“The challenges we face today are not so different from Jefferson’s, and we’ve much to learn from his boldness and from the courage of the marines and sailors who died to protect their country.” —Brian KilmeadeThis is the little-known story of how a newly independent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America’s third president decided to stand up to intimidation.… to intimidation.
When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa’s Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new country could afford.
Over the previous fifteen years, as a diplomat and then as secretary of state, Jefferson had tried to work with the Barbary states (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco). Unfortunately, he found it impossible to negotiate with people who believed their religion justified the plunder and enslavement of non-Muslims. These rogue states would show no mercy—at least not while easy money could be made by extorting America, France, England, and other powers. So President Jefferson decided to move beyond diplomacy. He sent the U.S. Navy’s new warships and a detachment of marines to blockade Tripoli—launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America’s journey toward future superpower status.
As they did in their previous bestseller, George Washington’s Secret Six, Kilmeade and Yaeger have transformed a nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. Among the many suspenseful episodes:
* Lieutenant Andrew Sterett’s ferocious cannon-battle on the high seas against the treacherous pirate ship Tripoli.
* Lieutenant Stephen Decatur’s daring night raid of an enemy harbor, aiming to destroy an American ship that had fallen into the pirates’ hands.
* General William Eaton’s unprecedented five-hundred-mile land march from Egypt to the port of Derna, where the marines launched a surprise attack and an American flag was raised in victory on foreign soil for the first time.
Few today remember these men and other heroes who inspired the Marine Corps hymn: “From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, we fight our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.” Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates recaptures this forgotten war that changed American history, with a real-life drama of intrigue, bravery, and battle on the high seas.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Jefferson is my favorite president and in this book Brian has shown another part of Jefferson and his life that I knew nothing about. The way that history has come alive through this book is amazing.
I’m fascinated by pirates and American History, too. This book was a great, informative read that taught me things I never knew much about. It certainly provided some rich food-for-thought for present-day politics and world events. It was easy to follow and well-written.
“From the halls of Montezuma | To the shores of Tripoli | We will fight our country’s battles…”
I have previously given exactly zero consideration to the meaning behind the famous lyrics of the Marine song. Encountering Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History in an airport bookstore recently, I was intrigued and bit. Well, sort of: I put myself on the waitlist at the library and then bided my time while a dozen people ahead of made their way through Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger’s book.
Here’s the story: in the early nineteenth century (and for some time before that), pirates owned the seas around the Barbary Coast – essentially North Africa. Many of the European powers paid hefty annual “tributes” to encourage the pirates – who operated openly under the flags of their countries and whose bounty became part of the national treasury – to seek alternate targets. The U.S. was young, poor, and also temperamentally opposed to following suit. Thus, U.S. ships were regularly boarded, plundered, and the sailors enslaved, frequently for years and years. Only those who converted to Islam escaped slavery, religious difference being one of the pirates’ justifications for their actions. (That old history-repeating-itself bit again.)
Ultimately, after years of failed diplomacy and debate within the U.S., Thomas Jefferson resolved to make war on the pirates, and the Barbary powers that backed them. Perhaps not surprisingly for a country that had no navy and whose only previous experience with war was during the Revolution (and, some might argue, against the Native tribes), it didn’t go well at first. The earliest U.S. “navy” was undermanned, outmatched, and frequently poorly led. As time passed and Jefferson’s and Congress’s resolve grew, better men were appointed, better strategies developed, and better ships built. The end result was a full and complete victory over the pirates (no “shores of Tripoli” lyrics otherwise, right?) such that the European powers sought to imitate the Americans for the first time.
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates is a fantastic read. Kilmeade and Yaeger take a little known moment in American history and flesh it out, giving it color and context, and also providing the reader with a greater history of U.S. involvement and intervention in other countries. (Part of our plan was to depose one leader and replace him with his “friendly” brother, a pattern we still seem fond of some two centuries later.) History buffs rejoice, this is another great one!
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2018/06/thomas-jefferson-and-tripoli-pirates.html)
Well written account of a period in American history not covered in school. The authors made plain the issues facing the commanders that are not an issue today, as well as highlighting the issues that are the same. A very good read.