The almost forgotten story of the 107 English settlers who were stolen from Ireland by North African pirates on 20 June 1631.
Lessgo.
It’s the 17th century and ‘corsair hysteria’ grips many parts of coastal Europe. People are genuinely scared of pirates, savvy?
It’s not so much the pirates themselves that inspire fear, but what they herald: a lifetime of slavery on the Barbary Coast, the northwestern edge of Africa. The mere thought of being stuffed into a dirty, dark ship by Islamic corsairs and sold into servitude is absolutely terrifying to the Christian European.
Unlike many of the extraordinary popular delusions that thrived throughout history — witch hunts, religious crusades and haunted houses, just to name a few — this fear of pirates has real sea legs. White slavery is currently a booming market and fills the water with ambitious rogues. No vessel on the open sea or village on the coast is safe from the Barbary Pirates. Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the British Isles, the Netherlands, and even Iceland, are all targets of the devastating razzias — raids to plunder and capture slaves.
Most of this action originates from the ports of Tripoli (modern-day Libya), Algiers (modern-day Algeria) and Tunis (modern-day Tunisa), unique-semi states, regencies loosely affiliated with the…
