by Travers, Tim
After purchase, slaves were divided into two categories: slaves for ransom, and slaves for work. Slaves for ransom were put to work, but the work needed to be of such a character that it did not damage the slave physically while awaiting the payment of their ransom. Slaves for work might find themselves doing the worst work – rowing in the galleys, or at construction onshore, especially the backbreaking work of building the mole in Algiers. The more fortunate slaves, and almost all the female slaves, would find themselves doing household work, carrying water, fetching bread, tending the gardens, nursing infants, sewing, or if capable, acting as clerks and shop assistants. Probably the hardest work was continually rebuilding the Algiers mole, as it was poorly constructed and frequently washed away by the sea. Huge stone blocks, weighing twenty to forty tons were cut from quarries about two miles away from the town, and then dragged on carts or sleds, hauled by 600 or 700 slaves, to the mole and dumped into the sea. The Dey set the quota for the slaves to fulfill, so many loads a day, which was required of the overseers who naturally made sure this was done, ‘continually beating the slaves with their sticks, and goading them with its end, in which is a small spear, not unlike an ox-goad…’14 To make matters worse, the slaves were chained together, or had heavy iron rings attached to their feet. Other tasks included building houses, road construction, working as farm labourers, and indeed any work that required manual labour.
At night the slaves were kept in ‘bagnos’, slave prisons, where conditions were unpleasant due to overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and heat. Some bagnos were very large – the Grand Bagno in Algiers was able to hold some 2,000 slaves, while others were much smaller, but regardless of the size, they tended to be miserable places. Describing a bagno at Porto Farina, near Tunis, the Christian missionary Father Costa wrote that 100 or more slaves were crammed into a space:
…about thirty paces square…and for the misery of the place, they have to stay on top of one the other and only with difficulty can one breathe…for there not being a window nor any breeze, and with the door closed, such is the fetor that it sometimes causes [men] to faint, and I do not speak of the quantity of every sort of animal waste…[and] at the break of dawn the Christians are let out and carried by the Moors off to work, and every night it is the same story.15
On the other hand, by the early eighteenth century, conditions inside the bagnos seem to have improved, with chapels, medical facilities and hospitals, shops run by the slaves, and bars to serve those who were allowed to drink alcohol, mainly renegades, and the slaves themselves. The overseer of the bagno was paid a sum of money, and he kept order so that the slaves who ran the bars and shops were fairly treated and could make a profit. In fact, some slaves were able to become minor entrepreneurs, working on a shared profit basis for their masters, taking advantage of the free time after daily work, and before being locked up in the bagno, to sell toys they had made, or to sell water around the streets, or to go into business as shopkeepers, or even to take the high risk of stealing goods and money.
Galley Slaves
Living in bagnos, being fed very little and being aroused at dawn to work at hard labour all day until an hour before sunset all took its toll on the slaves, so that mortality rates were quite high, perhaps around seventeen per cent per year. But it was life in the galleys that stands out as being the most traumatic experience of all for a slave. Galleys went out from the Barbary ports for cruises of around forty to fifty days twice a year, so the slaves would not be permanently confined to the galleys, but when not rowing would labour on land as previously described. However, galley slaves of the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul would be permanently confined to their galleys, and often served extremely long terms, averaging around nineteen years in the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century period. And these slaves simply never got off the galley but lived there for years. But whether rowing out of Istanbul, Algiers, Tunis or Tripoli – all faced a difficult time. A poem, originally printed in 1624, suggests the problems:
He that’s condemned to th’oar hath first his face,
Eyebrows and head close shaven (for more disgrace
Cannot betide a Christian). Then, being stripped
To th’girdle (as when rogues are to be whipped),
Chained are they to the seats where they sit rowing
Five in a row together, a Turk going
On a large plank between them; and though their eyes
Are ready to start out with pulling, he cries
‘Work, work, you Christian curs’, and though none needs
One blow for loitering, yet his bare back bleeds
And riseth up in bunches, which the Turk
With a bull’s pizzle gives him, crying still, ‘Work
Work, dog’, whilst some so faint, at th’oar th[e]y die,
Being cast (like dogs) overboard presently.
Their slavery done at sea, then they are laid
In dungeons worse than jails, poorly arrayed,
Fed with coarse horse-bread, water for their drink,
And such sometimes puddles cannot worser stink.16
There needs to be some caution about descriptions of galley life, as in this poem, for there was an effort by Christian clergy to stress the cruelty in order to raise funds to redeem the captives. Nevertheless, being a galley slave was obviously a severe test of endurance. Rowers were shackled to the oar by their wrists and ankles to a chain that ran the length of the bench. There might be five or six rowers to each oar, who rowed by the method of rising and then pulling on the oar by falling back to the bench. Rowers could relieve themselves by going along their particular bench to a hole in the side of the galley, but often relieved themselves where they sat – it was said that one could smell a galley a mile away. Sleep was a luxury, since the rowers had to try to sleep where they sat, and sometimes had to row day and night. Clothing was simply a pair of breeches with no shirt to cover the chest. Food was meager in the extreme – two or three pieces of bread or biscuit, and some vinegar-laced water. With all this, the rowers were encouraged by the overseers who walked back and forth down the centre aisle, and lashed the bare backs of the slaves with a whip made of a bull’s penis known as a bull’s pizzle. Not surprisingly, many slaves died at sea and were thrown overboard or became too exhausted and sick to row in a future voyage. Fortunately, galley cruises were usually limited to around two a year, and during these two cruises, the time at sea was limited by the food and water and capacity of the galley so that the galley only spent a limited number of days at sea. And there was one positive aspect – galley slaves could actually benefit from the prize money obtained during a voyage. The crew was entitled to seven-sixteenth of the profit, and this included the galley slaves, though their master might take a percentage of that also. Yet, many slaves survived lengthy galley service, and there was the prospect of being appointed to a position onboard as a scrivani – a slave secretary who kept track of the lives of the slaves, and kept the financial books of the voyage. There were also vagovans – slaves who were the pace setters and organizers of the rowers, since achieving a good rhythm was vital, but as one might expect, difficult to attain. Overall, however, it is the image of the slave rowers being beaten to achieve maximum speed that remains:
Under the least pretext, they [the overseers] would employ the Escurribanda, which consists of their rushing down the walkway and beating ten or twelve times the naked back of each [rower] with a tarred, knotted cord, and they deal with the two hundred and fifty Christians on a galley one after the other, without anyone escaping.17
The Redemption Orders and the Redemption System
Barbary slaves, whether on land, or at sea, always had hopes of redemption, that is being freed by the payment of ransom money. This was a system that became highly developed, with middlemen and charities raising money to provide ransoms. Of course, ransom was a well known European practice in medieval times, and as early as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries religious orders were created to re
deem Christian captives taken during the Crusades. Thus, the redemption order known as the Trinitarians was founded in 1193, and the Mercedarians in 1203. These two orders later turned to ransoming slaves from the Barbary Coast, and other orders and charities joined the effort, such as the Congregation of Santo Cristo de Burgos, founded in 1569. Italian cities, such as Naples, Bologna, Lucca, Venice, Palermo, Genoa, and the Vatican itself, followed suit in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Soon, in Italy, preachers, churches, licensed alms collectors, local charities, towns and villages, and private families, all sought to raise funds for slave redemption. In Spain, from the time of Philip II, the state took over the supervision of ransoming slaves, with the Council of Castile being put in charge. The Council of the Indies gave money, as did private trusts and the Crown itself. These funds were divided into two kinds – limosnas for general redemptive use, and adjutorios for specific people.
And of course, as happened everywhere, private families gathered funds any way they could to liberate family members. The case of the author Miguel de Cervantes illustrates some of the problems of obtaining a ransom. Miguel de Cervantes was a rather obscure officer when captured in 1575, together with his brother Rodrigo, on his way from Naples to Spain. The family was not wealthy, so Cervantes’ first effort was to send a letter to the Christian governor of Oran asking for help. But the Moor carrying the letter was intercepted, and strung up on the spot, while Cervantes suffered 200 blows for this appeal. The Trinitarians were able to secure the release of Rodrigo, being the younger brother and less important and thus cheaper. Meanwhile, Miguel had to stay in Algiers until the ransom of 750 ducats had been paid in full. Miguel’s mother and sister were only able to raise 250 ducats, and charity provided another 300 ducats. 200 was still owing, which was eventually collected in Spain, and Miguel was released in 1580. It is recorded that when Miguel and eight fellow slaves landed in Spain they ‘jumped ashore and kissed the soil’. It is also recorded that Miguel spent many years trying to repay the debts he owed, and he only started to become more secure financially after the publication of the first part of Don Quixote in 1605.18
Ironically, as charity funds for the redemption of slaves increased, so did the price that the Barbary states demanded for each slave, leading to inflation in the system. Another result of rising prices was the practice of the Barbary corsairs from the early 1700s of specifically capturing individuals for ransom, rather than using them for various kinds of labour. Before the 1700s the system was far from perfect since the slave had first to notify his family that he was a captive, and this could take months and years, partly because it cost money to send a letter, and slaves had little or no money. And some slaves, especially those on the sultan’s galleys in Istanbul simply did not have the means of informing anyone of their situation. Then, even if a letter did arrive, there was obviously the question of raising the ransom, as mentioned, and in Italy authorities often requested the fede of slavery – a piece of paper that identified the slave by name and description – and also certification that the slave’s family was too poor to raise the ransom themselves. It seems that some slaves in the Barbary ports were not above trying to take the identity of a slave that had died, or even claiming to be that particular slave when the ransom money was handed over. Thus it was necessary to offer specific physical details of the particular slave to be ransomed, as in the case of one Simone of Cavi, captured in 1582:
Son of Romano and Catterina di Antonio of Cavi, around 24 years of age, [he is] with little beard, of fair skin, skinny of body, more tall than short in stature. With three marks on the body, that is: a cut on the thigh that was [from] birth, another cut on the temple from being hit by a rock, and another cut under the right eye that was [from] the point of a Moor’s sword, from which eye he does not see, unless he holds it open like the other, but it is more white and bigger than the other, and [to keep it open] he had a string around his neck, where one can still see the mark.19
Simone should have been easy to identify with this description, and states and charities began to compile lists of those held as slaves, with similar types of description. Inevitably, though, there was a priority list of those to be redeemed. First would be the slaves for whom specific funds had been raised, then those who were thought to be at particular risk of becoming Muslim such as women, children and young men. After this, clergy would have a high listing, also those with good connections, and those with useful trades such as soldiers and sailors. Understandably, at the bottom of the list were renegades who had changed their minds, but also the elderly, and those nationalities without charities or representation. In this respect, certain nationalities did better than others, for example, Spanish slaves seemed to be ransomed more quickly than other nationalities, probably because of the efforts of the Trinitarians and Mercedarians, while the English, Dutch and Germans fared less well.
This brings up the question of the method by which the redemption transaction took place. The money raised for ransom might be entrusted to the Trinitarians and Mercedarians, whose knowledge of the Barbary ports and frequent visits there, plus experience in the ransom business, made them efficient and reliable, and they did not charge a commission. Missionaries from these orders would obtain passports and simply arrive in Algiers, Tunis or Tripoli and negotiate with the local Dey the price for the release of as many slaves as possible with the money at hand. Ransoms might also be entrusted to merchants and sea captains, who actually carried the money, or bills of exchange could be used. There was also a wide network of Jews who specialised in redemptions, but who tended to charge about a fourteen per cent commission. Prominent here as a professional ransom agent was Joseph Cohen of Algiers. Greeks and Armenians were also engaged in the ransom trade, as were renegades, who knew both sides of the ransom business, as did Moors from Spain who had settled in the Barbary ports. Others involved were the foreign consuls on the Barbary Coast who did much to organise the process, including drawing up contracts to allow slaves to go to Europe and try to arrange their own ransom. This system generally required hostages to be left behind, sometimes even the wife and children of the slave, who were sent to Barbary as surety, or there was the threat of retaliation against fellow slaves to make the European-bound slave adhere to his contract. One large problem in the redemption process tended to be the local Dey, who tried to unload the elderly, blind and infirm in place of those slaves requested by the negotiators, and often unloaded nationalities other than those from which the redeemers came. It was also possible for slave exchanges to take place, with Christian and Muslim slaves being exchanged through middlemen, usually with one Christian being equal to three or four Muslims.20
If all went well, the slaves on the list would be redeemed – but returning home was not so straightforward. Often redeemed slaves went through the Christian port of Leghorn, where they would wait for the ransom to be finalised. Then, by the seventeenth century in Italy and the eighteenth century in Spain, redeemed slaves would be quarantined, because of fear of the plague contracted on the Barbary Coast, for example the 1664 plague epidemic in Algiers. Quarantine took place in a lazaret – a house, a hospital, or sometimes a ship or an island – set aside for quarantine purposes. After approximately a month, the released slave, if healthy, would then join a procession to celebrate his deliverance. Whether in local towns or in the capital, the slaves would start their procession from a church of the Redemptionist order that had freed them, and would be accompanied by clergy, soldiers, members of the Redemptionist order, a band, and local townspeople. Banners were carried, and fireworks exploded. The ex-slaves were given meals, and in the case of Venice, a cash donation and the help of a gentleman for each slave to help them get started in life again. The processions were a method of raising donations for further redemptions, a way of fostering publicity for the Redemption orders involved, and an attempt to reintegrate the slave back into ‘normal’ society again. This was more than necessary because after several years of being absent a slave’s home l
ife and family might have altered considerably, and the frequently bleak financial picture and lack of jobs for returned slaves were serious problems. (This situation is somewhat similar to the problems faced today by prisoners recently released from jail, who often need help to reintegrate back into society.) In fact, as could be expected, redeemed slaves did find it difficult to reintegrate, judging by various written comments from them in Italy:
‘In the meantime I have remained in a rented bed at [San] Tome, living miserably [and] not having anything of my own…Here I don’t have anything: I’m living off charity…’
‘Meanwhile, I am in the house of my wife, living in complete misery…’
‘I live badly, in the house of my aforementioned sister in Castello, making a living when the chance comes to me to earn something…’
‘I stay at Santa Margarita, in the house of my mother, who takes care of me since I have been stripped of everything, and if the opportunity presented itself, I would do the same work [as a sailor]…’21
Escape from the Barbary Coast
