ABSTRACT

In the early modern period, the Mediterranean Sea was the setting of large-scale corsairing that resulted in the capture or enslavement of Europeans and Americans by North African pirates as well as North Africans by European forces. Piracy and captivity in the Mediterranean were, of course, as old as seafaring itself. The chapter sketches out the setting in which Barbary piracy and captivity evolved or tended to be conceptualized in the European and American imagination. In the Roman Republic piracy in the eastern Mediterranean became such a threat to traffic and commerce that even Julius Caesar fell into the hands of Cilician pirates, was held hostage, and regained his freedom only after paying a high ransom. The Sklavenkassen were the first social security insurances in early modern Europe; and although they could not limit the risk of falling prey to North African corsairs, they guaranteed efficient and speedy returns of sailors to their hometowns in the event of captivity.