's shores (Baepler, 2004). During the eighteenth century, North African region witnessed heated encounters between Americans, who had lost protection from British Royal Navy guaranteed via Britain's treaties with North Africa (Freeman, 2015), and the locals, hence a war framed in captivity account history as 108 term-barbarian or moor or Mahometan-referenced across the narratives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While Europe and America were making rapid progress in civilization and domains of arts and sciences, Africa was seen staggering and retrograding. As part of the whole, North Africa and its inhabitants were depicted as a decayed world built upon the debris of Western civilization (Robbins 1831, as cited in Baepler 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The depictions called for popular arts and venues to accommodate the propaganda; Wax museums were instrumentalized to accommodate the American public spectacle. Scenes of the conflict with 'Barbary corsairs' were also exhibited in circus performances featuring scenarios of 'barbarians' kidnapping captives and Americans ransoming and saving their fellow men (Rowson, Margulis, Poremski & Poremski, 2000;Baepler, 2004;Gilje, 2013). These Barbary scenes were also displayed in other early American arts, such as films, plays, and novels worth no more than 10 dimes (Modern Language Association of America, 2000, p. 220…”

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confidence: 99%

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‘Barbary’ Mahometans in Early American Propaganda: A Critical Analysis of John Foss’s Captivity Account

Boulahnane

2018

Preprint

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This article analyzes the first immigrating images of the North African ‘Mahometan’ in the American imagination via John Foss’s (1798) captivity account. It examines the agenda-led discourses and ‘othering’ images establishing the ideological split between the notion of the American “us” and the Muslim “them” through various discursive associations in John Foss’s (1798) A journal, of the captivity and sufferings of John Foss; several years a prisoner at Algiers: together with some account of the treatment of Christian slaves when sick:-- and observations of the manners and customs of the Algerines. The account’s embedded myths, stereotypes, and clichés served as the ‘West’s’ first impression of the Muslim ‘corsair’; they rendered more vivid the perceived aberration of the ‘Orient;’ and they reinforced the symbolism of strength and glory forcefully associated with the newly nascent America. The article further discusses the breadth of circulation and propagation of the constructed ‘West-Orient’ disparity and the celebration of the confrontation with the ‘othered’ enemy. American venues—e.g. museums, galleries, and circuses—as well as works of art—e.g. novels, paintings, and cartoons—constituted a major accomplice in the dissemination of the propaganda in the American public space.

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“… 2. For analyses of the significance of Barbary captivity to perceptions and memory of the war, see (Baepler, 1995; Battistini, 2010; Bouânani, 2009; Peskin, 2009). …”

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confidence: 99%

Remembering for empire: The war with Tripoli and the battle of Derna in US memory

Covey

2016

Memory Studies

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In 2004, the Smithsonian debuted "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War," a permanent exhibition at the National Museum of American History in Washington DC. The exhibit occasioned strong criticism for its privatization of public memory and glorification of militarism. What has gone unexamined, however, is the curious absence of the 1801-1805 War with Tripoli from the exhibit. This war has long been invoked as an important lesson in US exceptionalism. The assault and short occupation of the coastal town of Derna by US-led forces in 1805 holds particular significance and commemorations of the battle during the twentieth century were important in the formation of attitudes that informed US approaches to empire before, during, and after the Cold War.

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The Barbary Captivity Narrative in American Culture

Cited by 47 publications

References 28 publications

Images of Enemy and Self in the Age of Jefferson: The Barbary Conflict in Popular Literary Depiction

Images of Enemy and Self in the Age of Jefferson: The Barbary Conflict in Popular Literary Depiction

‘Barbary’ Mahometans in Early American Propaganda: A Critical Analysis of John Foss’s Captivity Account

Remembering for empire: The war with Tripoli and the battle of Derna in US memory

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