- Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account
Other Sellers on Amazon
$14.89
+ $3.99 shipping
+ $3.99 shipping
Sold by:
LTtechno
$15.41
+ $3.99 shipping
+ $3.99 shipping
Sold by:
DTCompanyBooks&More
Sold by:
Amazon.com
Have one to sell?
Add to book club
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club?
Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Flip to back
Flip to front
Follow the Authors
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
OK
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History Hardcover – Illustrated, November 3, 2015
by
Brian Kilmeade
(Author),
Don Yaeger
(Author)
|
Brian Kilmeade
(Author)
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author?
Learn about Author Central
|
|
Don Yaeger
(Author)
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author?
Learn about Author Central
|
See all formats and editions
Hide other formats and editions
|
Price
|
New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
Free with your Audible trial | ||
|
Paperback, Illustrated
"Please retry"
|
$5.88 | $1.60 |
|
Mass Market Paperback
"Please retry"
|
$14.94 | $10.99 |
|
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
$12.91 | $9.81 |
-
Kindle
$9.99 Read with Our Free App -
Audiobook
$0.00Free with your Audible trial -
Hardcover
$17.11309 Used from $0.97 53 New from $8.50 25 Collectible from $7.51 -
Paperback
$7.49107 Used from $1.60 31 New from $5.88 1 Collectible from $5.50 -
Mass Market Paperback
$14.955 Used from $10.99 6 New from $14.94 -
Audio CD
$16.9513 Used from $9.81 8 New from $12.91
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
-
Apple
-
Android
-
Windows Phone
-
Android
|
Download to your computer
|
Kindle Cloud Reader
|
Frequently bought together
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Special offers and product promotions
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Thomas Jefferson. Pirates. And national security. This is how you make history exciting. I dare you to put this book down.”
—BRAD MELTZER, bestselling author of The President’s Shadow
“Reads like a fast-paced thriller but is actually a thoughtful account of America’s first foray into what has become a complex part of the world.”
—GENERAL STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL (Ret.), author of Team of Teams
“A riveting book of history that reads as though it were ripped from today’s headlines, and a must read for anyone seeking an understanding of the roots of U.S. foreign policy.”
—ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS (Ret.), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO; dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
“This is a well-told tale, and there are lessons aplenty about both diplomacy and warfare—with useful application to the challenges the United States faces in our own time.”
—PROFESSOR LARRY J. SABATO, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics; author of The Kennedy Half-Century
“Well written, nicely paced, and well documented. I thoroughly enjoyed this must read that brings to life a critical period in our nation’s history and shows the importance of a navy in our nation’s security.”
—KIRK S. LIPPOLD, former commander of the USS Cole; author of Front Burner: Al Qaeda’s Attack on the USS Cole
“No one captures the danger, intrigue, and drama of the American Revolution and its aftermath like Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger.”
—BRAD THOR, bestselling author of Code of Conduct
“A colorful, exciting, and historic account of an overlooked portion of American military history, and a wonderful tribute to the brave sailors and Marines who set a high standard for U.S. maritime operations.”
—GENERAL JACK KEANE (Ret.), chairman of the Institute for the Study of War
“A fascinating story of extraordinary courage and resolve, and a brilliant reminder of an early chapter of our country’s remarkable history.”
—DONALD RUMSFELD
“As a Navy SEAL you witness great acts of courage every day, but it’s easy to forget that the navy and Marines have been kicking ass right from their inception more than two hundred years ago. Count on Kilmeade and Yaeger to remind us of it with this swashbuckling adventure.”
—MARCUS LUTTRELL, former Navy SEAL; author of Lone Survivor and Service
“If you want to understand the deep historic roots of the 9/11 attacks and what it will take to win the war against today’s jihadists, you must read this book.”
—DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA, Horner Chair of Military Theory at USMC University, Quantico
—BRAD MELTZER, bestselling author of The President’s Shadow
“Reads like a fast-paced thriller but is actually a thoughtful account of America’s first foray into what has become a complex part of the world.”
—GENERAL STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL (Ret.), author of Team of Teams
“A riveting book of history that reads as though it were ripped from today’s headlines, and a must read for anyone seeking an understanding of the roots of U.S. foreign policy.”
—ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS (Ret.), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO; dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
“This is a well-told tale, and there are lessons aplenty about both diplomacy and warfare—with useful application to the challenges the United States faces in our own time.”
—PROFESSOR LARRY J. SABATO, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics; author of The Kennedy Half-Century
“Well written, nicely paced, and well documented. I thoroughly enjoyed this must read that brings to life a critical period in our nation’s history and shows the importance of a navy in our nation’s security.”
—KIRK S. LIPPOLD, former commander of the USS Cole; author of Front Burner: Al Qaeda’s Attack on the USS Cole
“No one captures the danger, intrigue, and drama of the American Revolution and its aftermath like Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger.”
—BRAD THOR, bestselling author of Code of Conduct
“A colorful, exciting, and historic account of an overlooked portion of American military history, and a wonderful tribute to the brave sailors and Marines who set a high standard for U.S. maritime operations.”
—GENERAL JACK KEANE (Ret.), chairman of the Institute for the Study of War
“A fascinating story of extraordinary courage and resolve, and a brilliant reminder of an early chapter of our country’s remarkable history.”
—DONALD RUMSFELD
“As a Navy SEAL you witness great acts of courage every day, but it’s easy to forget that the navy and Marines have been kicking ass right from their inception more than two hundred years ago. Count on Kilmeade and Yaeger to remind us of it with this swashbuckling adventure.”
—MARCUS LUTTRELL, former Navy SEAL; author of Lone Survivor and Service
“If you want to understand the deep historic roots of the 9/11 attacks and what it will take to win the war against today’s jihadists, you must read this book.”
—DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA, Horner Chair of Military Theory at USMC University, Quantico
About the Author
BRIAN KILMEADE and DON YAEGER are the coauthors of George Washington’s Secret Six, a New York Times bestseller for more than five months. Kilmeade cohosts Fox News Channel’s morning show Fox & Friends and hosts the daily national radio show The Brian Kilmeade Show. He lives on Long Island. This is his fourth book. Yaeger has written or cowritten twenty-four books and lives in Florida.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
Americans Abroad
It is not probable the American States will have a very free trade in the Mediterranean . . . the Americans cannot protect themselves [as] they cannot pretend to [have] a Navy.
-John Baker-Holroyd, Lord Sheffield, Observations of the Commerce of the American States, 1783
In 1785, the same year Richard O'Brien was captured by pirates, Thomas Jefferson learned that all politics, even transatlantic politics, are personal.
He was a widower. The passing of his wife in September 1782 had left him almost beyond consolation, and what little comfort he found was in the company of his daughter Martha, then age ten. The two would take "melancholy rambles" around the large plantation, seeking to evade the grief that haunted them. When Jefferson was offered the appointment as American minister to France, he accepted because he saw an opportunity to escape the sadness that still shadowed him.
Thomas Jefferson had sailed for Europe in the summer of 1784 with Martha at his side; once they reached Paris, he enrolled his daughter in a convent school with many other well-born English-speaking students. There he would be able to see her regularly, but he had been forced to make a more difficult decision regarding Martha's two sisters. Mary, not yet six, and toddler Lucy Elizabeth, both too young to travel with him across the sea, had been left behind with their "Aunt Eppes," his late wife's half sister. The separation was painful, but it was nothing compared with the new heartbreak he experienced just months into his Paris stay when Mrs. Eppes wrote sadly to say that "hooping cough" had taken the life of two-year-old Lucy.
As a fresh wave of sorrow rolled over him, Jefferson longed for "Polly the Parrot," as he affectionately called his bright and talkative Mary, to join his household again. The father wrote to his little girl that he and her sister "cannot live without you" and asked her if she would like to join them across the ocean. He promised that joining them in France meant she would learn "to play on the harpsichord, to draw, to dance, to read and talk French."
"I long to see you, and hope that you . . . are well," the now seven-year-old replied. But she added that she had no desire to make the trip, harpsichord or no harpsichord. "I don't want to go to France," she stated plainly. "I had rather stay with Aunt Eppes."
Jefferson was undaunted and began to plan for her safe travel. Having already lost two dear family members, he did not want to risk losing Polly and looked for ways to reduce the dangers of the journey. He instructed her uncle, Francis Eppes, to select a proven ship for Polly's crossing. "The vessel should have performed one [transatlantic] voyage at least," Jefferson ordered, "and must not be more than four or five years old." He worried about the weather and insisted that his daughter travel in the warm months to avoid winter storms. As for supervision, Polly could make the journey, Jefferson advised, "with some good lady passing from America to France, or even England [or] . . . a careful gentleman."
Yet an even more intimidating concern worried Jefferson: more frightening than weather or leaky ships was the threat of pirates off North Africa, a region known as the Barbary Coast. The fate of the Dauphin and the Maria was a common one for ships venturing near the area, where the Sahara's arid coast was divided into four nation-states. Running west to east were the Barbary nations Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, which all fell under the ultimate authority of the Ottoman Empire, seated in present-day Turkey.
The Islamic nations of the Barbary Coast had preyed upon foreign shipping for centuries, attacking ships in international waters both in the Mediterranean and along the northwest coast of Africa and the Iberian peninsula. Even such naval powers as France and Great Britain were not immune, though they chose to deal with the problem by paying annual tributes of "gifts" to Barbary leaders-bribes paid to the Barbary states to persuade the pirates to leave merchant ships from the paying countries alone. But the prices were always changing, and the ships of those nations that did not meet the extortionate demands were not safe from greedy pirates.
To the deeply rational Jefferson, the lawless pirates posed perhaps the greatest danger to his sadly diminished family. He knew what had happened to O'Brien and could not risk a similar fate for his child. As he confided in a letter to brother-in-law Francis Eppes, "My anxieties on this subject could induce me to endless details. . . . The Algerines this fall took two vessels from us and now have twenty-two of our citizens in slavery." The plight of the men aboard the Maria and the Dauphin haunted him-if their hellish incarceration was terrifying to contemplate, "who can estimate . . . the fate of a child? My mind revolts at the possibility of a capture," Jefferson wrote. "Unless you hear from myself-not trusting the information of any other person on earth-that peace is made with the Algerines, do not send her but in a vessel of French or English property; for these vessels alone are safe from prize by the barbarians." He knew those two countries paid a very high annual tribute, thereby purchasing safe passage for their vessels.
As a father, he could feel in his bones a fear for his daughter's safety. As an ambassador and an American, Jefferson recognized it was a fear no citizen of a free nation embarking on an oceanic voyage should have to endure.
A Meeting of Ministers
A few months later, in March 1786, Jefferson would make his way to London to meet with his good friend John Adams. Together they hoped to figure out how to deal with the emerging threat to American interests.
His waistline thickening, his chin growing jowly, fifty-year-old John Adams welcomed Jefferson into his London home. Overlooking the tree-lined Grosvenor Square from the town house Adams had rented, the two men sat down to talk in the spacious drawing room.
Adams was the United States' first ambassador to Great Britain. Just arrived from Paris after a cold and blustery six-day journey, Jefferson was minister to the French government of Louis XVI. To Adams and his wife, Abigail, their old friend looked different, as Jefferson had begun powdering his ginger hair white. The stout New Englander and the tall, lean, forty-two-year-old Virginian might have been of different breeds-but then, in the years to come, they would often be of two minds in their political thinking as well.
Unlike most of the European diplomats they encountered, neither Adams nor Jefferson had been born into a tradition of diplomatic decorum. Adams was a rough-and-tumble lawyer, the son of a yeoman farmer from south of Boston, known for a damn-all attitude of speaking his mind. A man of quiet natural grace, Jefferson was learning the cosmopolitan ways of Paris but, at heart, he was a well-born country boy, heir to large farms outside Charlottesville, a tiny courthouse town in central Virginia. Both men were novices in the game of international negotiation, a game their country needed them to learn quickly.
When the Americans and British signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783, bringing to an end the Revolution, the United States' legal status changed in the view of every nation and world leader. No longer under British protection, the fledgling nation found that its status was lowly indeed. Adams's letters to the British government tended to go unanswered, and Jefferson's attempts to negotiate trade treaties with France and Spain were going nowhere. Now a more hostile international threat was rearing its head, and Adams had summoned Jefferson from Paris to discuss the danger posed by the "piratical nations" of North Africa.
In earlier days, the colonies' ships had enjoyed the protection offered by the Union Jack; but because U.S. ships no longer carried British passports, the British navy provided no protection against pirates. The French, America's wartime allies against the British, did not protect them now that there was peace. Americans abroad were very much on their own, especially in international waters. And because America had no navy to protect its interests, insurance for American ships skyrocketed to twenty times the rate of that of European ships.
The expense of insurance was insupportable, but America's economy could not afford to end trade on the high seas; the Revolution had been fought with borrowed money, and repayment of those debts depended upon ongoing international commerce. One key piece of the nation's economic health was trade with southern Europe, accessible only by sailing into the Mediterranean-and within range of the Barbary pirates. According to Jefferson's calculations, a quarter of New England's most important export, dried salt cod, went to markets there, as did one sixth of the country's grain exports. Rice and lumber were also important exports, and the merchant ships provided employment for more than a thousand seamen. The trade and employment were essential to the growing American economy, and John Adams thought the numbers could easily double if a diplomatic solution in the Barbary region could be reached.
The American government had initially approved payment to the North African nations. But the bribes demanded were impossibly high, many hundreds of thousands of dollars when the American treasury could afford only token offerings of a few tens of thousands. In an era when not a single American was worth a million dollars, and Mr. Jefferson's great house, Monticello, was assessed at seventy-five hundred dollars, paying such exorbitant bribes seemed almost incomprehensible. Unable to pay enough to buy the goodwill of the Barbary countries, America was forced to let its ships sail at their own risk. Sailors like those on the Maria and the Dauphin had become pawns in a very dangerous game.
On this day, Adams and Jefferson worried over the fate of the Dauphin and the Maria. It had been nearly a year since the pirates from Algiers had taken the ships and cargoes the previous July, and now the regent of Algiers had made known his demand: until he was paid an exorbitant and, it seemed, ever-escalating ransom, the American captives were to be his slaves.
Despite their pity for the captives, Jefferson and Adams knew the new nation couldn't afford a new war or a new source of debt. They understood that the cost of keeping American ships away from the Barbary Coast would be greater than the cost of addressing the problem. That left the two American ministers, as Jefferson confided to a friend, feeling "absolutely suspended between indignation and impotence."
Yet neither Jefferson nor Adams could afford to remain paralyzed in the face of the danger. Not only had American families and the economy been endangered, but rumor had it that the pirates had also captured a ship carrying the venerable Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson's predecessor as minister to France. (As one of his correspondents wrote to Franklin, "We are waiting with the greatest patience to hear from you. The newspapers have given us anxiety on your account; for some of them insist that you have been taken by the Algerines, while others pretend that you are at Morocco, enduring your slavery with all the patience of a philosopher.") To everyone's relief, the reports proved false, but the scare brought the very real dangers posed by the Barbary pirates too close for comfort.
Sitting in the London house, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson discussed the idea of a negotiation that might break the impasse. Adams had a new reason to hope that the Barbary rulers could be reasoned with, and the two ministers set about deciding upon the right approach.
"Money Is Their God and Mahomet Their Prophet"
A few weeks earlier, Adams had made an unannounced visit to the Barbary state of Tripoli's ambassador, freshly arrived in London. To Adams's surprise, the bearded Sidi Haji Abdrahaman had welcomed him warmly. Seated in front of a roaring fire, with two servants in attendance, they smoked tobacco from great pipes with six-foot-long stems "fit for a Walking Cane." Adams had promptly written to Jefferson. "It is long since I took a pipe, but [we] smoked in awful pomp, reciprocating whiff for whiff . . . until coffee was brought in."
Adams made a strong impression on the Tripolitans. Observing his expertise with the Turkish smoking device, an attendant praised his technique, saying, "Monsieur, vous tes un Turk!" ("Sir, you are a Turk!") It was a high compliment.
Abdrahaman returned Adams's visit two days later, and Adams decided his new diplomatic acquaintance was "a benevolent and wise man" with whom the United States could do business. He believed Abdrahaman might help broker an arrangement between the United States and the other Barbary nations, bringing an end to the capture of American merchantmen. Now reunited with his friend and fellow American, he shared his plan with Jefferson and invited him to join the conversation.
On a blustery March day, Adams, Jefferson, and Abdrahaman convened at the house of the Tripolitan envoy. The conversation began in an improvised mix of broken French and Italian, as the Tripolitan envoy spoke little English. The discussion was cordial, and Adams and Jefferson began to believe that a solution was in sight. When the talk turned to money, however, the bubble of optimism soon exploded.
Jefferson had researched the sums paid as tribute by European countries, including Denmark, Sweden, and Portugal, so he knew the going rate. But the gold Abdrahaman demanded that day was beyond the reach of the United States: a perpetual peace with Tripoli would cost some 30,000 English guineas, the equivalent of roughly $120,000, not counting the 10 percent gratuity Abdrahaman demanded for himself. And that amount bought peace with only one of the Barbary states. To buy peace in Tunis would cost another 30,000 guineas, to say nothing of what would be required to pay Morocco or even Algiers, the largest and most powerful of the four. The $80,000 that Congress had been hard-pressed to authorize for an across-the-board understanding was no more than a down payment on what would be needed to meet the Barbary demands.
Although he now despaired of an easy solution, Adams wasn't ready to stop talking. He could understand financial concerns, and he was already beginning to realize what O'Brien would later say of the pirates: "Money is their God and Mahomet their Prophet." Yet greed alone couldn't explain the madness and cruelty of the demands. Unsatisfied, the famously blunt Adams wanted a better answer. While maintaining the best diplomatic reserve he could muster-whatever their frustration, the American ministers could hardly leap to their feet and walk out of the negotiations-Adams asked how the Barbary states could justify "[making] war upon nations who had done them no injury."
Americans Abroad
It is not probable the American States will have a very free trade in the Mediterranean . . . the Americans cannot protect themselves [as] they cannot pretend to [have] a Navy.
-John Baker-Holroyd, Lord Sheffield, Observations of the Commerce of the American States, 1783
In 1785, the same year Richard O'Brien was captured by pirates, Thomas Jefferson learned that all politics, even transatlantic politics, are personal.
He was a widower. The passing of his wife in September 1782 had left him almost beyond consolation, and what little comfort he found was in the company of his daughter Martha, then age ten. The two would take "melancholy rambles" around the large plantation, seeking to evade the grief that haunted them. When Jefferson was offered the appointment as American minister to France, he accepted because he saw an opportunity to escape the sadness that still shadowed him.
Thomas Jefferson had sailed for Europe in the summer of 1784 with Martha at his side; once they reached Paris, he enrolled his daughter in a convent school with many other well-born English-speaking students. There he would be able to see her regularly, but he had been forced to make a more difficult decision regarding Martha's two sisters. Mary, not yet six, and toddler Lucy Elizabeth, both too young to travel with him across the sea, had been left behind with their "Aunt Eppes," his late wife's half sister. The separation was painful, but it was nothing compared with the new heartbreak he experienced just months into his Paris stay when Mrs. Eppes wrote sadly to say that "hooping cough" had taken the life of two-year-old Lucy.
As a fresh wave of sorrow rolled over him, Jefferson longed for "Polly the Parrot," as he affectionately called his bright and talkative Mary, to join his household again. The father wrote to his little girl that he and her sister "cannot live without you" and asked her if she would like to join them across the ocean. He promised that joining them in France meant she would learn "to play on the harpsichord, to draw, to dance, to read and talk French."
"I long to see you, and hope that you . . . are well," the now seven-year-old replied. But she added that she had no desire to make the trip, harpsichord or no harpsichord. "I don't want to go to France," she stated plainly. "I had rather stay with Aunt Eppes."
Jefferson was undaunted and began to plan for her safe travel. Having already lost two dear family members, he did not want to risk losing Polly and looked for ways to reduce the dangers of the journey. He instructed her uncle, Francis Eppes, to select a proven ship for Polly's crossing. "The vessel should have performed one [transatlantic] voyage at least," Jefferson ordered, "and must not be more than four or five years old." He worried about the weather and insisted that his daughter travel in the warm months to avoid winter storms. As for supervision, Polly could make the journey, Jefferson advised, "with some good lady passing from America to France, or even England [or] . . . a careful gentleman."
Yet an even more intimidating concern worried Jefferson: more frightening than weather or leaky ships was the threat of pirates off North Africa, a region known as the Barbary Coast. The fate of the Dauphin and the Maria was a common one for ships venturing near the area, where the Sahara's arid coast was divided into four nation-states. Running west to east were the Barbary nations Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, which all fell under the ultimate authority of the Ottoman Empire, seated in present-day Turkey.
The Islamic nations of the Barbary Coast had preyed upon foreign shipping for centuries, attacking ships in international waters both in the Mediterranean and along the northwest coast of Africa and the Iberian peninsula. Even such naval powers as France and Great Britain were not immune, though they chose to deal with the problem by paying annual tributes of "gifts" to Barbary leaders-bribes paid to the Barbary states to persuade the pirates to leave merchant ships from the paying countries alone. But the prices were always changing, and the ships of those nations that did not meet the extortionate demands were not safe from greedy pirates.
To the deeply rational Jefferson, the lawless pirates posed perhaps the greatest danger to his sadly diminished family. He knew what had happened to O'Brien and could not risk a similar fate for his child. As he confided in a letter to brother-in-law Francis Eppes, "My anxieties on this subject could induce me to endless details. . . . The Algerines this fall took two vessels from us and now have twenty-two of our citizens in slavery." The plight of the men aboard the Maria and the Dauphin haunted him-if their hellish incarceration was terrifying to contemplate, "who can estimate . . . the fate of a child? My mind revolts at the possibility of a capture," Jefferson wrote. "Unless you hear from myself-not trusting the information of any other person on earth-that peace is made with the Algerines, do not send her but in a vessel of French or English property; for these vessels alone are safe from prize by the barbarians." He knew those two countries paid a very high annual tribute, thereby purchasing safe passage for their vessels.
As a father, he could feel in his bones a fear for his daughter's safety. As an ambassador and an American, Jefferson recognized it was a fear no citizen of a free nation embarking on an oceanic voyage should have to endure.
A Meeting of Ministers
A few months later, in March 1786, Jefferson would make his way to London to meet with his good friend John Adams. Together they hoped to figure out how to deal with the emerging threat to American interests.
His waistline thickening, his chin growing jowly, fifty-year-old John Adams welcomed Jefferson into his London home. Overlooking the tree-lined Grosvenor Square from the town house Adams had rented, the two men sat down to talk in the spacious drawing room.
Adams was the United States' first ambassador to Great Britain. Just arrived from Paris after a cold and blustery six-day journey, Jefferson was minister to the French government of Louis XVI. To Adams and his wife, Abigail, their old friend looked different, as Jefferson had begun powdering his ginger hair white. The stout New Englander and the tall, lean, forty-two-year-old Virginian might have been of different breeds-but then, in the years to come, they would often be of two minds in their political thinking as well.
Unlike most of the European diplomats they encountered, neither Adams nor Jefferson had been born into a tradition of diplomatic decorum. Adams was a rough-and-tumble lawyer, the son of a yeoman farmer from south of Boston, known for a damn-all attitude of speaking his mind. A man of quiet natural grace, Jefferson was learning the cosmopolitan ways of Paris but, at heart, he was a well-born country boy, heir to large farms outside Charlottesville, a tiny courthouse town in central Virginia. Both men were novices in the game of international negotiation, a game their country needed them to learn quickly.
When the Americans and British signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783, bringing to an end the Revolution, the United States' legal status changed in the view of every nation and world leader. No longer under British protection, the fledgling nation found that its status was lowly indeed. Adams's letters to the British government tended to go unanswered, and Jefferson's attempts to negotiate trade treaties with France and Spain were going nowhere. Now a more hostile international threat was rearing its head, and Adams had summoned Jefferson from Paris to discuss the danger posed by the "piratical nations" of North Africa.
In earlier days, the colonies' ships had enjoyed the protection offered by the Union Jack; but because U.S. ships no longer carried British passports, the British navy provided no protection against pirates. The French, America's wartime allies against the British, did not protect them now that there was peace. Americans abroad were very much on their own, especially in international waters. And because America had no navy to protect its interests, insurance for American ships skyrocketed to twenty times the rate of that of European ships.
The expense of insurance was insupportable, but America's economy could not afford to end trade on the high seas; the Revolution had been fought with borrowed money, and repayment of those debts depended upon ongoing international commerce. One key piece of the nation's economic health was trade with southern Europe, accessible only by sailing into the Mediterranean-and within range of the Barbary pirates. According to Jefferson's calculations, a quarter of New England's most important export, dried salt cod, went to markets there, as did one sixth of the country's grain exports. Rice and lumber were also important exports, and the merchant ships provided employment for more than a thousand seamen. The trade and employment were essential to the growing American economy, and John Adams thought the numbers could easily double if a diplomatic solution in the Barbary region could be reached.
The American government had initially approved payment to the North African nations. But the bribes demanded were impossibly high, many hundreds of thousands of dollars when the American treasury could afford only token offerings of a few tens of thousands. In an era when not a single American was worth a million dollars, and Mr. Jefferson's great house, Monticello, was assessed at seventy-five hundred dollars, paying such exorbitant bribes seemed almost incomprehensible. Unable to pay enough to buy the goodwill of the Barbary countries, America was forced to let its ships sail at their own risk. Sailors like those on the Maria and the Dauphin had become pawns in a very dangerous game.
On this day, Adams and Jefferson worried over the fate of the Dauphin and the Maria. It had been nearly a year since the pirates from Algiers had taken the ships and cargoes the previous July, and now the regent of Algiers had made known his demand: until he was paid an exorbitant and, it seemed, ever-escalating ransom, the American captives were to be his slaves.
Despite their pity for the captives, Jefferson and Adams knew the new nation couldn't afford a new war or a new source of debt. They understood that the cost of keeping American ships away from the Barbary Coast would be greater than the cost of addressing the problem. That left the two American ministers, as Jefferson confided to a friend, feeling "absolutely suspended between indignation and impotence."
Yet neither Jefferson nor Adams could afford to remain paralyzed in the face of the danger. Not only had American families and the economy been endangered, but rumor had it that the pirates had also captured a ship carrying the venerable Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson's predecessor as minister to France. (As one of his correspondents wrote to Franklin, "We are waiting with the greatest patience to hear from you. The newspapers have given us anxiety on your account; for some of them insist that you have been taken by the Algerines, while others pretend that you are at Morocco, enduring your slavery with all the patience of a philosopher.") To everyone's relief, the reports proved false, but the scare brought the very real dangers posed by the Barbary pirates too close for comfort.
Sitting in the London house, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson discussed the idea of a negotiation that might break the impasse. Adams had a new reason to hope that the Barbary rulers could be reasoned with, and the two ministers set about deciding upon the right approach.
"Money Is Their God and Mahomet Their Prophet"
A few weeks earlier, Adams had made an unannounced visit to the Barbary state of Tripoli's ambassador, freshly arrived in London. To Adams's surprise, the bearded Sidi Haji Abdrahaman had welcomed him warmly. Seated in front of a roaring fire, with two servants in attendance, they smoked tobacco from great pipes with six-foot-long stems "fit for a Walking Cane." Adams had promptly written to Jefferson. "It is long since I took a pipe, but [we] smoked in awful pomp, reciprocating whiff for whiff . . . until coffee was brought in."
Adams made a strong impression on the Tripolitans. Observing his expertise with the Turkish smoking device, an attendant praised his technique, saying, "Monsieur, vous tes un Turk!" ("Sir, you are a Turk!") It was a high compliment.
Abdrahaman returned Adams's visit two days later, and Adams decided his new diplomatic acquaintance was "a benevolent and wise man" with whom the United States could do business. He believed Abdrahaman might help broker an arrangement between the United States and the other Barbary nations, bringing an end to the capture of American merchantmen. Now reunited with his friend and fellow American, he shared his plan with Jefferson and invited him to join the conversation.
On a blustery March day, Adams, Jefferson, and Abdrahaman convened at the house of the Tripolitan envoy. The conversation began in an improvised mix of broken French and Italian, as the Tripolitan envoy spoke little English. The discussion was cordial, and Adams and Jefferson began to believe that a solution was in sight. When the talk turned to money, however, the bubble of optimism soon exploded.
Jefferson had researched the sums paid as tribute by European countries, including Denmark, Sweden, and Portugal, so he knew the going rate. But the gold Abdrahaman demanded that day was beyond the reach of the United States: a perpetual peace with Tripoli would cost some 30,000 English guineas, the equivalent of roughly $120,000, not counting the 10 percent gratuity Abdrahaman demanded for himself. And that amount bought peace with only one of the Barbary states. To buy peace in Tunis would cost another 30,000 guineas, to say nothing of what would be required to pay Morocco or even Algiers, the largest and most powerful of the four. The $80,000 that Congress had been hard-pressed to authorize for an across-the-board understanding was no more than a down payment on what would be needed to meet the Barbary demands.
Although he now despaired of an easy solution, Adams wasn't ready to stop talking. He could understand financial concerns, and he was already beginning to realize what O'Brien would later say of the pirates: "Money is their God and Mahomet their Prophet." Yet greed alone couldn't explain the madness and cruelty of the demands. Unsatisfied, the famously blunt Adams wanted a better answer. While maintaining the best diplomatic reserve he could muster-whatever their frustration, the American ministers could hardly leap to their feet and walk out of the negotiations-Adams asked how the Barbary states could justify "[making] war upon nations who had done them no injury."
Product details
- Item Weight : 1.03 pounds
- Hardcover : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1591848067
- ISBN-13 : 978-1591848066
- Dimensions : 6.21 x 0.89 x 9.27 inches
- Publisher : Sentinel; Illustrated edition (November 3, 2015)
- Language: : English
-
Best Sellers Rank:
#58,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in Algeria History
- #11 in North Africa History
- #24 in Historical African Biographies (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Start reading Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates on your Kindle in under a minute.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Customer reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
4,296 global ratings
How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2018
Verified Purchase
This should be an interesting story, and it would have been if Mr. Kilmeade had stuck to the facts and the time period in which these events took place. Unfortunately he told an 18th Century story through a contemporary political lens, interpreting events in the past to support a right wing agenda. This has the effect of lessening the achievements of the real life players in this history and the significance of their actions in underpinning the new experiment in democracy that was America.
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2016
Verified Purchase
I'm not just a romance reader! I love history and I really enjoyed this book. I looked up the Barbary pirates online and found a timetable to follow. The book went into more detail that I found very interesting. The United States had barely won their independence from England, when their sailing vessels, trading in the Mediterranean Sea were attacked by pirates from Tunisia, Morocco, & Tripoli (Libya,) The ships and crew members were seized and the men were forced into hard labor. The pirates asked for ransoms to be paid. After he became president, Thomas Jefferson, did not want to pay ransom. He was able to convince congress to build armed Navy ships to protect the trading vessels in the Mediterranean countries. There were two wars and America proved to Europe that they could defend themselves against the pirates and again after they won the battle against Great Britain during the war of 1812. It was after that war that they finally defeated the pirates for good.
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2018
Verified Purchase
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History
This is a very quick read but well worth the readers time. This book is just around 200 pages which I read in a few hours, but it took me much longer to look up all the places, ship designs and other details the authors described. This book is a foretelling of history that was doomed to be repeated over and over again. I literally couldn't put this book down and when I didn't have it in my hand I would be thinking about what happened. How I could consider that I have been formally educated and yet to have never heard the first word about this part of history is amazing. Other than the marine anthem with the words "from the shores of Tripoli" not a word have I heard about this conflict. This declared war was over shadowed perhaps by the Lewis and Clark Exposition or Thomas Jefferson himself. Having read about Jefferson from numerous books it seems almost impossible an impression wasn't made to me prior to reading this book regarding the Barbary Pirates of the Mediterranean.
Having said all of this, I did have some confusion with all the different boats/ships the authors named during various confrontations. Most likely it was just my lack of understanding of navel vessels that caused by confusion. However, on occasions the authors would write that perhaps only one ship was present, then in the next reference the same characters were on another smaller boat. I don't know where the smaller boats came from, but again this is most likely more on me then the writers. Personally, I would also enjoy learning more about how a handful of marines crossed 500 miles of dessert and ended up with 500 or 600 fighters? Also, where did all the money come from to hire mercenaries? Did they carry money with them of that magnitude. Again, I do not wish to knock the authors on these trite matters as I truly loved the book. It's probably the first book in a while I actually didn't wish was so short.
This appears to be our countries first venture into organizing coup's and it appears we have followed the same model every since. Promise and then short on delivery of those promises.
I would highly recommend; the story reads like a novel with every page being unbelievable!
This is a very quick read but well worth the readers time. This book is just around 200 pages which I read in a few hours, but it took me much longer to look up all the places, ship designs and other details the authors described. This book is a foretelling of history that was doomed to be repeated over and over again. I literally couldn't put this book down and when I didn't have it in my hand I would be thinking about what happened. How I could consider that I have been formally educated and yet to have never heard the first word about this part of history is amazing. Other than the marine anthem with the words "from the shores of Tripoli" not a word have I heard about this conflict. This declared war was over shadowed perhaps by the Lewis and Clark Exposition or Thomas Jefferson himself. Having read about Jefferson from numerous books it seems almost impossible an impression wasn't made to me prior to reading this book regarding the Barbary Pirates of the Mediterranean.
Having said all of this, I did have some confusion with all the different boats/ships the authors named during various confrontations. Most likely it was just my lack of understanding of navel vessels that caused by confusion. However, on occasions the authors would write that perhaps only one ship was present, then in the next reference the same characters were on another smaller boat. I don't know where the smaller boats came from, but again this is most likely more on me then the writers. Personally, I would also enjoy learning more about how a handful of marines crossed 500 miles of dessert and ended up with 500 or 600 fighters? Also, where did all the money come from to hire mercenaries? Did they carry money with them of that magnitude. Again, I do not wish to knock the authors on these trite matters as I truly loved the book. It's probably the first book in a while I actually didn't wish was so short.
This appears to be our countries first venture into organizing coup's and it appears we have followed the same model every since. Promise and then short on delivery of those promises.
I would highly recommend; the story reads like a novel with every page being unbelievable!
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2020
Verified Purchase
To be clear, while this is entertaining and readable, it is obvious that mssrs Kilmeade and Yeager are not trained historians. Had this book been edited better, I would have rated it better. These gentlemen commited one of the cardinal sins of historiography insofar as they spun historical facts to support their own ideology. At one point the authors referred to "Jefferson's own Republican party." The GOP did exit yet. The two parties during the time frame in question were the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans ; neither aligns neatly with either the modern GOP or Democratic parties. At one point it was stated that "While Jefferson did own a copy the Quran, he found the values espoused in it so foreign that it was confined to the bookshelf." No reference was given for that statement at all. If I had ever made a statement like that in one of my research papers, any one of my history professors would have made a negative comment and graded me accordingly. Moreover, if The authors had bothered to do some cursory research, they would have that the Jefferson edition of the Quran was commissioned by a Protestant group specifically for casting a negative light on Islam because Muslims do believe that Jesus is the "Son of God" and the Catholic church as the Protestant group in question regarded Catholics as idol worshippers because Catholics venerate the Virgin Mary. Additionally, the Barbary polities are repeatedly referred as "Islamic." While that is true it has nothing to with their piracy as religion was merely excuse for their greed; ideology getting in the way of good writing again . So, entertaining reading yes. Good history, not so much. I submit that the authors may want to take a couple of Historiography classes.
Top reviews from other countries
Gabriel Stein
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting book about a forgotten conflict
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2018Verified Purchase
"to the shores of Tripoli" goes the Marine Corps hymn, yet few who sing it stop to think about what the words mean. In this book, Kilmeade lays out the causes, course and consequences of the First Barbary War with admirable clarity. It is an easy and enjoyable read. My only regret (and this is why I give four stars instead of five) is that there is practically nothing about Sweden, yet Sweden, having been the first country to salute the Stars and Stripes during the Revolutionary War, here fought as the ally of the United States. This should also be remembered.
3 people found this helpful
Report abuse
irishpropheticart
5.0 out of 5 stars
What excellent writing to make History come alive!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2018Verified Purchase
Fast paced and chalked full of information. These two authors are really good together in this series they ae doing.I recommend their other books;Washington's Spies and Andrew Jackson Battle of New Orleans
2 people found this helpful
Report abuse
jvm
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well written, easy to read, and informative
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2017Verified Purchase
I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in American history. This is very easy to read and the author had done a great job of compliment the research into story format without distorting or sensationalising it.
One person found this helpful
Report abuse
Francis Xavier Hynes
4.0 out of 5 stars
America First!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2017Verified Purchase
Good read, possibly biased but I ran through it an enjoyed it until I saw Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly get acknowledgements!
2 people found this helpful
Report abuse
jit
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 4, 2018Verified Purchase
Very interesting book, full of facts and history. Well written and easy to read.
One person found this helpful
Report abuse
What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Pages with related products.
See and discover other items: constitution of the united states of america, national parks of america, new thomas jefferson biographies, u s marines things, battle of franklin, adam hall books
There's a problem loading this menu right now.
Get free delivery with Amazon Prime
Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books.











