Pirates or Privateers?
The mislabeling of sailors from the Barbary Coast
Abstract:
Were the Barbary Pirates really pirates or were they privateers? After hours of reading and research I found that many historians differ on their opinions on this subject. Some truly believe that they are ruthless pirates that pride themselves on plundering and taking slaves, while others believe they are privateers hired by the Ottoman Empire to protect its land from sea invasion, however, they all seem to agree that their tactics were acts of piracy. I do not believe this, and through my research, feel that the people of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli were privateers, hired by the Ottoman Empire to act as a navy, when the Ottoman navy was busy elsewhere. I believe that they were not committing piracy at all and were simply doing their job. This may not have been to the liking of the Imperial Powers like The United States of America or of Great Britain, but they continued to come to the Mediterranean even with this threat they called The Barbary Pirates. I feel both these countries knew that the so called pirates were Privateers but were too proud to admit that these people they looked at as savages were actually, at this time and in this place their equals. They were a strong hired navy that had the ability and the backing of the Ottomans, to demand what they wanted in order for outsiders to use their ports and lands. These were NOT pirates, these were Privateers.