Posted on 04/19/2007 5:44:41 PM PDT by ventanax5
America’s first confrontation with the Islamic world helped forge a new nation’s character.
When I first began to plan my short biography of Thomas Jefferson, I found it difficult to research the chapter concerning the so-called Barbary Wars: an event or series of events that had seemingly receded over the lost horizon of American history. Henry Adams, in his discussion of our third president, had some boyhood reminiscences of the widespread hero-worship of naval officer Stephen Decatur, and other fragments and shards showed up in other quarries, but a sound general history of the subject was hard to come by. When I asked a professional military historian—a man with direct access to Defense Department archives—if there was any book that he could recommend, he came back with a slight shrug.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
A while back the history channel ran a show about some American sailors captued after a shipwreck off the west coast of north africa. They were captured by muslims and forced to walk across the sahara and back. They eventually found an american in Morocco who “bought” at least a couple of them.
I’m pretty sure that one of them wrote a book about the ordeal but I can’t recall his name right now. I’ll do some digging.
“The Barbary Wars were primarily about trade, not theology,” he writes. “Rather than being holy wars, they were an extension of America’s War of Independence.”
This guy is wrong—it has always been the same thing - a Dhimmitude Tax on Non-Muslims; that is what paying tribute is about. Western Society has changed and doesn’t understand Allahists—it has always been the same and always will be the same—’.’Submit or Die
James Riley is the name I was looking for. Captured in 1815 and held for 18 months.
http://famousamericans.net/jamesriley/
It sounds interesting,I love history. Please let me know any info you find.
And the Treaty of Tripoli was an appeasement treaty. BTW, for anyone who’s interested, PBS is running a show on Islam right now.
The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, The First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 (Hardcover) by Richard Zacks (Author)
Eaton, a great patriot & hand picked leader of the first covert mission of our country was sold out by the State Department in that Treaty of Tripoli.
Jefferson also sold out Eaton when he finally returned home after his efforts against the Tripoli pirates.
Jefferson did not have to deal with the MSM.
Thank you very much for the recommendation. I’ll check it out.
americans had balls then.
not today with rosie and oprah running tv viewers’ brains.
or lack of brains.
Who were the first to attack us as a soverign nation? Yep the Muslims.
GREAT POST, AMEN BROTHER
Thanks for the book recommendation!
Yep, I agree. We’re headed that way again aren’t we? Thank you democrats—please just go ahead and put your burqas on, especially you Reed...
BUMP
Ping for later reading.
I think Hitchens means that for Americans it was a trade war rather than a religious war. Of course it was a religious war, a holy rip-off war, for the Moo's.
This is a great article -- Hitchens deserves wide recognition for this one. He's a card-carrying liberal. If he can get it right, then the Pelosis and Reids and Xlintonx and Cindy Sheehan have no excuses left.
Other than that Sheehan is probably half-nuts.
At one point, Jefferson hoped that John Paul Jones, naval hero of the Revolution, might assume command of a squadron that would strike fear into the Barbary pirates. While ambassador in Paris, Jefferson had secured Jones a commission with Empress Catherine of Russia, who used him in the Black Sea to harry the Ottomans, the ultimate authority over Barbary.
But Jones died before realizing his dream of going to the source and attacking Constantinople. The task of ordering war fell to Jefferson.
I NEED FREEPERS’ HELP HERE!!!!
There is this book called “A History of Islam In America,” and there is some online Christian bookstore which is selling it. I saw it in another thread in Free Republic a few months ago. But I have been unable to find the bookstore or the book itself.
Do any Freepers know where I can find this book?
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