Years ago the hit song "Take Me Out" by the Scottish group Franz Ferdinand became intensely popular. Though some of the lyrics were incomprehensible, the songs military-esque rhythm and repetitive chorus made the song an instant sensation. A particular sentence in the first verse is what I always wondered about but never understood. It seems that the singer says "I'm just a cross-path" or "I'm just a cross-hair", so I looked up the lyrics and indeed they said "I'm just a cross-hair" whatever that means. But then, while scanning for books to use for my comprehensive examination I found one titled "A Nest of Corsairs". Aha! I thought. That must be what the true lyric says. I didn't know what a Corsair was so I visited my popular internet encyclopedia source and looked up Corsairs and the Barbary Coast came up on the screen.
Now I have studied piracy on the Barbary coast for some time now, but I never felt the need to read the specifics such as names and what not. Here's a brief recap on the history...
The Barbary Coast pirates (North Africans) interrupted trade routes in the Mediterranean in order to kidnap merchants and sailors from Western Europe and enslave them or request huge ransoms from the European governments for their release. This occurred for hundreds of years and men and women of European origin were captured and held at the will and whim of their Arab and Berber captors.
Later, upon the United States of America's new-found independence, Americans continued their supply routes through the Mediterranean in order to get supplies from Europe and beyond. Several hundred of these Americans were also taken captive and forced to work as servants and concubines until the American government could pay for their release. These captives would be released and return to the U.S. as the primary endorsers of the emancipation of black slaves in America. (the Abolitionists)
The American government suspected that the British (still bitter about the recent loss of their colony) were secretly funding the Barbary pirates in order to interrupt American trade and shipping. The result was the start of the U.S. Navy, which would, of course, later become the most powerful navy in the world. A treaty was made with the Kingdom of Morocco in order to assert that they would no longer take part in the activity against the U.S., thus Morocco became the first nation to officially recognize the United States as a sovereign nation. This created a lasting friendship that continues to this day. On the other hand, the Algerian government made no such agreement. The piracy continued for decades until the French invaded Algeria in the early 1800's.
Another primary item that I found especially riveting was that the Corsairs were pirates with names startlingly similar to cinematic pirates that we all have come to know and love. One is Barbarossa, (there were actually 4 Barbarossa brothers) also known as Red Beard. His name is also extraordinarily similar to Captain Barbossa in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. The next was a pirate named Captain Jack Ward, who never traveled to the Caribbean apparently, but held quite a similar resume to that of Captain Jack Sparrow, the main "prantagonist" from the "Pirates" series.
Not all of the Corsairs were Arab or Amazigh (Berber)..many were European. On the other hand, many of the slaves and servants taken into captivity were Europeans. It truly captivates and amazes me how our fiction becomes our history, our history becomes our fiction, and we remember only what we wish to and forget what is necessary to remember...
Now I have studied piracy on the Barbary coast for some time now, but I never felt the need to read the specifics such as names and what not. Here's a brief recap on the history...
The Barbary Coast pirates (North Africans) interrupted trade routes in the Mediterranean in order to kidnap merchants and sailors from Western Europe and enslave them or request huge ransoms from the European governments for their release. This occurred for hundreds of years and men and women of European origin were captured and held at the will and whim of their Arab and Berber captors.
Later, upon the United States of America's new-found independence, Americans continued their supply routes through the Mediterranean in order to get supplies from Europe and beyond. Several hundred of these Americans were also taken captive and forced to work as servants and concubines until the American government could pay for their release. These captives would be released and return to the U.S. as the primary endorsers of the emancipation of black slaves in America. (the Abolitionists)
The American government suspected that the British (still bitter about the recent loss of their colony) were secretly funding the Barbary pirates in order to interrupt American trade and shipping. The result was the start of the U.S. Navy, which would, of course, later become the most powerful navy in the world. A treaty was made with the Kingdom of Morocco in order to assert that they would no longer take part in the activity against the U.S., thus Morocco became the first nation to officially recognize the United States as a sovereign nation. This created a lasting friendship that continues to this day. On the other hand, the Algerian government made no such agreement. The piracy continued for decades until the French invaded Algeria in the early 1800's.
Another primary item that I found especially riveting was that the Corsairs were pirates with names startlingly similar to cinematic pirates that we all have come to know and love. One is Barbarossa, (there were actually 4 Barbarossa brothers) also known as Red Beard. His name is also extraordinarily similar to Captain Barbossa in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. The next was a pirate named Captain Jack Ward, who never traveled to the Caribbean apparently, but held quite a similar resume to that of Captain Jack Sparrow, the main "prantagonist" from the "Pirates" series.
Not all of the Corsairs were Arab or Amazigh (Berber)..many were European. On the other hand, many of the slaves and servants taken into captivity were Europeans. It truly captivates and amazes me how our fiction becomes our history, our history becomes our fiction, and we remember only what we wish to and forget what is necessary to remember...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_corsairs
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