Travel Narrative

Atlantic Orientalism: How Language in Jefferson’s America Defeated the Barbary Pirates

III. Common Themes in the Christian Slaves’ Accounts

One of the first popular myths that can be found throughout the captivity narratives is that all non-European or non-Americans are “barbaric,” and that all “Barbarians” are the same. Take, for example, an excerpt from John Foss, the American sailor mentioned earlier:

The turks are a well built robust people, their complexion not unlike Americans, tho’ somewhat larger, but their dress, and long beards, make them appear more like monsters than human beings.[37]

Foss was captured off the coast of Algiers. Undoubtedly, there were some ethnically Turkish people of the Ottoman Empire present, but Foss referred to everyone in the area as Turkish, indicating that he knew little of the ethnic makeup of the region and was unable to tell apart the various peoples residing in Algiers. From the extract, it is also apparent that his criteria for what qualifies as a “human being” is decidedly Anglo-centric, and those that do not conform are portrayed as monsters. The dehumanization of the Algerians due to Orientalist ideas is strongly evident.

Journal: Issues | Pirates and Piracy [5] Share17 [pic][pic]

“In this work, I have most attempted a full description of the many hellish torments and punishments those piratical sea-rovers invent and inflict on the unfortunate Christians who may by chance unhappily fall into their hands…”[1] wrote John Foss, an American sailor captured by pirates off the coast of North Africa and sold into slavery in 1793. Many other captives were not as reserved, describing the pirates’ bloody attacks with colorful, titillating language that provoked outrage in early America. Although often exaggerated or forged, the Orientalist stereotypes perpetuated about the Barbary Pirates by captives such as John Foss would resonate in the minds of early Americans and shape American foreign policy.

Foss’s Journal is less...