Books and Print Resources:
Lambert, Frank. The Barbary Wars: American Independence in
the Atlantic World. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005.
Parker, Richard Bordeaux. Uncle Sam In Barbary: A Diplomatic
History. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, c2004.
This book looks at America’s relations with the broader
community of Muslim nations in the period:
Allison, Robert J. The Crescent Obscured: The United States
And The Muslim World, 1776-1815. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2000.
While this focuses more narrowly on the two decades leading up
to the first Barbary War:
Kitzen, Michael L. S. Tripoli and the United States at War:
A History of American Relations with the Barbary States, 1785-
1805. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1993.
For William Eaton’s mission and the the 1805 War:
London, Joshua E. Victory In Tripoli: How America's War With
The Barbary Pirates Established The U.S. Navy And Built A Nation.
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Pub., c2005.
Smethurst, David. Tripoli: The United States' First War on
Terror. New York: Presidio Press, 2006.
Wheelan, Joseph. Jefferson's War: America's First War on
Terror, 1801–1805. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003.
Wright, Louis B., and Julia Macleod. The First Americans
In North Africa: William Eaton's Struggle For A Vigorous Policy
Against The Barbary Pirates, 1799-1805. Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 1945.
Zacks, Richard. The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First
Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805. New York: Hyperion,
2005.
For the second Barbary War:
Leiner, Frederick C. The End Of Barbary Terror: America's
1815 War Against The Pirates Of North Africa. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2006.
Historians continue to be fascinated by the naval aspects of
the Wars, and by the emergence of the American Marine Corps:
Chidsey, Donald B. The Wars in Barbary: Arab Piracy and the
Birth of the United States Navy. New York: Crown, 1971.
Tucker, Glenn. Dawn Like Thunder: The Barbary Wars and the
Birth of the U.S. Navy. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963.
Whipple, A. B. C. To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of
the U.S. Navy and Marines. New York: William Morrow, 1991.
This examines the impact of the war and the capture of American
seaman on public opinion:
Peskin, Lawrence A. Captives And Countrymen: Barbary Slavery
And The American Public, 1785-1816. Baltimore, Md.: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2009.
While these recent anthologies of “captivity narratives”
will give you and your students a close look at firsthand accounts
of such ordeals:
Baepler, Paul, ed. . White Slaves, African Masters: An Anthology
of American Barbary Captivity Narratives. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1999.
Vitkus, Daniel J. and Nabil Matar, eds. Piracy, Slavery,
And Redemption: Barbary Captivity Narratives From Early Modern
England. New York: Columbia University Press, c2001.
This series from the Office of Naval Records gives you a wealth
of annotated documents on the wars at sea and on land:
United States. Office of Naval Records and Library. Naval
Documents Related To The United States Wars With The Barbary Powers:
Naval Operations Including Diplomatic Background. 6 VOLS.
Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1939-44.
Two of the ongoing projects publishing the papers of the Founding
Fathers can give helpful background as well. As each project progresses,
there’ll be more and more relevant material:
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 34 vols. to date. Princeton
University Press, 1950- 2008. The Jefferson editors have only
reached November 1801, so you won’t find much for the Barbary
Wars of the nineteenth century. However, earlier volumes trace
Jefferson’s role in dealing with the Barbary powers as American
minister to France in the 1780s and as Secretary of State, 1789-1794.
Be sure to use the cumulative index (vol. 21) as the earlier volumes
don’t contain individual indexes.
The Papers of James Madison. Chicago and Charlottesville:
University of Chicago and University of Virginia Presses, 1962-2007.
The publishing history of this series is a bit complicated. The
University of Chicago Press, the first publisher, surrendered
responsibility to the UVA Press in 1991. The volumes have been
published in three different series: “Congressional,”
17 vols., covering Madison’s career through early 1801,
“Secretary of State,” 8 vols. to date, taking Madison
through January 1805, and
“Presidential,” 5 vols. to date, covering 1809-1813.
While the Congressional volumes contain materials on debates
in the Continental Congress in the 1780s and the US Congress in
the 1790s, the volumes for Madison as Secretary of State (1801-1809)
and as President (1809-1817) haven’t yet reached the crucial
years for the Barbary wars of 1805 and 1815. The documents and
notes are still well worth consulting for background material.
You’ll enjoy these studies of naval heroes of the Wars:
Allison, Robert J. Stephen Decatur: American Naval Hero,
1779-1820. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, c2005.
De Kay, James Tertius. A Rage for Glory: The Life of Commodore
Stephen Decatur, USN. Free Press, 2004.
McKee, Christopher. Edward Preble: A Naval Biography, 1761-1807.
Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, c1996.
Pratt, Fletcher. Preble's Boys: Commodore Preble And The
Birth Of American Sea Power. New York, Sloane [1950]. This
was reprinted in 2007, so don’t despair of finding it. Provides
biographical sketches of most of the younger officers who served
under Edward Preble and went on to fame in American naval history
– Decatur, Isaac Hull, William Bainbridge, James Lawrence,
Isaac Chauncey, David Porter, William Burrows, Johnston Blakely,
Lewis Warrington, James Biddle, Charles Stewart, Thomas Macdonough,
Stephen Cassin, and Daniel Todd Patterson.
Tucker, Spencer. Stephen Decatur: A Life Most Bold And Daring.
Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, c2004.
Internet Resources:
One of the pleasures of doing this column is introducing myself
to new, secret corners of Internet. This month I got to rummage
around in the Internet Archives (see my sources for William Walker
and the filibusters) and the archives of “Chester the Crab,”
Bentley Boyd’s cartoon in the Newport News Daily Press,
designed to help students and teachers meet the Virginia Standards
of Learning (SOL) achievement levels. Beginning September 16-20,
2002, Boyd ran four strips about the Barbary Wars.
http://64.207.181.50/solutions/archive0902.htm
The site also provides links to a lesson plan and a few other
Websites.
The US Department of State’s Website’s good timeline
(with links to good essays) for the history of American foreign
relations, has a segment on “Securing the Republic, 1801-1829,”
you’ll want to see:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/jd/
Yale’s Avalon Project provides texts of the treaties that
ended the two Barbary Wars:
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/bar1816t.asp
National Geographic News online, December 2, 2005, carries a
story based on interviews (centers on Eaton) with authors of two
recent books on the Wars, Richard Zaks and Joshua London:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/
2005/12/1202_051202_pirate_coast.html
And try the Digital History essay on “America’s First
Hostage Crisis”
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/hostages.cfm
American Memory. Go to the Search screen and type in Barbary
(just “Barbary” as the term appears in a wide variety
of combinations) for a generous supply of source materials relating
to the subject:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.php
That search will show you everything you’d get by searching
“Barbary” in American Memory’s Jefferson Papers
and Madison Papers, but it’s worth going to their search
screens to do more focused searches on William Eaton, Tobias Lear,
Lafayette, Preble, etc.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/madison_papers/
The trio of “In Congress Assembled: Linking Past to the
Present” lesson plans at American Memory’s Learning
Page, includes one on “Terrorism” that can help your
students relate the experience of the American government in the
1780s in face of Barbary attacks to 21st century terrorist attacks
on the U.S.:
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/constitu/const-l3.html
The Gilder Lehrman Collection will be helpful, too. Go to the
search screen and do searches for "Barbary Pirates"
or "Algiers." These are two of my favorites among the
results you’ll get:
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC00345
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC07937
