Europeans Captured at Sea: Three Centuries Cut Out of the Slavery Story

A ship left Sicily, Spain, or England and disappeared in the Mediterranean. Months later, a family received a letter: their relative was alive, but held in Algiers, Tunis, or Tripoli. To bring that person home, the family had to collect ransom money. If the money did not come, the captive might be sent to row a galley, build a wall, work a field, or be sold to another owner.

From the sixteenth century into the early nineteenth, corsair fleets based in North Africa repeatedly captured European sailors and coastal residents. Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli were governments with ports, fleets, and treasuries; several maintained loose ties to the Ottoman Empire. They did not seize only cargo. They seized people because a living captive could become ransom, forced labor, or diplomatic leverage.