110-739: The Africa Squadron was a unit of the United States Navy that operated from 1819 to 1861 in the Blockade of Africa to suppress the slave trade along the coast of West Africa. However, the term was often ascribed generally to anti-slavery operations during the period leading up to the American Civil War . The squadron was an outgrowth of the 1819 treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom that
220-588: A century. More recently, pirates of the "golden age" were further stereotyped and popularized by the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, which began in 2003. The English word "pirate" is derived from the Latin pirata ("pirate, corsair, sea robber"), which comes from Greek πειρατής ( peiratēs ), "brigand", from πειράομαι (peiráomai), "I attempt", from πεῖρα ( peîra ), "attempt, experience". The meaning of
330-702: A companionship of privateers who later turned to piracy as the Likedeelers . They were especially noted for their leaders Klaus Störtebeker and Gödeke Michels . Until about 1440, maritime trade in both the North Sea , the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia was seriously in danger of attack by the pirates. H. Thomas Milhorn mentions a certain Englishman named William Maurice, convicted of piracy in 1241, as
440-549: A few years later. In 264, the Goths reached Galatia and Cappadocia , and Gothic pirates landed on Cyprus and Crete . In the process, the Goths seized enormous booty and took thousands into captivity. In 286 AD, Carausius , a Roman military commander of Gaulish origins, was appointed to command the Classis Britannica , and given the responsibility of eliminating Frankish and Saxon pirates who had been raiding
550-621: A lasting peace, while Tripoli was similarly coerced in 1686. In 1783 and 1784 the Spaniards bombarded Algiers in an effort to stem the piracy. The second time , Admiral Barceló damaged the city so severely that the Algerian Dey asked Spain to negotiate a peace treaty. From then on, Spanish vessels and coasts were safe for several years. Until the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, British treaties with
660-778: A legitimate response to the fact that their land was poor and it became their main source of income. The main victims of Maniot pirates were the Ottomans but the Maniots also targeted ships of European countries. Zaporizhian Sich was a pirate republic in Europe from the 16th through to the 18th century. Situated in Cossack territory in the remote steppe of Eastern Europe, it was populated with Ukrainian peasants that had run away from their feudal masters, outlaws, destitute gentry, run-away slaves from Turkish galleys , etc. The remoteness of
770-465: A mixed group of free trade activists and anti-slavery advocates who saw the only way to end the trade being the establishment of legitimate commerce with Africa. Their leader, Thomas Fowell Buxton , advocated a renewed naval effort until this could be achieved. In 1839, he published The African Slave Trade and its Remedy , which contained a top-to-bottom critique of the British efforts thus far. The work
880-698: A motion in the Commons to end all naval activity, which came close to ending the West Africa Squadron and also the career of Prime Minister John Russell , who threatened resignation should the motion be carried. To prevent a repeat of this, swift action was taken. Brazil was still one of the largest slave trading nations and continued to defy British diplomatic calls to put an end to the practice. In 1846, Palmerston returned as foreign secretary and in 1850 permitted Royal Naval vessels to enter Brazilian waters in order to blockade slavers on both sides of
990-656: A part of Western pop culture . The two-volume A General History of the Pyrates , published in London in 1724, is generally credited with bringing key piratical figures and a semi-accurate description of their milieu in the " Golden Age of Piracy " to the public's imagination. The General History inspired and informed many later fictional depictions of piracy, most notably the novels Treasure Island (1883) and Peter Pan (1911), both of which have been adapted and readapted for stage, film, television, and other media across over
1100-573: A proclamation early in 1815 granting him and his men pardons for their misdeeds. The United States Navy's Africa Squadron, Brazil Squadron , and Home Squadron were assigned the task of intercepting ships that were bringing Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the slave markets, where black ivory found numerous customers. Since the War of Independence had been costly, no American warships were constructed between 1783 and 1795. The Navy Department
1210-419: A smaller type than battle galleys, often referred to as galiots or fustas . Pirate galleys were small, nimble, lightly armed, but often crewed in large numbers in order to overwhelm the often minimal crews of merchant ships. In general, pirate craft were extremely difficult for patrolling craft to actually hunt down and capture. Anne Hilarion de Tourville , a French admiral of the 17th century, believed that
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#17327660986051320-419: A state government . Piracy or pirating is the name of a specific crime under customary international law and also the name of a number of crimes under the municipal law of a number of states. In the 21st century , seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue, with estimated worldwide losses of US$ 25 billion in 2023, increased from US$ 16 billion in 2004. The waters between
1430-694: A tribe called the Narentines revived the old Illyrian piratical habits and often raided the Adriatic Sea starting in the 7th century. Their raids in the Adriatic increased rapidly, until the whole Sea was no longer safe for travel. The Narentines took more liberties in their raiding quests while the Venetian Navy was abroad, as when it was campaigning in Sicilian waters in 827–882. As soon as
1540-628: A year of capture, most of the captives of the Iranun and Banguingui would be bartered off in Jolo usually for rice, opium, bolts of cloth, iron bars, brassware, and weapons. The buyers were usually Tausug datu from the Sultanate of Sulu who had preferential treatment, but buyers also included European ( Dutch and Portuguese ) and Chinese traders as well as Visayan pirates ( renegados ). Spanish authorities and native Christian Filipinos responded to
1650-478: Is facing many challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice , as these attacks often occur in international waters . Nations have used their naval forces to repel and pursue pirates, and some private vessels use armed security guards, high-pressure water cannons , or sound cannons to repel boarders, and use radar to avoid potential threats. Romanticised accounts of piracy during the Age of Sail have long been
1760-531: The 13th Amendment . The Royal Navy squadron remained in operation until 1870. The Slave Trade Act 1807 stated that: The African Slave Trade, and all manner of dealing and trading in the Purchase, Sale, Barter, or Transfer of Slaves, or of Persons intended to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as Slaves, practised or carried on, in, at, to or from any Part of the Coast or Countries of Africa, shall be, and
1870-790: The Arabs . In 846, the Narentines broke through to Venice itself and raided its lagoon city of Caorle . This caused a Byzantine military action against them that brought Christianity to them. After the Arab raids on the Adriatic coast circa 872 and the retreat of the Imperial Navy, the Narentines continued their raids of Venetian waters, causing new conflicts with the Italians in 887–888. The Venetians futilely continued to fight them throughout
1980-778: The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. In 1820, another British fleet under Admiral Sir Harry Neal again bombarded Algiers. Corsair activity based in Algiers did not entirely cease until its conquest by France in 1830 . In thalassocratic Austronesian cultures in Island Southeast Asia , maritime raids for slaves and resources against rival polities have ancient origins. It was associated with prestige and prowess and often recorded in tattoos. Reciprocal raiding traditions were recorded by early European cultures as being prevalent throughout Island Southeast Asia. With
2090-640: The Dodecanese islet of Pharmacusa . The Senate invested the general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus with powers to deal with piracy in 67 BC (the Lex Gabinia ), and Pompey, after three months of naval warfare, managed to suppress the threat . As early as 258 AD, the Gothic - Herulic fleet ravaged towns on the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara . The Aegean coast suffered similar attacks
2200-526: The Gulf of Aden , and the English Channel , whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. The term piracy generally refers to maritime piracy, although the term has been generalized to refer to acts committed on land, in the air, on computer networks , and (in science fiction) outer space. Piracy usually excludes crimes committed by the perpetrator on their own vessel (e.g. theft), as well as privateering , which implies authorization by
2310-681: The Lyons–Seward Treaty of 1862 , the United States gave the UK full authority to crack down on the Atlantic slave trade when carried on by US ships. With the end of hostilities the UK and the US would continue cooperating, and in 1867, Cuba, under much pressure from the two nations, gave up its trade. The United States Constitution of 1787 had protected the importation of slaves for twenty years. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society held its first meeting at
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#17327660986052420-536: The North African states protected American ships from the Barbary corsairs. Morocco , which in 1777 was the first independent nation to publicly recognize the United States , became in 1784 the first Barbary power to seize an American vessel after independence. While the United States managed to secure peace treaties, these obliged it to pay tribute for protection from attack. Payments in ransom and tribute to
2530-680: The Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace. Don Cossacks under Stenka Razin even ravaged the Persian coasts. Though less famous and romanticized than Atlantic or Caribbean pirates, corsairs in the Mediterranean equaled or outnumbered the former at any given point in history. Mediterranean piracy was conducted almost entirely with galleys until the mid-17th century, when they were gradually replaced with highly maneuverable sailing vessels such as xebecs and brigantines . They were of
2640-666: The Philippines after 1565. These slaves were taken from piracy on passing ships as well as coastal raids on settlements as far as the Malacca Strait , Java , the southern coast of China and the islands beyond the Makassar Strait . Most of the slaves were Tagalogs , Visayans , and "Malays" (including Bugis , Mandarese , Iban , and Makassar ). There were also occasional European and Chinese captives who were usually ransomed off through Tausug intermediaries of
2750-574: The Qing period, Chinese pirate fleets grew increasingly large. The effects large-scale piracy had on the Chinese economy were immense. They preyed voraciously on China's junk trade, which flourished in Fujian and Guangdong and was a vital artery of Chinese commerce. Pirate fleets exercised hegemony over villages on the coast, collecting revenue by exacting tribute and running extortion rackets. In 1802,
2860-690: The Red Sea and the Indian Ocean , off the Somali coast and in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore have frequently been targeted by modern pirates armed with automatic weapons, such as assault rifles , and machine guns, grenades and rocket propelled grenades . They often use small motorboats to attack and board ships, a tactic that takes advantage of the small number of crew members on modern cargo vessels and transport ships. The international community
2970-774: The Roman Republic . It was not until 229 BC when the Romans decisively beat the Illyrian fleets that their threat was ended. During the 1st century BC, there were pirate states along the Anatolian coast, threatening the commerce of the Roman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean. On one voyage across the Aegean Sea in 75 BC, Julius Caesar was kidnapped and briefly held by Cilician pirates and held prisoner in
3080-576: The Sulu Sea : the Sultanate of Sulu , the Sultanate of Maguindanao , and the Confederation of Sultanates in Lanao (the modern Moro people ). It is estimated that from 1770 to 1870, around 200,000 to 300,000 people were enslaved by Iranun and Banguingui slavers. David P. Forsythe put the estimate much higher, at around 2 million slaves captured within the first two centuries of Spanish rule of
3190-524: The Sulu Sultanate . Slaves were the primary indicators of wealth and status, and they were the source of labor for the farms, fisheries, and workshops of the sultanates. While personal slaves were rarely sold, they trafficked extensively in slaves purchased from the Iranun and Banguingui slave markets . By the 1850s, slaves constituted 50% or more of the population of the Sulu archipelago. The scale
3300-730: The United Kingdom outlawed the Atlantic slave trade , making it illegal for British ships to transport slaves. The Royal Navy immediately established a presence off Africa to enforce the ban, called the West Africa Squadron . Although the ban initially applied only to British ships, Britain negotiated treaties with other countries to give the Royal Navy the right to intercept and search their ships for slaves. The 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves abolished
3410-528: The Yellow Sea . Heungdeok agreed and in 828 formally established the Cheonghae ( 淸海 , "clear sea") Garrison ( 청해진 ) at what is today Wando island off Korea's South Jeolla province. Heungdeok gave Jang an army of 10,000 men to establish and man the defensive works. The remnants of Cheonghae Garrison can still be seen on Jang islet just off Wando's southern coast. Jang's force, though nominally bequeathed by
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3520-597: The 10th and 11th centuries. Domagoj was accused of attacking a ship which was bringing home the papal legates who had participated in the Eighth Catholic Ecumenical Council , after which Pope John VIII addresses to Domagoj with request that his pirates stop attacking Christians at sea. In 937, Irish pirates sided with the Scots, Vikings, Picts , and Welsh in their invasion of England. Athelstan drove them back. The Slavic piracy in
3630-520: The 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples , a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilisations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding . Historic examples of such areas include the waters of Gibraltar , the Strait of Malacca , Madagascar ,
3740-563: The 17th century. France encouraged the corsairs against Spain, and later Britain and Holland supported them against France. By the second half of the 17th century the greater European naval powers began to initiate reprisals to intimidate the Barbary States into making peace with them. The most successful of the Christian states in dealing with the corsair threat was England. From the 1630s onwards England had signed peace treaties with
3850-629: The 1830s, the War with Mexico in the 1840s, the voyages to Japan in the 1850s, and transporting of diplomats to other nations left little capability available for use in the African Squadron. Piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates , and vessels used for piracy are called pirate ships . The earliest documented instances of piracy were in
3960-448: The 1830s. Frustrated with the lack of progress, in 1839, the British government subjected Portuguese vessels to British jurisdiction and did the same to Brazilian vessels in 1845. This was an unprecedented step, which subjected foreign vessels to the much more stringent British law and much stricter penalties for slave trading. However, some nations, such as the United States, resisted British coercion. The US believed strongly in freedom of
4070-609: The Atlantic and struck as far north as Iceland. According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary corsairs and sold as slaves in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries. The most famous corsairs were the Ottoman Albanian Hayreddin and his older brother Oruç Reis (Redbeard), Turgut Reis (known as Dragut in
4180-410: The Atlantic. By 1852, the Brazilian trade could be said to be extinct. "For Palmerston … the naval campaign on the coast of Brazil had brought the long drawn-out saga of the Brazilian slave trade to a resolution within twelve months". The many years of British pressure on the United States to join vigorously in fighting the Atlantic slave trade had been neutralised by the southern states. However, with
4290-405: The Baltic Sea ended with the Danish conquest of the Rani stronghold of Arkona in 1168. In the 12th century the coasts of western Scandinavia were plundered by Curonians and Oeselians from the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. In the 13th and 14th century, pirates threatened the Hanseatic routes and nearly brought sea trade to the brink of extinction. The Victual Brothers of Gotland were
4400-429: The Barbary States on various occasions, but invariably breaches of these agreements led to renewed wars. Albanian piracy , mainly centered in the town of Ulcinj (thus came to be known as Dulcignotti ), flourished during the 15th to the 19th century. France, which had recently emerged as a leading naval power, achieved comparable success soon afterwards, with bombardments of Algiers in 1682, 1683 and 1688 securing
4510-484: The Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States government annual expenditures in 1800, leading to the Barbary Wars that ended the payment of tribute. Algiers broke the 1805 peace treaty after only two years, and refused to implement the 1815 treaty until compelled to do so by Britain in 1816. In 1815, the sacking of Palma on the island of Sardinia by a Tunisian squadron, which carried off 158 inhabitants, roused widespread indignation. Britain had by this time banned
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4620-412: The Greek word peiratēs literally is "anyone who attempts something". Over time it came to be used of anyone who engaged in robbery or brigandry on land or sea. The term first appeared in English c. 1300. Spelling did not become standardised until the eighteenth century, and spellings such as "pirrot", "pyrate" and "pyrat" occurred until this period. The earliest documented instances of piracy are
4730-434: The Moro raiders and could give chase. As resistance against raiders increased, Lanong warships of the Iranun were eventually replaced by the smaller and faster garay warships of the Banguingui in the early 19th century. The Moro raids were eventually subdued by several major naval expeditions by the Spanish and local forces from 1848 to 1891, including retaliatory bombardment and capture of Moro settlements. By this time,
4840-464: The Moro slave raids by building watchtowers and forts across the Philippine archipelago, many of which are still standing today. Some provincial capitals were also moved further inland. Major command posts were built in Manila , Cavite , Cebu , Iloilo , Zamboanga , and Iligan . Defending ships were also built by local communities, especially in the Visayas Islands , including the construction of war " barangayanes " ( balangay ) that were faster than
4950-609: The Qing navy. However, a combination of famine, Qing naval opposition, and internal rifts crippled piracy in China around the 1820s, and it has never again reached the same status. In the 1840s and 1850s, United States Navy and Royal Navy forces campaigned together against Chinese pirates. Major battles were fought such as those at Ty-ho Bay and the Tonkin River though pirate junks continued operating off China for years more. However, some British and American individual citizens also volunteered to serve with Chinese pirates to fight against European forces. The British offered rewards for
5060-415: The Royal Navy. In 1815, Portugal strengthened their anti-slavery legislation by abolishing all trade north of the equator, allowing the Royal Navy a much freer hand. With the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain obtained treaties with several other powers, including France, which abolished its trade entirely in 1815 (but did not commit to right of search), and Spain, which agreed to cease trade north of
5170-437: The Silla king, was effectively under his own control. Jang became arbiter of Yellow Sea commerce and navigation. From the 13th century, Wokou based in Japan made their debut in East Asia, initiating invasions that would persist for 300 years. The wokou raids peaked in the 1550s , but by then the wokou were mostly Chinese smugglers who reacted strongly against the Ming dynasty 's strict prohibition on private sea trade. During
5280-457: The Spanish had also acquired steam gunboats ( vapor ), which could easily overtake and destroy the native Moro warships. Aside from the Iranun and Banguingui pirates, other polities were also associated with maritime raiding. The Bugis sailors of South Sulawesi were infamous as pirates who used to range as far west as Singapore and as far north as the Philippines in search of targets for piracy. The Orang laut pirates controlled shipping in
5390-524: The State of Vermont gave notice that he should, on Monday next, move for leave to bring in a bill to prohibit the importation of certain persons therein described "into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the first day of January", which will be "in the year of our Lord 1808". His words would be repeated many times by the legislators in the ninth Congress. The certain persons were described as being slaves on Monday, 16 December 1805. Wary of offending slaveholders to
5500-412: The Straits of Malacca and the waters around Singapore, and the Malay and Sea Dayak pirates preyed on maritime shipping in the waters between Singapore and Hong Kong from their haven in Borneo . In East Asia by the ninth century, populations centered mostly around merchant activities in coastal Shandong and Jiangsu . Wealthy benefactors including Jang Bogo established Silla Buddhist temples in
5610-428: The Tunisian coast were brutally treated without his knowledge. As Sardinians they were technically under British protection and the government sent Exmouth back to secure reparation. On August 17, in combination with a Dutch squadron under Admiral Van de Capellen, he bombarded Algiers. Both Algiers and Tunis made fresh concessions as a result. Securing uniform compliance with a total prohibition of slave-raiding, which
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#17327660986055720-469: The UK were taken to Courts of Mixed Commission. Mixed Commission Courts had representation from both the UK and the other nation in question, to ensure a fair trial. Many were established at key points along the coast of Africa and its islands. However, the reluctance of other powers greatly curtailed the ability of the courts to operate. Sometimes, the foreign representation would never arrive, or arrive exceptionally late. The Brazilian ambassador, in spite of
5830-408: The UK's enemies during the Napoleonic Wars . The original 1807 Act only allowed for British ships to be searched and applied only to British subjects. The slave trade on the African coast therefore continued, though without the presence of British slavers, at least on a legal basis. However, in 1810, under considerable diplomatic pressure, a convention with Portugal was signed, widening the mandate of
5940-480: The US Congress, and John Forsyth said in 1841 that "the persistence" of British cruisers was "unwarranted", "destructive to private interests", and "[would] inevitably destroy the harmony of the two countries". In 1842, there was a thaw in diplomatic relations, and the US allowed visitation to US vessels, but only if a US officer was also present. With the beginning of the 1850s, Portugal had completely ceased slave trading (1836) and Spain had all but ceased, but Cuba
6050-434: The United States was called "piracy" by an Act of Congress that punctuated the Era of Good Feelings in 1819. Any citizen of the United States found guilty of such "piracy" might be given the death penalty. The role of the Navy was expanded to include patrols off the coasts of Cuba and South America. The naval activities in the western Atlantic bore the name of "The African Slave Trade Patrol of 1820–61". The blockade of Africa
6160-436: The Venetian fleet would return to the Adriatic, the Narentines momentarily outcast their habits again, even signing a Treaty in Venice and baptising their Slavic pagan leader into Christianity. In 834 or 835 they broke the treaty and again they raided Venetian traders returning from Benevento. All of Venice's military attempts to punish them in 839 and 840 utterly failed. Later, they raided the Venetians more often, together with
6270-509: The West Africa Squadron. In spite of Britain's best efforts to pursue suppression through diplomatic means, the trade persisted. Public opinion was beginning to turn against the anti-slavery efforts due to their huge costs, the diplomatic repercussions they created, and the damage caused to other trade. Opposition in the Commons emerged from anti-coercionists, who were opposed to the use of British coercion of other nations and prolonged military action against slavers. The anti-coercionists were
6380-533: The West), Kurtoglu (known as Curtogoli in the West), Kemal Reis , Salih Reis and Koca Murat Reis . A few Barbary corsairs, such as the Dutch Jan Janszoon and the English John Ward (Muslim name Yusuf Reis), were renegade European privateers who had converted to Islam. The Barbary pirates had a direct Christian counterpart in the military order of the Knights of Saint John that operated first out of Rhodes and after 1530 Malta , though they were less numerous and took fewer slaves. Both sides waged war against
6490-442: The advent of Islam and the colonial era , slaves became a valuable resource for trading with European, Arab, and Chinese slavers, and the volume of piracy and slave raids increased significantly. Numerous native peoples engaged in sea raiding; they include the Iranun and Balanguingui slavers of Sulu , the Iban headhunters of Borneo , the Bugis sailors of South Sulawesi , and the Malays of western Southeast Asia. Piracy
6600-403: The anti-coercionist cause became much more radical and much less concerned with the plight of Africans; this "new generation" of anti-coercionists did not include abolitionists. Free trade advocates such as William Hutt were vehemently opposed to naval actions and argued the trade would eventually die naturally and the UK's interference was unwarranted. Such was their influence that there was even
6710-531: The board of directors of the American Colonization Society from writing the President of the United States to bolster the Africa Squadron's "fleet" in 1855 in accordance with the Webster-Ashburton treaty in an attempt to crack down on sailors and slavers use of sea-letters to claim American nationality in their attempt to further the slave trade on the African coast. Source: Canney, D.L., Africa Squadron , Potomac Books, 2006, pp. 233–234 Blockade of Africa The Blockade of Africa began in 1808 after
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#17327660986056820-448: The brig Storm King on 8 August 1860, off the mouth of the Congo River , with 619 Africans on board. In her final act, USS Constitution captured H.N. Gambrill in 1853. The Navy attempted to intercept slave ships from 1808 (or 1809) to 1866. A small number of ships were accosted; some of them were carrying Africans destined to be sold into slavery, while others, which had no slaves on board, were captured and escorted away from
6930-401: The coast of Africa. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 created great demand for more slaves to work in the vast new area. Jean Lafitte was a pirate who brought many slaves to the United States and sold them through an organised system established at New Orleans that included merchants from the vicinity. After he helped Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812 , President James Madison issued
7040-399: The coasts of Armorica and Belgic Gaul . In the Roman province of Britannia, Saint Patrick was captured and enslaved by Irish pirates. The most widely recognized and far-reaching pirates in medieval Europe were the Vikings , seaborne warriors from Scandinavia who raided and looted mainly between the 8th and 12th centuries, during the Viking Age in the Early Middle Ages . They raided
7150-460: The coasts, rivers and inland cities of all Western Europe as far as Seville , which was attacked by the Norse in 844. Vikings also attacked the coasts of North Africa and Italy and plundered all the coasts of the Baltic Sea . Some Vikings ascended the rivers of Eastern Europe as far as the Black Sea and Persia. In the Late Middle Ages, the Frisian pirates known as Arumer Zwarte Hoop led by Pier Gerlofs Donia and Wijerd Jelckama , fought against
7260-494: The court opening in 1826, did not arrive until 1828, and he reversed all judgements carried out in his absence upon arrival. In addition to the issues with Mixed Commission Courts, the Navy's mandate to police the trade was also found to be lacking and built on a series of complicated and often weak diplomatic treaties between other states. The agreements were signed reluctantly and were therefore very weak in practice. When policing foreign vessels, there had to be slaves on board at
7370-547: The equator in 1818, and south of the equator by 1820. A clause was also inserted into the Congress of Vienna , which called for the eventual abolition of the trade by all signatories. In 1826, Brazil signed an agreement similar to that of Portugal and ceased trade north of the equator. The UK's slave trade suppression efforts attempted to remain within the primitive international laws of the time: slavers had to be tried in courts. British vessels were taken to vice admiralty courts , and those of foreign states that had treaties with
7480-586: The exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the ships sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean waters in the 14th century BC. In classical antiquity , the Phoenicians , Illyrians and Tyrrhenians were known as pirates. In the pre-classical era, the ancient Greeks condoned piracy as a viable profession; it apparently was widespread and "regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living". References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence in many texts including in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey , and abduction of women and children to be sold into slavery
7590-470: The first contingent of freed slaves that the American Colonization Society was resettling there. Of the 86 black emigrants sailing on the Elizabeth , only about one-third were men; the rest were women and children. In 1821, Perry commanded USS Shark in the Africa Squadron. USS Alligator , under the command of Lieutenant Robert F. Stockton , was also in the African Squadron in 1821 and captured several slavers. Lieutenant Stockton also convinced
7700-436: The first person known to have been hanged, drawn and quartered , which would indicate that the then-ruling King Henry III took an especially severe view of this crime. The ushkuiniks were Novgorodian pirates who looted the cities on the Volga and Kama Rivers in the 14th century. As early as Byzantine times, the Maniots (one of Greece's toughest populations) were known as pirates. The Maniots considered piracy as
7810-444: The importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord, 1808 . The bond measure also regulated the coastwise slave trade . The bond measure was placed before President Thomas Jefferson on 2 March 1807 for his approbation. The 1807 Act of Congress was modified and supplemented by the Fifteenth Congress. The importation of slaves into
7920-595: The intercontinental slave trade in the United States but was not widely enforced. From 1819, some effort was made by the United States Navy to prevent the slave trade. This mostly consisted of patrols of the shores of the Americas and in the mid-Atlantic, the latter being largely unsuccessful due to the difficulty of intercepting ships mid-ocean. As part of the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842, it
8030-697: The least degree, the Senate amended the proposed Senatorial Act, then passed it to the House of Representatives , where it was meticulously scrutinised. Ever mindful of not inciting the wrath of slaveholders, members of the House produced a bill that would explain the Senatorial Act. The two measures were bound together, with the House bill being called H R 77 and the Senate Act being called An Act to prohibit
8140-462: The local African chief to relinquish land around Cape Mesurado , where Liberia eventually formed. Stockton became the commander of the US Navy's first screw-propelled steamer, USS Princeton , in 1843. On 26 and 27 November 1842, aboard USS Somers in the African Squadron, commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie ordered the arrest of three crewmen who were plotting to take control of
8250-652: The lower decks, like the James Galley and Charles Galley , and oar-equipped sloops proved highly useful for pirate hunting, though they were not built in sufficient numbers to check piracy until the 1720s. The expansion of Muslim power through the Ottoman conquest of large parts of the eastern Mediterranean in the 15th and 16th century resulted in extensive piracy on sea trading. The so-called Barbary pirates began to operate out of North African ports in Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Morocco around 1500, preying primarily on
8360-463: The menacing Zheng Yi inherited the fleet of his cousin, captain Zheng Qi, whose death provided Zheng Yi with considerably more influence in the world of piracy. Zheng Yi and his wife, Zheng Yi Sao (who would eventually inherit the leadership of his pirate confederacy) then formed a pirate coalition that, by 1804, consisted of over ten thousand men. Their military might alone was sufficient to combat
8470-476: The need for protection from violence. The system has been described as a "massive, multinational protection racket", the Christian side of which was not ended until 1798 in the Napoleonic Wars. The Barbary corsairs were quelled as late as the 1830s, effectively ending the last vestiges of counter-crusading jihad . Piracy off the Barbary coast was often assisted by competition among European powers in
8580-610: The only way to run down raiders from the infamous corsair Moroccan port of Salé was by using a captured pirate vessel of the same type. Using oared vessels to combat pirates was common, and was even practiced by the major powers in the Caribbean. Purpose-built galleys, or hybrid sailing vessels, were built by the English in Jamaica in 1683 and by the Spanish in the late 16th century. Specially-built sailing frigates with oar-ports on
8690-656: The onset of the American Civil War , the Lincoln administration became eager to sign up, humanitarian and military objectives combined. To the North, anti-slavery was an important military tool with which to harm the Confederate economy . It also won praise, sympathy, and support on the international stage and dampened international support for the Southern States, who vehemently defended their right to keep slaves. In
8800-708: The passes in the Alps . Moor pirates operated out of the Balearic Islands in the 10th century. From 824 to 961 Arab pirates in the Emirate of Crete raided the entire Mediterranean. In the 14th century, raids by Moor pirates forced the Venetian Duke of Crete to ask Venice to keep its fleet on constant guard. After the Slavic invasions of the former Roman province of Dalmatia in the 5th and 6th centuries,
8910-589: The place and the rapids at the Dnieper river effectively guarded the place from invasions of vengeful powers. The main target of the inhabitants of the Zaporizhian Sich who called themselves "Cossacks", were rich settlements at the Black Sea shores of Ottoman Empire and Crimean Khanate . By 1615 and 1625, Zaporozhian Cossacks had even managed to raze townships on the outskirts of Istanbul , forcing
9020-508: The region. Jang Bogo had become incensed at the treatment of his fellow countrymen, who in the unstable milieu of late Tang often fell victim to coastal pirates or inland bandits. After returning to Silla around 825, and in possession of a formidable private fleet headquartered at Cheonghae ( Wando ), Jang Bogo petitioned the Silla king Heungdeok ( r. 826–836 ) to establish a permanent maritime garrison to protect Silla merchant activities in
9130-491: The respective enemies of their faith, and both used galleys as their primary weapons. Both sides also used captured or bought galley slaves to man the oars of their ships. The Muslims relied mostly on captured Christians, the Christians used a mix of Muslim slaves, Christian convicts and a small contingency of buonavoglie , free men who out of desperation or poverty had taken to rowing. Historian Peter Earle has described
9240-472: The same is hereby utterly abolished, prohibited, and declared to be unlawful. Under this act, if a ship was caught with slaves, there was a fine of £100 per enslaved person. This fine was usually paid by the ship's captain. In order to enforce this, two ships were dispatched to the African coast, their primary mission being to prevent British subjects from slave trading and also to disrupt the slave trades of
9350-464: The same time the department put Madeira out of bounds for the squadron. The majority of the squadron's cruising in its first decade was along the coast of Western Africa, with particular attention to Liberian interests. By the 1850s much of the slave trade in this area had been eliminated by the British, based in their colony at Sierra Leone , as well as the Liberians. This however, did not stop
9460-413: The seas and on several occasions refused to allow the Royal Navy right of search. Knowing that many slavers would fly false US flags to avoid being boarded, some slavers were even registered in southern US states. This caused several diplomatic incidents, as frustrated officers would often board ships with US flags, directly contravening their orders, to capture slavers. There was fierce opposition to this in
9570-503: The ship. The three were hanged on 1 December. This is the only occurrence of maritime mutiny at law in the history of the United States Navy. Commodore Perry was placed in command of the African Squadron in 1843. Ships that captured slavers while deployed with the African Squadron include USS Yorktown , USS Constellation , and the second USS Constellation , which captured Cora on 26 September 1860, with 705 Africans on board. The first USS San Jacinto captured
9680-417: The shipping of Christian powers, including massive slave raids at sea as well as on land. The Barbary pirates were nominally under Ottoman suzerainty , but had considerable independence to prey on the enemies of Islam. The Muslim corsairs were technically often privateers with support from legitimate, though highly belligerent, states. They considered themselves as holy Muslim warriors, or ghazis , carrying on
9790-638: The ships were too few, and since much of the trading activity had shifted to the Niger River delta area (present-day Nigeria ), which was not being covered. In the two years of Perry's leadership, only one slaver was reported to have been captured, and that ship was later acquitted by a New Orleans court. In the 16 years of squadron operation, only the crews of 19 slave ships went to trial. These slavers were acquitted or only lightly fined. Other commanders, however, were more successful. The Africa Squadron's cruising area eventually ranged from Cape Frio to
9900-468: The slave trade and was seeking to induce other countries to do likewise. This led to complaints from states which were still vulnerable to the corsairs that Britain's enthusiasm for ending the trade in African slaves did not extend to stopping the enslavement of Europeans and Americans by the Barbary States. In order to neutralise this objection and further the anti-slavery campaign, in 1816 Lord Exmouth
10010-632: The south (about 18 degrees south latitude), to Madeira in the north. However, the squadron's supply depot was in Cape Verde archipelago , approximately 2,500 nautical miles (4,600 kilometers) from the northernmost centers of the slave trade in the Bight of Biafra and southward. The navy department did not move the depot location until 1859, when it was set up at São Paulo de Luanda , in Portuguese Angola , about eight degrees south latitude. At
10120-523: The squadron had grown to six ships, with a naval station established in 1819 at what is now Freetown and a supply base at Ascension Island , later moved to Cape Town in 1832. These resources were further increased: in the middle of the 19th century, there were around 25 vessels and 2,000 personnel, with a further 1,000 local sailors. Between 1808 and 1860, the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans. Around 2,000 British sailors died on their mission of freeing slaves with
10230-459: The temporary capital, Philadelphia , in 1794. On 7 April 1798, the fifth Congress passed an act that imposed a $ 300-per-slave penalty on persons convicted of performing the illegal importation of slaves. It was an indication of the type of behaviour and course of events soon to become commonplace in the Congress. On Thursday, 12 December 1805, in the ninth Congress, Senator Stephen Roe Bradley of
10340-475: The time of seizure for the accused slaver to be convicted. Unlike in Britain's 1807 Act, there was no equipment clause, meaning that slave ships carrying what was obviously equipment for transporting slaves, but without slaves on board at the time of search, could not be seized. This major flaw, which greatly curtailed the navy's efforts and caused some naval officers to fall foul of the law, was not rectified until
10450-650: The tradition of fighting the incursion of Western Christians that had begun with the First Crusade late in the 11th century. Coastal villages and towns of Italy, Spain and islands in the Mediterranean were frequently attacked by Muslim corsairs, and long stretches of the Italian and Spanish coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. After 1600, the Barbary corsairs occasionally entered
10560-561: The transatlantic slave trade. In addition to the West Africa Squadron, the Africa Squadron had the same duties to perform. However, they faced a problem with finding enough sailors. The Liberian coastal Kru people were hired, which allowed the West African Squadron to patrol the coast of Africa effectively. Following the 1807 Act, two ships had been dispatched to the African coast for anti-slavery patrol. By 1818,
10670-606: The troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V with some success. Toward the end of the 9th century, Moorish pirate havens were established along the coast of southern France and northern Italy. In 846 Moor raiders sacked the extra muros Basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Rome. In 911, the bishop of Narbonne was unable to return to France from Rome because the Moors from Fraxinet controlled all
10780-486: The two sides of the Christian-Muslim Mediterranean conflict as "mirror image[s] of maritime predation, two businesslike fleets of plunderers set against each other". This conflict of faith in the form of privateering, piracy and slave raiding generated a complex system that was upheld/financed/operated on the trade in plunder and slaves that was generated from a low-intensive conflict, as well as
10890-477: Was agreed that both countries would work together on the abolition of the slave trade, which was deemed piracy , and to continue the blockade of Africa. US Navy involvement continued until the beginning of the American Civil War , in 1861. The following year, the Lincoln administration gave the UK full authority to intercept US ships. Slavery was not abolished in the United States until 1865, when Congress ratified
11000-472: Was also practiced by foreign seafarers on a smaller scale, including Chinese, Japanese, and European traders, renegades, and outlaws. The volume of piracy and raids were often dependent on the ebb and flow of trade and monsoons , with pirate season (known colloquially as the "Pirate Wind") starting from August to September. Slave raids were of high economic importance to the Muslim Sultanates in
11110-595: Was an early step in stopping the trade, and further defined by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Although technically coordinated with a British West Africa Squadron based in Sierra Leone , in practice the American contingent worked on its own. Matthew Perry was the first commander of the squadron, and based himself in Portuguese Cape Verde . The squadron was generally ineffective, since
11220-575: Was common. By the era of Classical Greece , piracy was looked upon as a "disgrace" to have as a profession. In the 3rd century BC, pirate attacks on Olympus in Lycia brought impoverishment. Among some of the most famous ancient pirateering peoples were the Illyrians, a people populating the western Balkan peninsula. Constantly raiding the Adriatic Sea , the Illyrians caused many conflicts with
11330-409: Was created on 30 April 1798. On 27 March 1794, following communication with President Washington, Congress authorised the purchase or construction of six frigates. These ships included the first USS Constellation , launched 7 September 1797, and USS Constitution , a ship that would be briefly employed in the African Squadron. Few new ships were built in the United States after 1801 until USS Guerriere
11440-594: Was highly influential and gave Buxton a leading role in the planning of the Niger expedition of 1841 , an attempt to establish trading posts along the Niger River to create an alternative to slave trading. Although the plan had offered a long-term solution to the slave trade, the expedition ended in abject failure, with many of the Europeans falling ill. In 1845, Buxton died, with his ambitions unfulfilled. From 1845,
11550-539: Was launched on 20 June 1814; it proved to be an effective warship in the war with the Barbary pirates in 1815. At the same time as this effort was taking place, other important tasks, such as the War of 1812 , the ongoing troubles with the Barbary pirates, the extermination of the pirates in the West Indies from 1819 to 1827, the protection of American shipping in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru in
11660-437: Was sent to secure new concessions from Tripoli , Tunis , and Algiers , including a pledge to treat Christian captives in any future conflict as prisoners of war rather than slaves and the imposition of peace between Algiers and the kingdoms of Sardinia and Sicily . On his first visit he negotiated satisfactory treaties and sailed for home. While he was negotiating, a number of Sardinian fishermen who had settled at Bona on
11770-666: Was so massive that the word for "pirate" in Malay became lanun , an exonym of the Iranun people. The economy of the Sulu sultanates was largely run by slaves and the slave trade. Male captives of the Iranun and the Banguingui were treated brutally, even fellow Muslim captives were not spared. They were usually forced to serve as galley slaves on the lanong and garay warships of their captors. Female captives, however, were usually treated better. There were no recorded accounts of rapes, though some were starved for discipline. Within
11880-552: Was still an active slave port. Brazil continued to defy British intervention, and the Brazilian trade was not extinguished until 1852, when Palmerston began using force under the Pax Britannica doctrine. The British Royal Navy commissioned the West Africa Squadron in 1807, and the United States Navy did so as well in 1842. The squadron had the duty to protect Africa from slave traders, and it effectively aided in ending
11990-580: Was still being performed in the eastern Atlantic at the same time. American naval officer Matthew Calbraith Perry was the executive officer aboard HMS Cyane in 1819, which had escorted the Elizabeth , whose passengers included former slaves moving from the United States to Africa. President James Monroe had the Secretary of the Navy order the American vessel to convoy the Elizabeth to Africa with
12100-467: Was traditionally of central importance to the North African economy, presented difficulties beyond those faced in ending attacks on ships of individual nations, which had left slavers able to continue their accustomed way of life by preying on less well-protected peoples. Algiers renewed its slave-raiding, though on a smaller scale. Measures to be taken against the city's government were discussed at
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