Qualla: First Barbary War

First Barbary War: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Painter: Dennis Malone Carter, Public domain. In March 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams sat across from Tripoli's ambassador in London, asking a straightforward question: on what grounds did the Barbary states make war on nations that had done them no injury? The ambassador's reply was equally straightforward -- it was written in the Koran, he said, that it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave unbelievers. Jefferson took the answer back to Congress and spent the next fifteen years arguing that paying tribute to pirates would never stop the piracy. When he finally became president in 1801, he got his chance to prove it.

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Image: Painter: Dennis Malone Carter | Public domain

First Barbary War: The Price of Independence

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Painter: Dennis Malone Carter, Public domain. For centuries, Barbary corsairs from the North African regencies of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, along with the independent Sultanate of Morocco, had seized merchant ships across the Mediterranean, enslaving crews and demanding ransom. European powers paid tribute or bought treat...

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Image: Painter: Dennis Malone Carter | Public domain

First Barbary War: Tribute, Ransom, and a New Navy

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Painter: Dennis Malone Carter, Public domain. By 1795, the United States was paying. Congress appropriated $800,000 for prisoner releases and peace treaties, and negotiator Joseph Donaldson signed an agreement with Algiers that included $642,500 in silver coinage upfront plus an indefinite annual tribute of $21,600 in shipbu...

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Image: Painter: Dennis Malone Carter | Public domain

First Barbary War: Blockade and Burning

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown, not provided at source, Public domain. The American squadron joined Swedish warships already blockading Tripoli -- Sweden had been at war with the Tripolitans since 1800. Commodore Edward Preble secured the use of Sicilian ports from King Ferdinand IV of Naples, along with gunboats, mortar boats, and supplies. Tripoli...

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Image: Unknown, not provided at source | Public domain

First Barbary War: To the Shores of Tripoli

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Henry Alexander Ogden, Public domain. The war's turning point came not at sea but across the Sahara. In April 1805, former consul William Eaton and Marine 1st Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon led a force of eight Marines and roughly 500 mercenaries -- Greeks from Crete, Arabs, and Berbers -- on an extraordinary overland m...

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Image: Henry Alexander Ogden | Public domain

First Barbary War: Unfinished Business

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Public domain. The peace held for barely two years. By 1807, Algiers had rebuilt its fleet and resumed seizing American ships. The United States, sliding toward the War of 1812, could not respond until 1815, when the Second Barbary War finally ended all tribute payments. In Annapolis, Maryland,...

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Image: National Museum of the U.S. Navy | Public domain