The Slave Trade in Africa by Simon Webb;

Author:Simon Webb;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Slavery
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2023-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

In short, though the Mediterranean had become a little less comfortable than it had once been for activities of this kind, the wide expanses of the oceans beyond Gibraltar more than compensated for this.

Perhaps the most famous incident of those times was what became known as the sacking of Baltimore. In 1631 Baltimore was a small village on the southernmost tip of Ireland. In June of that year, some corsairs sailing out of Algiers came across a lone fishing boat near Ireland. On board was a man called John Hackett, whom they took prisoner. Anxious to avoid being carried off to Africa and sold as a slave, Hackett told the men who took him that if they would agree to free him, he would guide their ships to a quiet and sleepy village which they would be able to catch completely unawares and so capture as many people as they wished.

John Hackett went ashore with the raiding-party, so as to guide them to Baltimore. He was then allowed to go his own way. A dramatic poem by the Victorian author Thomas Osborn Davis paints a vivid picture of the events which followed,

All, all asleep within each roof along that rocky street,

And these must be the lover’s friends, with gently gliding feet-

A stifled gasp, a dreamy noise! ‘The roof is in a flame!’

From out their beds and to their doors rush maid and sire and dame,

And meet upon the threshold stone the gleaming sabre’s fall,

And o’er each black and bearded face the white or crimson shawl,

The yell of ‘Allah!’ breaks above the prayer, and shriek, and roar:

O blessed God! The Algerine is lord of Baltimore!

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