Barbary Terror: America's 1815 War Against the Book Review

Barbary Terror: America's 1815 War against the Pirates of North Africa

During the 19th century, pirates were far from an abstract threat on international seas. Nor was piracy merely due to the actions of some rogue elements. The nations of Algeria, Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli used state-sponsored piracy to profit off of ransom money. Sailors who were not ransomed in a system of state-sponsored forced labor. European nations had long taken the attitude that piracy was inevitable, and rather than fight it, they rationalized that "paying Barbary rulers a 'license' for trade was less expensive than constantly convoying ships or attacking the Barbary powers in their heavily fortified ports" (Leiner 14). Remarkably, the still relatively weak and young American nation under the leadership of President James Madison was able to challenge and defeat the Barbary nations at the piracy game. The book The End of Barbary Terror: America's 1815 War against the Pirates of North Africa by historian Frederick Leiner demonstrates that not only was America's victory salutary for the sailors it freed from bondage but the military action was also critical in establishing American legitimacy as a world power.

Leiner attempts to bring a little-known aspect of America's history to light, suggesting Madison's actions against the Barbary pirates were as equally as crucial in gaining respect for America on the world scene as penning the Constitution and winning the War of 1812. Leiner is a Baltimore-based lawyer and historian with a particular interest in naval history. He is also the author of Millions for Defense: The Subscription Warships of 1798.

Leiner tells his story as a narrative in an almost-novelistic form. He uses primary source documents to give credibility to his analysis and to continually stress the extraordinary nature of both Madison's boldness and above all the remarkable leadership of Commodore Stephen Decatur, who led the Navy to success. The crisis arose when Algerian pirates enslaved seven American sailors in 1812 from a New England-based rig in North Africa. They demanded one million dollars as a ransom, an astronomical fee during that era. For many years, America had attempted to use diplomacy like its European counterparts. This diplomacy was not only a failure, but many suspected the British of tacitly allowing Barbary slavery to continue, given that "British trade indirectly benefited from Barbary seizure of poorer country's ships and seamen" (Leiner 152). Eventually, frustrated with the increasing power of the pirates, America decided to try another approach and use violent force. The pirates' financial demand steeled Madison's nerves and he deployed the largest Navy mission to that date to recover the captured men.

Leiner uses contemporary language to underscore the extent to which the world hated and feared the specter of 'white slavery' embodied in the actions of the pirates. The rhetoric in the primary source documents used by Leiner is comparable to the language after 9/11, when America declared itself in a holy war against a nation that had attacked its freedom. According to Leiner, in the perception of Algeria,…