Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

statutes and treaties. In this capacity, they were also an economic asset; so
humane treatment was imperative if their captors wished to ransom or
exchange them one day. The much decried ‘cruelty of the Algerian pirate’ was
unfounded—at least as far as Christian captives were concerned.
Research has also revealed that Christian captives at Algiers, contrary to
Muslim captives at Christian hands, were better-treated. Whereas the first were
submitted to the hardships of labor and the most extreme body punishments,
the latter, while also enduring hard works, the most they could get as
punishment were bastinadoes. Moreover, shackling and whipping employed
routinely against slaves in Europe and the United States was rare and never
used against females; branding was unknown; and slavery was neither
perpetual nor hereditary. Christian captives at Algiers, could change status
simply by converting to Islam which thousands did as testified by the massive
presence of ‘renegades’ at leading positions of the Algerian state. About
captives, this work concludes that the much decried indignation and anti-
Algerian propaganda in Europe and the United States probably reflected more a
fear of losing skilled craftsmen and Christians to Islam than any real concern
about their living conditions at Algiers.
Finally, the fifth conclusion relating to the so-called ‘formidable’ naval
power of Algiers considers that far from being a real threat that jeopardized
western interests, Algiers was at best a nuisance. At the end of the 18 th century,
corsairing was already on the decline and Algiers’ much inflated naval power
belonged to a bygone age. Its fleet was reduced to a handful of obsolete vessels
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